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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 valor.⁴ And Abijah stood 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, hath risen up, and hath rebelled against his lord.⁷ And there are gathered to him vain men, the children of Belial, and [they] have strengthened themselves against Rehoboam the son of Solomon, when Rehoboam was young and tender-hearted, 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 [are] 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 for you priests after the manner of the nations of [other] lands? so that whoever 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, who minister to the LORD, [are] the sons of Aaron, and the Levites [wait] upon [their] business:¹¹ And they burn to the LORD every morning and every evening burnt-sacrifices and sweet incense: the show-bread also [they set in order] upon the pure table; and the candlestick 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 children of Israel, fight ye not against the LORD God of your fathers; for ye will 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 And when Judah looked back, behold, the battle [was] before and behind: and they cried to 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 Jeroboam, and took cities from him, Beth-el 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 became 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.