Chapter XIII
1, 2 (= 1 Kings xv. 1, 2).
Abijah succeeds.
¹In the eighteenth year of king Jeroboam began Abijah to reign over Judah.
1. Abijah] Called Abijam in 1 Kings (LXX. Ἀβιού, i.e. Abijahu).
²Three years reigned he in Jerusalem: and his mother’s name was Micaiah the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah. And there was war between Abijah and Jeroboam.
2. Micaiah] Read with LXX., Maacah; compare note on xi. 20. Torrey, however, (Ezra Studies, p. 217) suggests that some words have fallen out of the text through similarity of ending. He would read “And his mother’s name was Maacah <daughter of Absalom, and he took to wife> Maacah the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah”: the inconsistency as to Maacah’s parentage between this verse and xi. 20 would disappear, and the suggestion that Maacah was grand-daughter of Absalom (see xi. 20, note) would be unnecessary.
3–20 (no parallel in 1 Kings).
The Battle of Zemaraim.
The account of Abijah’s astonishing triumph over the host of Jeroboam should be compared with xiv. 9–15 (Asa’s victory) and xx. 1–30 (Jehoshaphat’s victory; see Introduction pp. xlix f.), passages which like the present are nowhere else recorded, and are essentially unhistorical. No reliance can be placed on the high numbers of the opposing armies (verse 3), on the pious speech ascribed to king Abijah which neatly and forcibly expresses the ecclesiastical view of schismatic Israel held by the Chronicler and his school (verses 4–12), or on the appalling carnage wrought in the Israelite army (verse 17). The tale, in fact, is of a markedly midrashic character, i.e. a narrative intended to edify and not to be treated as serious history. But in all such cases it is fair to distinguish between the form and the substance: at least the bare substance of the tale. Thus in the present instance the judgement stated above does not preclude the possibility that war took place between Abijah and Jeroboam, and that the former gained a useful success over the more powerful Northern Kingdom. The absence from Kings of any mention of such victory is a serious objection; but it is not fatal, unless we take the view—objected to in the Introduction § 5—that the Chronicler had absolutely no sources, oral or written, of the faintest value for pre-exilic days apart from the canonical writings. Yet it must be admitted that it would be not unnatural to the workings of the Chronicler’s mind to infer that some signal success must have rewarded so near a descendant of David if only to compensate in part for Rehoboam’s disastrous reign and at any rate to punish the glaring iniquity of a schismatic and idolatrous Israel. Judging from the brief account of Abijah in 1 Kings xv. 1–7, we may conclude that the continued hostility between North and South was a fact, but that it is extremely improbable there was a reliable tradition (if any at all) regarding a great Judean victory in his reign: see note on Zemaraim below.
³And Abijah joined battle with an army of valiant men of war, even four hundred thousand chosen men: and Jeroboam set the battle in array against him with eight hundred thousand chosen men, who were mighty men of valour.
3. four hundred thousand... eight hundred thousand] The numbers are of course vastly in excess of any historic possibility; compare the notes on xi. 1, xiv. 8, and especially that on xvii. 14.
⁴And Abijah stood up upon mount Zemaraim, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, and said, Hear me, O Jeroboam and all Israel;
4. Abijah stood up] Abijah attempts conference before beginning civil war, not simply because his was the weaker side numerically but because he had a telling appeal to make to the revolted tribes (verses 8, 12). Jeroboam breaks off the conference after using it to cover his stratagem (verse 13).
Zemaraim] A Zemaraim is mentioned in Joshua xviii. 22 as one of the cities of Benjamin, whereas here Mount Zemaraim is assigned to Ephraim. The natural inference is that the battle took place on the border of the two kingdoms. The tradition that a battle took place here between North and South, and perhaps between Abijah and Jeroboam, may be correct.
⁵ought ye not to know that the Lord, the God of Israel, gave the kingdom over Israel to David for ever, even to him and to his sons by a covenant of salt? ⁶Yet Jeroboam the son of Nebat, the servant of Solomon the son of David, rose up, and rebelled against his lord.
5. a covenant of salt] Salt was necessary for the efficacy of a sacrifice (Leviticus ii. 13), so that Covenant of salt became a phrase for a sure covenant (Numbers xviii. 19). The sacredness of the bond which is acknowledged among the Arabs between two persons who have “eaten salt” together as host and guest is common knowledge. It is not, however, necessary that salt should be taken; any food, e.g. milk, will serve (W. R. Smith, Religion of the Semites, p. 270).
⁷And there were gathered unto him vain men, sons of Belial¹, which strengthened themselves against Rehoboam the son of Solomon, when Rehoboam was young and tenderhearted, and could not withstand them. ⁸And now ye think to withstand the kingdom of the Lord in the hand of the sons of David; and ye be a great multitude, and there are with you the golden calves which Jeroboam made you for gods.
¹ That is, worthlessness.
7. sons of Belial] margin sons of worthlessness. The general sense “worthless persons” or rather “vile scoundrels” (for gross wickedness is implied) is clear, but the precise meaning of Belial has not yet been determined. The etymology of the word is quite obscure, see Encyclopedia Biblia I. 525 f.
young] Literally a child. If this word is to be literally understood, the statement made is inconsistent with xii. 13, where it is said that Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he began to reign. It is possible, however, that the word is used metaphorically to describe one who was young (as indeed his conduct showed) in experience of government; so Solomon (1 Kings iii. 7) calls himself a little child, by which he meant simply to express his consciousness of the smallness of his own ability when compared with the greatness of the task which lay before him, compare 1 Chronicles xxix. 1. A similar difficulty arises in regard to the age of Solomon, see Encyclopedia Britannica s.v. Solomon.
tenderhearted] i.e., according to Hebrew phraseology, weak in understanding, the heart being considered to be the seat of the mind. Or we may translate the Hebrew phrase as in Deuteronomy xx. 8, fainthearted.
⁹Have ye not driven out the priests of the Lord, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites, and have made you priests after the manner of the peoples of other lands? so that whosoever cometh to consecrate himself with a young bullock and seven rams, the same may be a priest of them that are no gods.
9. driven out] see note on xi. 14.
after the manner of the peoples of other lands] i.e. who, unlike Israel, had no special class from which alone their priests were taken. Possibly, following the LXX., we should read from the people of the land (i.e. anyone who chose to apply, whether a Levite or not), compare 1 Kings xii. 31, xiii. 33.
to consecrate himself] Literally to fill his hand. Moses is directed (Exodus xxix. 1 ff.) to ordain Aaron and his sons priests by three ceremonies: (1) by anointing them, (2) by filling their hands, i.e. by presenting them with victims upon which they laid their hands, (3) by hallowing them, i.e. by sprinkling some of the blood of the victim upon them.
a young bullock and seven rams] Aaronic priests were consecrated with a young bullock and two rams (Exodus xxix. 1).
¹⁰But as for us, the Lord is our God, and we have not forsaken him; and we have priests ministering unto the Lord, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites in their work:
10. in their work] sc. ministering unto the Lord, as above. Part of the ideal of the Priestly Code was that the Levites should be restricted to the duty of helping the priests, and should be prevented from executing priestly functions themselves. With this ideal the Chronicler plainly sympathised, but it could not always be realised.
¹¹and they burn unto the Lord every morning and every evening burnt offerings and sweet incense: the shewbread also set they in order upon the pure table; and the candlestick of gold with the lamps thereof, to burn every evening: for we keep the charge of the Lord our God; but ye have forsaken him.
11. every morning and every evening] Exodus xxix. 38–42.
the shewbread also set they in order] Literally and an ordering of bread [they set in order]. The Hebrew phrase used here for “shewbread” signifies bread arranged as for an offering. Another term is “bread of the presence,” i.e. bread set forth continually before the Lord (Exodus xxv. 30). See 1 Chronicles ix. 32 (note).
the candlestick] Exodus xxv. 31 ff., xl. 24, 25.
¹²And, behold, God is with us at our head, and his priests with the trumpets of alarm to sound an alarm against you. O children of Israel, fight ye not against the Lord, the God of your fathers; for ye shall not prosper.
12. the trumpets of alarm] (Numbers x. 9). Abijah here threatens his opponents with a jihād or holy war.
¹³But Jeroboam caused an ambushment to come about behind them: so they were before Judah, and the ambushment was behind them. ¹⁴And when Judah looked back, behold, the battle was before and behind them: and they cried unto the Lord, and the priests sounded with the trumpets.
13. Jeroboam caused an ambushment] While Abijah was endeavouring to shake the fidelity of the Northern army, the Northern leader secures a tactical advantage. The greater the advantages of the Israelites and the more disastrous the position ascribed to the army of Judah, so much the more glorious is the victory which Judah achieves by its reliance on Jehovah.
¹⁵Then 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. ¹⁶And the children of Israel fled before Judah: and God delivered them into their hand.
15. gave a shout] This shout had the character of a religious function; compare Joshua vi. 10, 16; Judges vii. 20, where the same Hebrew word is used.
God smote Jeroboam] Compare xiv. 12. Supernatural aid secures the victory.
¹⁷And Abijah and his people slew them with a great slaughter: so there fell down slain of Israel five hundred thousand chosen men.
17. The Chronicler has little or no interest in military matters as such, and is heedless of probability so far as the numbers he mentions are concerned. They must be sufficiently immense to enhance the power of Jehovah and to convey the impression that the days of old were mighty days. Comparison has been made with the phrase “a hundred and twenty thousand in one day” (xxviii. 6), and from the absence of the words “in one day,” it has been argued that the present passage refers to the losses of the whole campaign. Even so the figure, 500,000, is an immense exaggeration.
¹⁸Thus the children of Israel were brought under at that time, and the children of Judah prevailed, because they relied upon the Lord, the God of their fathers.
18. because they relied] Compare note on xii. 2.
¹⁹And Abijah pursued after Jeroboam, and took cities from him, Beth-el with the towns thereof, and Jeshanah with the towns thereof,
19. Beth-el] Beth-el was apparently subsequently recovered by the Northern Kingdom; compare 2 Kings x. 29. But, as it is very doubtful whether this section has any historical basis (see the head-note, xiii. 3), Beth-el may never have come under the rule of Abijah as is here stated. Nothing is said, be it noted, of the capture of the golden calf.
Jeshanah] Nothing is certainly known of this place, which is mentioned here only. It has been identified with Ain Sīnia, a little to the north of Beth-el.
Ephron] so the Kethīb, whereas the Authorized Version following the Ḳerī has Ephrain. Ephrain is a later form of the name Ephron, as Shamrain (Ezra iv. 10, 17) is of Shomron (Samaria). The place has been identified with eṭ-Ṭaiyebeh, a place south-east of Ain Sīnia and north-east of Beitin (Beth-el). It was probably the city called Ephraim, to which our Lord retired after the raising of Lazarus (John xi. 54).
²⁰and Ephron¹ with the towns thereof. Neither did Jeroboam recover strength again in the days of Abijah: and the Lord smote him, and he died.
¹ Another reading is, Ephrain.
20. the Lord smote him, and he died] The same phrase is used of the death of Nabal (1 Samuel xxv. 38); it implies suddenness or some other unusual circumstance (compare Acts xii. 23, the death of Herod Agrippa). 1 Kings xiv. 20 says simply Jeroboam... slept with his fathers.
21, 22.
The Epilogue of Abijah’s Reign.
²¹But Abijah waxed mighty, and took unto himself fourteen wives, and begat twenty and two sons, and sixteen daughters.
21. fourteen wives] The many wives are mentioned here as a symbol of the wealth and state of Abijah.
²²And the rest of the acts of Abijah, and his ways, and his sayings, are written in the commentary of the prophet Iddo.
22. his ways] The Chronicler takes a much more favourable view of Abijah than Kings, where it is said of him that “he walked in all the sins of his father...” (1 Kings xv. 3), and received favour from Jehovah only on account of the merits of David. Evidently the Chronicler deemed it fitting to fasten on the fact of the favour, perhaps because he felt it imperative that Jeroboam should receive from the next king of Judah the punishment for his sins which Rehoboam could not inflict.
in the commentary] Hebrew Midrash. See Introduction, § 5, p. xxxi.
Iddo] See note on ix. 29.