13 ¶ Now in the year eighteen of King Jeroboam, Abijah began to reign over Judah.

² He reigned three years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Michaiah, the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah. And there was war between Abijah and Jeroboam.

³ And Abijah set the battle in order with an army of valiant men of war, four hundred thousand chosen men; and Jeroboam set the battle in array against him with eight hundred thousand chosen men, being mighty men of valour.

⁴ And Abijah stood up upon Mount Zemaraim, which is in the mountains of Ephraim, and said, Hear me, Jeroboam and all Israel;

⁵ do ye not know that the LORD God of Israel gave the kingdom over Israel to David for ever, unto him and to his sons by a covenant of salt?

⁶ Yet Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, the slave of Solomon the son of David, is risen up and has rebelled against his lord.

⁷ And there are gathered unto him vain men, the sons of Belial, and have strengthened themselves against Rehoboam the son of Solomon, when Rehoboam was young and tenderhearted and could not withstand them.

⁸ And now ye think to withstand the kingdom of the LORD in the hand of the sons of David because ye are a great multitude, and ye have with you the golden calves, which Jeroboam made you for gods.

⁹ Have ye not cast out the priests of the LORD, the sons of Aaron and the Levites, and have made you priests after the manner of the peoples of other lands, so that whoever comes to consecrate himself with a young bullock and seven rams, the same may become a priest of those that are not gods.

¹⁰ But as for us, the LORD is our God, and we have not forsaken him; and the priests, which minister unto the LORD, are the sons of Aaron, and the Levites wait upon their business;

¹¹ and they burn unto the LORD every morning and every evening burnt sacrifices and aromatic incense, and they place the showbread upon the clean table, and the lampstand of gold with its lamps, to burn every evening; for we keep the charge of the LORD our God, but ye have forsaken him.

¹² And, behold, God himself is with us for our captain, and his priests with sounding trumpets to cry alarm against you. O sons of Israel, do not fight against the LORD God of your fathers, for ye shall not prosper.

¹³ ¶ But Jeroboam caused an ambush to come about behind them; so they were before Judah, and the ambush was behind them.

¹⁴ So when Judah looked back, behold, the battle was before and behind; and they cried unto the LORD, and the priests sounded with the trumpets.

¹⁵ Then the men of Judah gave a shout, and as the men of Judah shouted, it came to pass that God smote Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah.

¹⁶ And the sons of Israel fled before Judah, and God delivered them into their hand.

¹⁷ And Abijah and his people slew them with a great slaughter; so there fell down slain of Israel five hundred thousand chosen men.

¹⁸ Thus the sons of Israel were humbled at that time, and the sons of Judah prevailed because they relied upon the LORD God of their fathers.

¹⁹ And Abijah pursued after Jeroboam and took cities from him, Bethel with its towns and Jeshanah with its towns and Ephron with its towns.

²⁰ Neither did Jeroboam recover strength again in the days of Abijah; and the LORD struck him, and he died.

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

²² And the rest of the acts of Abijah and his ways and his words are written in the story of the prophet Iddo.