1In the eighteenth year of the rule of King Jeroboam, Abijah took over the throne of Judah.
2He ruled in Jerusalem three years. His mother was Maacah daughter of Uriel of Gibeah. War broke out between Abijah and Jeroboam.
3Abijah started out with 400,000 of his best soldiers; Jeroboam countered with 800,000 of his best.
4Abijah took a prominent position on Mount Zemaraim in the hill country of Ephraim and gave this speech: "Listen, Jeroboam and all Israel!
5Don't you realize that God, the one and only God of Israel, established David and his sons as the permanent rulers of Israel, ratified by a 'covenant of salt'—God's kingdom ruled by God's king?
6And what happened? Jeroboam, the son of Solomon's slave Nebat, rebelled against his master.
7All the riff-raff joined his cause and were too much for Rehoboam, Solomon's true heir. Rehoboam didn't know his way around—besides he was a real wimp; he couldn't stand up against them.
8"Taking advantage of that weakness, you are asserting yourself against the very rule of God that is delegated to David's descendants—you think you are so big with your huge army backed up by the golden-calf idols that Jeroboam made for you as gods!
9But just look at what you've done—you threw out the priests of God, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites, and made priests to suit yourselves, priests just like the pagans have. Anyone who shows up with enough money to pay for it can be a priest! A priest of No-God!
10"But for the rest of us in Judah, we're sticking with God. We have not traded him in for the latest model—we're keeping the tried and true priests of Aaron to lead us to God and the Levites to lead us in worship
11by sacrificing Whole-Burnt-Offerings and aromatic incense to God at the daily morning and evening prayers, setting out fresh holy bread on a clean table, and lighting the lamps on the golden Lampstand every night. We continue doing what God told us to in the way he told us to do it; but you have rid yourselves of him.
12"Can't you see the obvious? God is on our side; he's our leader. And his priests with trumpets are all ready to blow the signal to battle. O Israel—don't fight against God, the God of your ancestors. You will not win this battle."
13While Abijah was speaking, Jeroboam had sent men around to take them by surprise from the rear: Jeroboam in front of Judah and the ambush behind.
14When Judah looked back, they saw they were attacked front and back. They prayed desperately to God, the priests blew their trumpets, and the soldiers of Judah shouted their battle cry.
15At the battle cry, God routed Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah.
16The army of Israel scattered before Judah; God gave them the victory.
17Abijah and his troops slaughtered them—500,000 of Israel's best fighters were killed that day.
18The army of Israel fell flat on its face—a humiliating defeat. The army of Judah won hands down because they trusted God, the God of their ancestors.
19Abijah followed up his victory by pursuing Jeroboam, taking the towns of Bethel, Jeshanah, and Ephron with their surrounding villages.
20Jeroboam never did recover from his defeat while Abijah lived. Later on God struck him down and he died.
21Meanwhile Abijah flourished; he married fourteen wives and ended up with a family of twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters.
22The rest of the history of Abijah, what he did and said, is written in the study written by Iddo the prophet.