Old/New Testament

13 ^1-2 Abijah, the son of Rehoboam and Micaiah^[a] (daughter of Uriel of Gibeah), became king over Judah during Jeroboam’s 18th year as king of the Northern Kingdom. He ruled for 3 years from Jerusalem and battled against Jeroboam. ³ Abijah, who initiated the war, had an army of 400,000 heroic men, but he was drastically outnumbered by Jeroboam’s army of 800,000 heroic men. ⁴ Abijah stood on Mount Zemaraim, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, and addressed Jeroboam and all of the soldiers from the Northern Kingdom.

⁶ Yet Jeroboam, Nebat’s son and the servant of David’s son Solomon, rebelled against his master.

¹³ During Abijah’s appeal to the Northern Israelites, Jeroboam was not paying attention. Instead, he was dividing his forces into two fronts—one to meet Judah in front of them and one to ambush them from the rear.

^14-16 When Judah realized what the Northern forces had done, the men shouted to the Eternal and the priests blew their signal trumpets just as Abijah promised. God was faithful to His promise; He crushed Jeroboam and his forces. As they fled, the True God gave the victory over Israel to Abijah and Judah. ¹⁷ Abijah and his army slaughtered 500,000 of the Israelite warriors. ¹⁸ The Northern Israelites were defeated because the people of Judah trusted in the Eternal One, the True God of their ancestors. ¹⁹ Abijah pursued the fleeing Jeroboam and captured several Northern cities and their surrounding towns and regions: Bethel (one of the Northern Kingdom’s shrine cities), Jeshanah, and Ephron.

²⁰ Jeroboam was weakened by his battles with Judah, and he never regained his former strength. The Eternal struck him, and Jeroboam died. ²¹ But Abijah’s strength increased, and he married 14 wives and fathered 22 sons and 16 daughters. ²² The actions of Abijah, his works and his words, are recorded in the chronicles of Iddo the prophet.

14 After Abijah joined his ancestors in death and was laid with his fathers in the city of David, Jerusalem, his son Asa ruled the Southern Kingdom in his place. During Asa’s reign, the country was quiet for 10 years as it had been during Solomon’s rule. ² Asa obeyed the Eternal One, his True God, and led the nation in reformation^{[c] 3-5} by removing remnants of idol worship in Judah: foreign altars and high places, incense altars, sacred pillars, and statues of Asherah. Asa commanded Judah to seek the Eternal One, the True God of their ancestors, and to obey His laws and commandments. The kingdom was peaceful during Asa’s reign.

⁶ Asa utilized this peaceful time which the Eternal had given to build fortified cities in Judah since he was not preoccupied with wars.

The Judahites agreed, so they built the cities and prospered. ⁸ Asa built an army of heroic men including 300,000 Judahites, who carried large shields and spears, and 280,000 Benjaminites, who carried shields and bows.

⁹ When Zerah from Cush^[d] came to Mareshah in the Judean highlands to attack Judah with an army of one million men and 300 chariots, ¹⁰ Asa went to meet the challenge. The two armies faced each other in the valley of Zephathah^[e] at Mareshah.

¹² Just as Asa requested, the Eternal defeated the Cushites on behalf of Judah, and the Cushites fled. ^13-14 Asa and his men pursued the Cushites as far as Gerar in southwestern Judah. So many of the Cushite army died that they could not recover; they were decimated by the Eternal and His army. The Judahite army was able to crush all the cities around Gerar because the people of Gerar feared the Eternal, and the army plundered each city they destroyed. ¹⁵ In the villages and pastures, they crushed the herdsmen and seized large numbers of sheep and camels. Then the Judahite army returned to Jerusalem.

12 Six days before the Passover feast, Jesus journeyed to the village of Bethany, to the home of Lazarus who had recently been raised from the dead, ² where they hosted Him for dinner. Martha was busy serving as the hostess, Lazarus reclined at the table with Him, ³ and Mary took a pound of fine ointment, pure nard (which is both rare and expensive), and anointed Jesus’ feet with it; and then she wiped them with her hair. As the pleasant fragrance of this extravagant ointment filled the entire house, ⁴ Judas Iscariot, one of His disciples (who was plotting to betray Jesus), began to speak.

⁶ This had nothing to do with Judas’s desire to help the poor. The truth is he served as the treasurer, and he helped himself to the money from the common pot at every opportunity.

⁹ Word spread of Jesus’ presence, and a large crowd was gathering to see Jesus and the formerly deceased Lazarus, whom He had brought back from the dead. ¹⁰ The chief priests were secretly plotting Lazarus’s murder since, ¹¹ because of him, many Jews were leaving their teachings and believing in Jesus.

¹² The next day, a great crowd of people who had come to the festival heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem; ¹³ so they gathered branches of palm trees to wave as they celebrated His arrival.

¹⁴ Jesus found a young donkey, sat on it, and rode through the crowds mounted on this small beast. The Scriptures foretold of this day:

¹⁶ The disciples did not understand any of this at the time; these truths did not sink in until Jesus had been glorified. As they reflected on their memories of Jesus, they realized these things happened just as they were written. ¹⁷ Those who witnessed the resurrection of Lazarus enthusiastically spoke of Jesus to all who would listen, ¹⁸ and that is why the crowd went out to meet Him. They had heard of the miraculous sign He had done.

²⁰ Among the crowds traveling to Jerusalem were Greeks seeking to follow God and worship at the great feast. ^21-22 Some of them came to Philip with an important request.

Philip, a disciple from the Galilean village of Bethsaida, told Andrew that these Greeks wanted to see Jesus. Together Andrew and Philip approached Jesus to inform Him about the request.