the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Encyclopedias
Abijah
Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature
or Abi´jah (See signif. in Abiah 2 Chronicles 13:1). He is also called Abijam (1 Kings 15). Abijah was the second king of the separate kingdom of Judah, being the son of Rehoboam, and grandson of Solomon. He began to reign B.C. 957, in the eighteenth year of Jeroboam, king of Israel; and he reigned three years. At the commencement of his reign Abijah made a vigorous attempt to bring back the ten tribes to their allegiance. In this he failed; although a signal victory over Jeroboam, who had double his force and much greater experience, enabled him to take several cities which had been held by Israel. The numbers reputed to have been present in this action are 800,000 on the side of Jeroboam, 400,000 on the side of Abijah, and 500,000 left dead on the field. The book of Chronicles mentions nothing concerning Abijah adverse to the favorable impressions which we receive from his conduct on this occasion; but in Kings we are told that 'he walked in all the sins of his father' (1 Kings 15:3). He had fourteen wives, by whom he left twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters. Asa succeeded him.
Abijah, 2
Abijah, son of Jeroboam I, king of Israel. His severe and threatening illness induced Jeroboam to send his wife with a present, suited to the disguise in which she went, to consult the prophet Ahijah respecting his recovery. This prophet was the same who had, in the days of Solomon, foretold to Jeroboam his elevation to the throne of Israel. Though blind with age, he knew the disguised wife of Jeroboam, and was authorized, by the prophetic impulse that came upon him, to reveal to her that, because there was found in Abijah only, of all the house of Jeroboam, 'some good thing towards the Lord,' he only, of all that house, should come to his grave in peace, and be mourned in Israel. Accordingly, when the mother returned home, the youth died as she crossed the threshold of the door. 'And they buried him, and all Israel mourned for him' (1 Kings 14:1-18).
Abijah, 3
Abijah, one of the descendants of Eleazer, the son of Aaron, and chief of one of the twenty-four courses or orders into which the whole body of the priesthood was divided by David (1 Chronicles 24:10; Luke 1:5). Of these the course of Abijah was the eighth.
Public Domain.
Kitto, John, ed. Entry for 'Abijah'. "Kitto's Popular Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature". https://www.studylight.org/encyclopedias/eng/kbe/a/abijah.html.
