2 Chronicles - 13

1 - Now in the eighteenth year of king Jeroboam began Abijah to reign over Judah - .

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

3 - And Abijah set the battle in array with an army of valiant men of war, even four hundred thousand chosen men: Jeroboam also 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 mount Ephraim - , and said, Hear me, thou Jeroboam, and all Israel - ;

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

6 - Yet Jeroboam the son of Nebat, the servant of Solomon - the son of David - , is risen up, and hath rebelled against his lord.

7 - And there are gathered unto him vain men, the children 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 - ; and ye be a great multitude, and there are with you 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 nations of other lands? so that whosoever cometh to consecrate himself with a young bullock and seven rams, the same may be a priest of them that are no 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 sweet incense: the shewbread also set they in order upon the pure table; and the candlestick of gold with the lamps thereof, 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 children of Israel - , fight ye not against the LORD God of your fathers; for ye shall not prosper.

13 - But Jeroboam caused an ambushment to come about behind them: so they were before Judah - , and the ambushment was behind them.

14 - And 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 children 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 children of Israel - were brought under at that time, and the children 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 the towns thereof, and Jeshanah with the towns thereof, and Ephrain with the towns thereof.

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 and two sons, and sixteen daughters.

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