CHAPTER 13
1 In the eighteenth year of king Jeroboam Abijah reigned upon Judah;
2 he reigned three years in Jeru-salem; and the name of his mother was Michaiah, the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah. And battle was betwixt Abijah and Jeroboam.
3 And when Abijah had begun battle, and had with him most chival-rous men, and four hundred thousand of chosen men, Jeroboam arrayed on the contrary the battle array with eight hundred thousand of men, and they were chosen men, and most strong men to battle.
4 And Abijah stood upon the hill Zemaraim, that was in Ephraim, and he said, Hear thou, Jeroboam, and all Israel;
5 whether ye know not, that the Lord God of Israel gave to David the realm on Israel without end, to him and to his sons into the covenant of salt, that is, steadfast and stable?
6 And now Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, the servant of Solomon, the son of David, hath risen up, and hath rebelled against his lord.
7 And most vain men, the sons of Belial, were gathered together to him, and they had might against Rehobo-am, the son of Solomon. Certainly Rehoboam was boistous, either fond or untaught, and of fearedful heart, and might not against-stand them.
8 Now therefore ye say, that ye be able to against-stand the realm of the Lord, that he holdeth in possession by the sons of David; and ye have a great multitude of people, and ye have golden calves, which Jeroboam made into gods to you.
9 And ye have cast away the priests of the Lord, the sons of Aaron, and the deacons [or Levites], and ye have made priests to you, as all the peoples of other lands have priests; whoever cometh and halloweth his hand in a bull, in oxes [or oxen], and in seven wethers, anon he is made priest of them that be not gods.
10 But our Lord is God, whom we forsake not; and [the] priests of the sons of Aaron minister to the Lord, and deacons [or Levites] be in their order;
11 and they offer burnt sacrifices to the Lord by each day in the morrow-tide and eventide, and also incense made by commandments of the law; and loaves be set forth in a most clean board; and at us is the golden candlestick, and the lantern thereof, that it be tended ever at eventide; and we keep the behests of our God, whom ye have forsaken.
12 Therefore God is duke in our host, and his priests, that trump and sound against you; do not ye, sons of Israel, fight against the Lord God of your fathers, for it speedeth not to you.
13 While Abijah spake these things, Jeroboam made ready treasons behind; and when Jeroboam stood even against his enemies, he encompassed them with his host, Judah unwitting.
14 And Judah beheld, and he saw battle nigh even against before them, and behind their back; and he cried to the Lord, and [the] priests began to trump.
15 And all the men of Judah cried out, and, lo! while they cried on high, God made afeared Jeroboam and all Israel, that stood even [or over] against Judah and Abijah.
16 And the men of Israel fled from Judah, and God betook them into the hands of the men of Judah.
17 Therefore Abijah and his people smote them with a great wound, and there felled down of them five hundred thousand of strong men wounded.
18 And the sons of Israel were made low in that time, and the sons of Judah were comforted full greatly, for they had hoped in the Lord God of their fathers.
19 And Abijah pursued Jeroboam fleeing, and took his cities, that is, Bethel and his villages, and Jeshanah with his villages, and Ephron and his villages;
20 and Jeroboam might no more against-stand Judah in the days of Abijah, whom the Lord smote, and he was dead.
21 Therefore Abijah, when his empire was comforted, took fourteen wives, and he begat two and twenty sons, and sixteen daughters.
22 The residue of [the] words of Abijah, and of his ways and his works, be written full diligently in the book of Iddo, the prophet.