1Now in the eighteenth year of king Jeroboam began Abijah to reign over Judah. 2He 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. 3And Abiiah set the battel in aray with the armie of valiant men of warre, euen foure hundreth thousand chosen men. Ieroboam also set the battell in aray against him with eight hundreth thousande chosen men which were strong and valiant. 4And Abijah stood up upon mount Zemaraim, which [is] in mount Ephraim, and said, Hear me, thou Jeroboam, and all Israel; 5Ought 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? 6And Ieroboam the sonne of Nebat the seruant of Salomon the sonne of Dauid is risen vp, and hath rebelled against his lord: 7And there are gathered unto him vain men, the children of Belial, and have strengthened themselves against Rehoboam the son of Solomon, when Rehoboam was young and tenderhearted, and could not withstand them. 8Now therefore ye thinke that yee be able to resist against the kingdome of the Lorde, which is in the handes of the sonnes of Dauid, and ye bee a great multitude, and the golden calues are with you which Ieroboam made you for gods. 9Have ye not cast out the priests of the LORD, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites, and have made you priests after the manner of the nations 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. 10But wee belong vnto the Lorde our God, and haue not forsaken him, and the Priestes the sonnes of Aaron minister vnto the Lord, and the Leuites in their office. 11And they burn unto the LORD every morning and every evening burnt sacrifices 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. 12And, 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 shall not prosper. 13But Jeroboam caused an ambushment to come about behind them: so they were before Judah, and the ambushment [was] behind them. 14Then Iudah looked, and beholde, the battel was before and behinde them, and they cried vnto the Lorde, and the Priests blewe with the trumpets, 15And the men of Iudah gaue a shoute: and euen as the men of Iudah shouted, God smote Ieroboam and also Israel before Abiiah and Iudah. 16And the children of Israel fledde before Iudah, & God deliuered them into their hande. 17And Abiiah and his people slewe a great slaughter of them, so that there fel downe wounded of Israel fiue hundreth thousand chosen men. 18Thus 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. 19And Abiiah pursued after Ieroboam, and tooke cities from him, euen Beth-el, and the villages thereof, and Ieshanah with her villages, and Ephron with her villages. 20And Ieroboam recouered no strength againe in the dayes of Abiiah, but the Lorde plagued him, and he dyed. 21So Abiiah waxed mightie, and marryed foureteene wiues, and begate two and twentie sonnes, and sixteene daughters. 22The rest of the actes of Abiiah and his maners and his sayings are written in the storie of the Prophet Iddo.