| Kings of Judah |
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Saul • David • Solomon • Rehoboam • Abijam • Asa • Jehoshaphat • Jehoram • Ahaziah • Athaliah • J(eh)oash • Amaziah • Uzziah/Azariah • Jotham • Ahaz • Hezekiah • Manasseh • Amon • Josiah • Jehoahaz • Jehoiakim • Jeconiah/Jehoiachin • Zedekiah |
Abijah (Hebrew: אבים ʼĂḇiyyām: "father of the sea" or "my father is the sea" or "my father is Yah") was the fourth king of the House of David and the second of the Kingdom of Judah. He was the son of Rehoboam, the grandson of Solomon and the great-grandson of David. The Chronicler refers to him as "Abijah (Hebrew:אביה, "my father is The LORD").
Abijah became king of Judah in the eighteenth year of the reign of Jeroboam, and reigned for three years.[1] William F. Albright has dated his reign to 915 BC – 913 BC, while E. R. Thiele offers the dates 914/913 – 911/910 BC. [2] As explained in the Rehoboam article, Thiele's chronology for the first kings of Judah contained an internal inconsistency that later scholars corrected by dating these kings one year earlier, so that Abijah's dates are taken as 915/914 to 912/911 BC in the present article.
His mother's name was Maacah, or Micaiah, the granddaughter of the infamous Abishalom (Absalom). Abijah married fourteen wives, and had 22 sons and 16 daughters.[3]
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War Against Jeroboam of Israel
Abijah went to considerable lengths, in his efforts to bring the fledgling Kingdom of Israel back under his control. He waged a major battle against King Jeroboam of Israel in the mountains of Ephraim; the sizes of the two armies are given by II Chronicles as being (respectively) 400,000 and 800,000.[4] Abijah addressed the armies of Israel, urging them to submit and to let the Kingdom of Israel be whole again, but his plea fell on deaf ears. Abijah then rallied his own troops with a phrase which has since become famous: "Jehovah (God) himself is with us for a captain (commander of the army)." His elite warriors fended off a pincer movement to rout Jeroboam's troops - killing 500 thousand of them.[5]
Jeroboam was crippled by this severe defeat at the hands of his southern rival; he posed little threat to the Kingdom of Judah for the rest of his reign.[6]
Succession
A more complete biography than that of the Hebrew Bible of Abijah was written by Iddo the Seer (2 Chronicles 13:22), but his work is no longer extant. Abijah was buried beside his ancestors in Jerusalem. He was succeeded by Asa.
Chronological notes
The calendars for reckoning the years of kings in Judah and Israel were offset by six months, that of Judah starting in Tishri (in the fall) and that of Israel in Nisan (in the spring). Cross-synchronizations between the two kingdoms therefore often allow narrowing of the beginning and/or ending dates of a king to within a six-month range. For Abijam, the Scriptural data allow the narrowing of his accession to some time between Nisan 1 of 914 BC and the day before Tishri 1 of the same BC year. For calculation purposes, this should be taken as the Judean year beginning in Tishri of 915/914 BC, or more simply 915 BC. His death occurred at some time between Tishri 1 of 912 BC and Nisan 1 of 911 BC, i.e. in 912 (912/911) BC. These dates are one year earlier than those given in the third edition of Thiele's Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings, thereby correcting an internal consistency that Thiele never resolved, as explained in the Rehoboam article.
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Abijam
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| Regnal titles | ||
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| Preceded by Rehoboam |
King of Judah 915 BC – 912 BC |
Succeeded by Asa |
References
- ^ 2 Chronicles 13:1-2
- ^ Edwin R. Thiele, The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings (3rd ed.; Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan/Kregel, 1983) 81, 82, 217.
- ^ 2 Chronicles 13:21
- ^ 2Ch 13:3
- ^ Abijah and his people defeated them with a great slaughter, so that 500,000 chosen men of Israel fell slain: 2 Chronicles 13:17
- ^ 2 Chronicles 13:20
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