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      Abijah

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OF Abijah,1 the son and successor of Rehoboam, very little is known. His mother was Maachah, the daughter, or probably rather the granddaughter, of Absalom, and was Rehoboam’s principal and favourite wife. Her leanings were towards idolatry (1 Kings xv. 13), and any influence which she may have exercised upon her son is likely to have been towards evil. Rehoboam’s affection for Maachah caused him, not only to designate Abijah, her eldest son (2 Chron. xi. 20), as his successor, but to put him at a very early age in a position of authority over his brethren (ibid. ver. 22), and to give him an establishment on a scale of Oriental magnificence. Abijah, we are told (2 Chron. xiii. 21), “waxed mighty, and married fourteen wives, and begat twenty and two sons, and sixteen daughters.” He was probably of full age at his father’s accession, having grown to manhood during the later years of Solomon, at a time when female influence of an evil kind was predominant, and when there was little scope for manly virtues. When his father came to the throne, there was an improvement in his surroundings. He was given a position of responsibility,2 and no doubt bore a part in those wars which occupied so large a portion of the reign of Rehoboam. He must have been a witness of the invasion of Shishak (Sheshonk), have seen the environs of Jerusalem blackened by the Egyptian, Libyan, and Ethiopia host, and have shared in the fears and participated in the humiliation of his father (2 Chron. xii. 6-12). He is likely to have taken an active part in the protracted and desultory war which was waged between Rehoboam and Jeroboam “all their days” (1 Kings xiv. 30). When, upon the death of his father, he found himself king, he seems to have at once determined on a desperate effort to subjugate the kingdom of his neighbour, and so bring the schism between the Ten Tribes and the Two to an end. He “set the battle in array with an army of valiant men of war” (2 Chron. xiii. 3), who are estimated at 400,000, but was met by Jeroboam with twice the number, and brought into extreme danger. According to the writer of Chronicles, the Judæan king, like a Homeric hero, from a station upon Mount Zemaraim, a little south of Bethel, delivered a long address of rebuke and exhortation to the enemy, as the hosts faced each other ready for the conflict. He recalled the circumstances under which David was given the kingdom over all Israel (ibid. ver. 5); the rebellion of Jeroboam (ver. 6); the institution of the idolatry of the calves; the rejection of the legitimate priesthood and the institution of an illegitimate priesthood in its place (vers. 9, 10); and contrasting with Jeroboam’s novelties the steadfast adherence of Judah to the rites and ordinances laid down in the Law3 (vers. 10, 11); he made an appeal to the Israelites to desert the standard of Jeroboam, and “not fight against the Lord God of their fathers;” if they did so, he assured them they “would not prosper” (vers. 12, 13). It does not appear, however, that any effect was produced by this harangue. Jeroboam, wholly untouched by it, made the best disposition of his troops that was possible; his troops neither deserted, nor relaxed in their efforts, on account of the invitation addressed to them. Such was the Israelite preponderance in numbers, that it was found possible to send a large detachment to the rear of the Jewish camp, and then to make simultaneously a double attack, from the front and from behind (vers. 13, 14). The men of Judah resisted bravely, but were in great distress, when the aid of God being implored with great earnestness amid the trumpet blasts of the priests, suddenly the tide of battle turned—Judah was successful, and Israel was put to flight (vers. 15, 16). A terrible carnage followed. According to the existing text, the slain on the part of the Israelites amounted to 500,000 men; but the numbers in our present Book of Chronicles are in many instances exaggerated, and it is generally agreed that the original reading in this place was probably not 500,000, but 50,000. Even this was an enormous loss; and we can well understand

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