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⌂ ← 2 CHR 13:1–13:22 → ‴ ║ ═ ©
This is still a very early look into the unfinished text of the Open English Translation of the Bible. Please double-check the text in advance before using in public.
13 In the eighteenth year of the reign of King Yaraveam (Jeroboam), Aviyah started his reign over Yehudah (Judah). 2 He ruled from Yerushalem for three years. (His mother was Uriel’s daughter Mikayah from Giveah.)
However war started between Aviyah and Yaraveam.
3 Aviyah launched the attack with four-hundred thousand strong warriors, and Yaraveam drew up in formation against him with eight-hundred thousand strong warriors in his army.
4 Aviyah stood on the top of Mt. Tsemarayim in the Efrayim hill-country and shouted, “Yaraveam and all Yisrael, listen to me. 5 Don’t you all understand that Yisrael’s god Yahweh made a formal agreement that the kingdom of Yisrael was given forever to David and his descendants? 6 But Nevat’s son Yaraveam, who was a servant of David’s son Shelomoh, took action and rebelled against his master, 7 and a bunch of wicked good-for-nothings gathered around Yaraveam and created a force against Shelomoh’s son, Rehaveam, when Rehaveam was still an inexperienced, young man and couldn’t stand up to them. 8 So now you’re all saying that you’ll stand against the kingdom that Yahweh established through David’s descendants. There are certainly many of you, and you have the gold calves that Yaraveam made as gods for you all. 9 Didn’t you all drive out the Levites, as well as Yahweh’s priests who were Aharon’s descendants? Then you all appointed for yourselves ‘priests’ like they have in other countries, so that anyone who comes to consecrate himself by bringing a young bull from the herd and seven rams can become a ‘priest’ of your non-gods.
10 “But as for us, Yahweh is our god and we haven’t abandoned him. Our priests who minister to Yahweh are Aharon’s descendants, and the Levites assist them. 11 Every morning and every evening, they sacrifice burnt offerings to Yahweh, and spiced incense. There’s sacred bread on the display table, and the lamps in the gold lampstand give light every evening because we are following the instructions of our god Yahweh, but you all have abandoned him. 12 So listen! God is guiding us and his priests will blast their trumpets to sound against you all. Listen you Israelis: don’t fight against Yahweh, the god of your ancestors, because you won’t succeed.”
13 But meanwhile, Yaraveam had sent some men around to ambush them from behind, so they were both in front of the army from Yehudah and in ambush behind them.
14 When the warriors from Yehudah turned, wow, they realised that they were being attacked from in front and from behind. They called out to Yahweh for help while the priests blew their trumpets. 15 Then the men from Yehudah shouted a loud battle cry and God defeated Yaraveam and all Yisrael in front of Aviyah and Yehudah. 16 Yisrael’s soldiers fled away from Yehudah’s army, and God enabled Yehudah to defeat them. 17 Aviyah and his men thrashed them badly, and some five-hundred thousand of their chosen warriors were killed. 18 So the Israelis were subdued at that time, and the people from Yehudah were victorious because they trusted in Yahweh, the god of their ancestors.
19 Aviyah chased after Yaraveam and they captured the cities of Beyt-El, Yeshanah, and Efron and the surrounding villages from Yisrael. 20 Yaraveam never regained military strength during Aviyah’s reign, and after a time Yahweh struck him with sickness and he died.
21 Meanwhile, Aviyah became more powerful. He took fourteen wives for himself, and had twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters. 22 The rest of what Aviyah did, including his sayings and his behaviour, was written down by the prophet Iddo.
13:14 OSHB variant note: מחצצרים: (x-qere) ’מַחְצְרִ֖ים’: lemma_2690 n_0.0 morph_HVhrmpa id_14yLe מַחְצְרִ֖ים
13:19 OSHB variant note: עפרון: (x-qere) ’עֶפְרַ֖יִן’: lemma_6085 n_0.0 morph_HNp id_14Lmq עֶפְרַ֖יִן
1 Kings 15:1-8; 2 Chronicles 13
From Sunday School lessons to inspiring sermons, modern portrayals of biblical characters often suffer from overly simplistic, two-dimensional perspectives on people’s moral character and deeds, but a careful reading of Scripture often shows reality to be more complex. The story of Abijah is ripe for similar misunderstanding unless one reads both biblical accounts of his reign. Abijah (also called Abijam) son of Rehoboam reigned for only three short years over Judah, and 1 Kings 15:3 tersely notes that “he committed all the sins that his father did before him; his heart was not true to the Lord his God.” It also notes that Abijah’s entire reign was marked by war with Jeroboam (1 Kings 15:6). From this it would be easy to assume that his reign was characterized only by wickedness and moral decline. Yet 2 Chronicles, though silent on the final assessment of Abijah’s overall character, seems to present Abijah as a leader who takes up the righteous cause of bringing the rebellious northern tribes of Israel back under the fold of Judah’s Davidic dynasty and Aaronic priesthood, though he was ultimately unsuccessful. As part of this effort, Abijah makes a foray into the northern tribes’ territory and arrives at Mount Zemaraim, but Jeroboam confronts him there with twice the amount of forces. The location of Mount Zemaraim is not certain, but it may have been located at the twin hills (which may explain the dual form of the name) of Ras ez Zemara, which suggests Abijah was advancing along a secondary route to avoid initial detection or fortifications along the main Central Ridge Route. There Abijah calls upon Jeroboam and all Israel to return to the leadership of David and Aaron. While Abijah is making his appeal, however, Jeroboam positions some of his forces in ambush behind Abijah’s forces, but Abijah’s men win a great victory over them and capture the towns of Bethel, Jeshanah, and Ephron (also called Ophrah). The writer of Chronicles notes that Abijah’s forces were victorious “because they relied on the Lord” and that Jeroboam never recovered from his weakened power for the rest of his reign, while Abijah grew strong (though Abijah’s reign was only for three years).
If you ask someone today what biblical prophets did, they will likely tell you that they divinely foretold of future events. While this was often the case, most prophets in the Bible focused as much on “forthtelling” God’s messages as they did on “foretelling” the future. That is, their primary role was to simply “forthtell” divinely acquired messages to leaders and groups of people, and at times that included foretelling of coming judgment, blessing, rescue, etc. Also, though plenty of prophets (sometimes called “seers” in Scripture) often spoke in confrontational or eccentric language that put them at odds with kings and religious leaders, the biblical writers also applied the term prophet to people who communicated God’s messages in ways that many readers today might not think of as prophecy, such as worship leaders appointed by David to “prophesy with lyres, harps, and cymbals” (1 Chronicles 25:1). Similarly, the books of Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, and 1 & 2 Kings are typically categorized as history by Christians, but in the Hebrew canon they belong to the category of Former Prophets. The Lord raised up prophets throughout all of biblical history, from the giving of the law under Moses to the revelation of the last days by the apostle John, and the kings of Israel and Judah often recognized and supported specific people as official prophets of the royal court and consulted them to find out God’s perspective about official matters. Following is a list of nearly everyone designated as prophet or seer in the Old Testament and the primary area of their ministry.
• Deborah (1216 B.C.) [Judges 4:4] => Baal-tamar?
• Samuel (1070 B.C.) [1 Samuel 3:20; 1 Chronicles 29:29; 2 Chronicles 35:18] => Ramah
• Gad (1018 B.C.) [2 Samuel 24:11; 1 Chronicles 21:9; 29:29; 2 Chronicles 29:25] => Masada?
• Nathan (1000 B.C.) [2 Samuel 12:1; 1 Chronicles 29:29; 2 Chronicles 29:25] => Jerusalem
• Asaph (1000 B.C.) [2 Chronicles 29:30] => Jerusalem
• Ahijah (935 B.C.) [1 Kings 11:29; 2 Chronicles 9:29] => Jerusalem
• Shemaiah (930 B.C.) [2 Chronicles 12:2-15] => Jerusalem
• Iddo (913 B.C.) [2 Chronicles 9:29; 12:15; 13:22] => Jerusalem
• Jehu son of Hanani (890 B.C.) [1 Kings 16:1-7; 2 Chronicles 19:2] => Samaria?
• Azariah (890 B.C.) [2 Chronicles 15:1-8] => Jerusalem
• Elijah (860 B.C.) [1 Kings 18:36] => Samaria
• Micaiah (853 B.C.) [1 Kings 22:8-23; 2 Chronicles 18:7-22] => Samaria
• Jahaziel (853 B.C.) [2 Chronicles 20:14] => Jerusalem
• Eliezer (853 B.C.) [2 Chronicles 20:37] => Mareshah
• Elisha (850 B.C.) [1 Kings 19:16; 2 Kings 2:15] => Samaria
• Joel (835 B.C.) [Joel 1:1] => Jerusalem
⌂ ← 2 CHR 13:1–13:22 → ‴ ║ ═ ©
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