Abijah

Biblical Account

Abijah was the son of Rehoboam and Maachah. His name is understood to mean "the LORD is my father." Of all his wives, Rehoboam loved Maachah the most, and he made Abijah chief among his brothers, designating him heir to the throne (2 Chronicles 11:20-22). Abijah became king in Jerusalem in the eighteenth year of Jeroboam and reigned for three years.

1 Kings 15:1-8 calls him "Abijam." This passage gives a brief assessment of his reign, stating that Abijam walked in the sins of his father and that his heart was not perfect with God as the heart of David had been. Nevertheless, it records that for David's sake God gave a "lamp" in Jerusalem, and it notes that war with Jeroboam continued throughout his reign.

2 Chronicles 13 describes this war in detail. Abijah led an army of 400,000 men against Jeroboam's 800,000. Before the battle he stood on Mount Zemaraim in the hill country of Ephraim and delivered a speech. Its main points were that God had given the kingdom to David's descendants by a covenant of salt, and that the northern kingdom of Israel had worshiped golden calves and driven out the priests, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites. Although Judah was surrounded by an ambush, the people cried out to the LORD, the priests sounded the trumpets, and Judah ultimately prevailed (2 Chronicles 13:14-18). Abijah captured Bethel and other cities. He later married fourteen wives and fathered twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters. After his death his son Asa succeeded him as king.

Significance in Scripture

The account of Abijah illustrates the early period of conflict between north and south following the division of the kingdom. It is also significant because it grounds the continuation of the Davidic dynasty not in the merits of the individual king but in the Davidic covenant. In the New Testament, his name appears in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1:7: "And Roboam begat Abia; and Abia begat Asa."

Interpretation and Issues

• Differences between the two accounts: Kings evaluates his faith negatively, while Chronicles highlights the victory of Judah as the people who had kept the covenant. Many interpreters do not regard this as a contradiction; instead, they explain that each book emphasizes different aspects of his reign from its own perspective.
• His mother's name: 1 Kings 15:2 identifies his mother as "Maachah, the daughter of Abishalom," while 2 Chronicles 13:2 names her "Michaiah the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah." In addition, 1 Kings 15:10 states that Asa's mother was also Maachah. Various explanations have been proposed, such as reading "daughter" as "granddaughter" or understanding Maachah to have held the position of queen mother (a rank held by the mother of the reigning king) during Asa's reign.
• Army figures: Some take the figures of 400,000, 800,000, and 500,000 literally, while others understand the Hebrew word translated "thousand" as referring to a military unit.
• Others of the same name: The "course of Abia" to which Zacharias belonged in Luke 1:5 derives its name not from this king but from a priestly division of David's time (1 Chronicles 24:10). The same name is also borne by a son of Samuel (1 Samuel 8:2), a son of Jeroboam (1 Kings 14:1), and the mother of Hezekiah (2 Chronicles 29:1).

In the Korean Church

Abijah is not a frequently discussed figure. Sermons about him usually take the battle narrative of 2 Chronicles 13 as their text. Such sermons commonly cite the confession "God himself is with us for our captain" (2 Chronicles 13:12) or the statement that the children of Judah prevailed "because they relied upon the LORD God of their fathers" (2 Chronicles 13:18). In Bible read-through programs, he is sometimes presented as an example of a king whom Kings and Chronicles record under different names and evaluate differently.