Abijah Reigns in Judah^(A)

13 In ^(B)the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam, Abijah became king over ^(C)Judah. ² He reigned three years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was ^[a]Michaiah the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah.

And there was war between Abijah and Jeroboam. ³ Abijah set the battle in order with an army of valiant warriors, four hundred thousand choice men. Jeroboam also drew up in battle formation against him with eight hundred thousand choice men, mighty men of valor.

⁴ Then Abijah stood on Mount ^(D)Zemaraim, which is in the mountains of Ephraim, and said, “Hear me, Jeroboam and all Israel: ⁵ Should you not know that the Lord God of Israel ^(E)gave the dominion over Israel to David forever, to him and his sons, ^(F)by a covenant of salt? ⁶ Yet Jeroboam the son of Nebat, the servant of Solomon the son of David, rose up and ^(G)rebelled against his lord. ⁷ Then ^(H)worthless rogues gathered to him, and strengthened themselves against Rehoboam the son of Solomon, when Rehoboam was ^(I)young and inexperienced and could not withstand them. ⁸ And now you think to withstand the kingdom of the Lord, which is in the hand of the sons of David; and you are a great multitude, and with you are the gold calves which Jeroboam ^(J)made for you as gods. ^9 (K)Have you not cast out the priests of the Lord, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites, and made for yourselves priests, like the peoples of other lands, ^(L)so that whoever comes to consecrate himself with a young bull and seven rams may be a priest of ^(M)things that are not gods? ¹⁰ But as for us, the Lord is our ^(N)God, and we have not forsaken Him; and the priests who minister to the Lord are the sons of Aaron, and the Levites attend to their duties. ^11 (O)And they burn to the Lord every morning and every evening burnt sacrifices and sweet incense; they also set the ^(P)showbread in order on the pure gold table, and the lampstand of gold with its lamps ^(Q)to burn every evening; for we keep the command of the Lord our God, but you have forsaken Him. ¹² Now look, God Himself is with us as our ^(R)head, ^(S)and His priests with sounding trumpets to sound the alarm against you. O children of Israel, do not fight against the Lord God of your fathers, for you shall not prosper!”

¹³ But Jeroboam caused an ambush to go around behind them; so they were in front of Judah, and the ambush was behind them. ¹⁴ And when Judah looked around, to their surprise the battle line was at both front and rear; and they ^(T)cried out to the Lord, and the priests sounded the trumpets. ¹⁵ Then the men of Judah gave a shout; and as the men of Judah shouted, it happened that God ^(U)struck Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah. ¹⁶ And the children of Israel fled before Judah, and God delivered them into their hand. ¹⁷ Then Abijah and his people struck them with a great slaughter; so five hundred thousand choice men of Israel fell slain. ¹⁸ Thus the children of Israel were subdued at that time; and the children of Judah prevailed, ^(V)because they relied on the Lord God of their fathers.

¹⁹ And Abijah pursued Jeroboam and took cities from him: Bethel with its villages, Jeshanah with its villages, and ^(W)Ephrain^[b] with its villages. ²⁰ So Jeroboam did not recover strength again in the days of Abijah; and the Lord ^(X)struck him, and ^(Y)he died.

²¹ But Abijah grew mighty, married fourteen wives, and begot twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters.

³ And he walked in all the sins of his father, which he had done before him; ^(A)his heart was not ^[a]loyal to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David. ⁴ Nevertheless ^(B)for David’s sake the Lord his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem, by setting up his son after him and by establishing Jerusalem; ⁵ because David ^(C)did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, and had not turned aside from anything that He commanded him all the days of his life, ^(D)except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite. ^6 (E)And there was war between ^[b]Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days of his life. ^7 (F)Now the rest of the acts of Abijam, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? And there was war between Abijam and Jeroboam.

^8 (G)So Abijam ^[c]rested with his fathers, and they buried him in the City of David. Then Asa his son reigned in his place.

Asa Reigns in Judah^(A)

⁹ In the twentieth year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Asa became king over Judah. ¹⁰ And he reigned forty-one years in Jerusalem. His grandmother’s name was Maachah the granddaughter of Abishalom. ^11 (B)Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as did his father David. ^12 (C)And he banished the ^[a]perverted persons from the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made.

³ for he removed the altars of the foreign gods and ^(A)the ^[a]high places, and ^(B)broke down the sacred pillars ^(C)and cut down the wooden images. ⁴ He commanded Judah to ^(D)seek the Lord God of their fathers, and to observe the law and the commandment. ⁵ He also removed the ^[b]high places and the incense altars from all the cities of Judah, and the kingdom was quiet under him.

Death of Jeroboam

¹⁹ Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, how he ^(A)made war and how he reigned, indeed they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel. ²⁰ The period that Jeroboam reigned was twenty-two years. So he rested with his fathers. Then ^(B)Nadab his son reigned in his place.

Nadab Reigns in Israel

²⁵ Now ^(A)Nadab the son of Jeroboam became king over Israel in the second year of Asa king of Judah, and he reigned over Israel two years. ²⁶ And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the way of his father, and in ^(B)his sin by which he had made Israel sin.

^27 (C)Then Baasha the son of Ahijah, of the house of Issachar, conspired against him. And Baasha killed him at ^(D)Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines, while Nadab and all Israel laid siege to Gibbethon. ²⁸ Baasha killed him in the third year of Asa king of Judah, and reigned in his place.

³¹ Now the rest of the acts of Nadab, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?

Baasha Reigns in Israel

³³ In the third year of Asa king of Judah, Baasha the son of Ahijah became king over all Israel in Tirzah, and reigned twenty-four years.

²⁹ And it was so, when he became king, that he killed all the house of Jeroboam. He did not leave to Jeroboam anyone that breathed, until he had destroyed him, according to ^(A)the word of the Lord which He had spoken by His servant Ahijah the Shilonite, ^30 (B)because of the sins of Jeroboam, which he had sinned and by which he had made Israel sin, because of his provocation with which he had provoked the Lord God of Israel to anger.