2 Chronicles 13:1-22--Abijah Reigns in Judah

2 Chronicles 13
English Standard Version

Abijah Reigns in Judah
13 In the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam, Abijah began to reign over Judah. 2 He reigned for three years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Micaiah the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah.

Now there was war between Abijah and Jeroboam. 3 Abijah went out to battle, having an army of valiant men of war, 400,000 chosen men. And Jeroboam drew up his line of battle against him with 800,000 chosen mighty warriors. 4 Then Abijah stood up on Mount Zemaraim that is in the hill country of Ephraim and said, “Hear me, O Jeroboam and all Israel! 5 Ought you not to know that the LORD God of Israel gave the kingship over Israel forever to David and his sons by a covenant of salt? 6 Yet Jeroboam the son of Nebat, a servant of Solomon the son of David, rose up and rebelled against his lord, 7 and certain worthless scoundrels gathered about him and defied Rehoboam the son of Solomon, when Rehoboam was young and irresolute and could not withstand them.

8 “And now you think to withstand the kingdom of the LORD in the hand of the sons of David, because you are a great multitude and have with you the golden calves that Jeroboam made you for gods. 9 Have you not driven out the priests of the LORD, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites, and made priests for yourselves like the peoples of other lands? Whoever comes for ordination with a young bull or seven rams becomes a priest of what are not gods. 10 But as for us, the LORD is our God, and we have not forsaken him. We have priests ministering to the LORD who are sons of Aaron, and Levites for their service. 11 They offer to the LORD every morning and every evening burnt offerings and incense of sweet spices, set out the showbread on the table of pure gold, and care for the golden lampstand that its lamps may burn every evening. For we keep the charge of the LORD our God, but you have forsaken him. 12 Behold, God is with us at our head, and his priests with their battle trumpets to sound the call to battle against you. O sons of Israel, do not fight against the LORD, the God of your fathers, for you cannot succeed.”

​13 Jeroboam had sent an ambush around to come upon them from behind. Thus his troops were in front of Judah, and the ambush was behind them. 14 And when Judah looked, behold, the battle was in front of and behind them. And they cried to the LORD, and the priests blew the trumpets. 15 Then the men of Judah raised the battle shout. And when the men of Judah shouted, God defeated Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah. 16 The men of Israel fled before Judah, and God gave them into their hand. 17 Abijah and his people struck them with great force, so there fell slain of Israel 500,000 chosen men. 18 Thus the men of Israel were subdued at that time, and the men of Judah prevailed, because they relied on the LORD, the God of their fathers. 19 And Abijah pursued Jeroboam and took cities from him, Bethel with its villages and Jeshanah with its villages and Ephron with its villages. 20 Jeroboam did not recover his power in the days of Abijah. And the LORD struck him down, and he died. 21 But Abijah grew mighty. And he took fourteen wives and had twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters. 22 The rest of the acts of Abijah, his ways and his sayings, are written in the story of the prophet Iddo.

---

Even though this is a history of the kings of Judah, we are cross-referencing their reigns with the reigns of the northern kings as an additional data point for us.  In this case, Abijah became king in the 18th year of the reign of Jeroboam, king of Israel.  Abijah had a short reign living only 3 years, and the name and family relations of his mother are given as with all the other kings of Israel and Judah (apparently this was important to record the lineage of both the father and the mother for the kings).

Abijah went out into battle (seemingly not consulting the LORD ahead of time) with Jeroboam with 400,000 men on the side of the tribes of Judah, and 800,000 men from the side of the tribes of Israel (a civil war).  It is merely a war of words at first as the sides trade insults with each other and both claim to be the LORD's favored people and that the other side is sure to be defeated because they know the other side is in the wrong.

While there was much jawing going on, the Israelites from the North, circled around and set up an ambush behind the battle lines that Judah had drawn.  The men of Judah saw they had nowhere to flee as they had enemy troops in front of them and behind them, but they fought for their lives and killed 500,000 of the troops of the northern kingdom.  They also pushed Jeroboam and his troops back beyond their previous borders to take back the border towns of Bethel and Jeshanah and Ephron with their surrounding villages.  At the time this was written, these cities still belonged to the southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin and were not recovered by the northern ten tribes.  This was also the end of the reign of Jeroboam as the LORD struck him down and he died, for he did great evil in the sight of the LORD leading the northern ten tribes into rebellion and idolatry that they would not recover from until the time of the Exile (their idolatry would be called "the sin of Jeroboam").

​Now Abijah took many wives for himself--14 to be exact, and he had 22 sons and 16 daughters.  That's a lot of children to have in only three years.  The rest of the acts of Abijah are in the records of the prophet Iddo.  I don't think we've found a copy of those records today, but it seems like the people had easy access to them back then as they are referenced many times over in this book as a place for people to reference for more information.  One of Abijah's sons would be named Asa, and he is the next king of Judah that we will talk about.