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Abijah
King of Judah
Abijam from Guillaume Rouillé's Promptuarii Iconum Insigniorum, 1553
Reign	c. 913 - 911 BC
Predecessor	Rehoboam, his father
Successor	Asa, his son
Born	Jerusalem
Died	911 BC possibly Jerusalem
Burial	Jerusalem
Spouse	14 wives
Issue	22 sons and 16 daughters
Hebrew name	אבים בן-רחבעם ’Aviyam ben Rehav’am
House	House of David
Father	Rehoboam
Mother	Maacah, or Micaiah, daughter of Uriel of Gibeah, and granddaughter of Absalom (Abishalom)
Religion	Judaism

Abijam^[a] was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the fourth king of the House of David and the second of the Kingdom of Judah. He was the son of Rehoboam and the grandson of Solomon.^[2][3][4] The Chronicler refers to him as Abijah.^[b]

Family

Abijam is reported in the books of Kings and Chronicles as being related to Maacah, Micaiah, and King Asa of Judah. Scholars have found the biblical accounts of Abijam's family to be contradictory.^[6] While a number of theories have been suggested,^[7][8][9][c] no explanation can accommodate all available sources or has proved definitively compelling.^[10][11] Abijah married fourteen wives, and had 22 sons and 16 daughters.^[12]

Abijah in the Hebrew Bible

Reign of Abijah

Following the death of Rehoboam, his son Abijah succeeded the throne as King of Judah.^[13] He began his three-year reign (2 Chr. 12:16; 13:1, 2) with a strenuous but unsuccessful effort to bring back the ten tribes of the northern Kingdom of Israel to their allegiance.^[14]

Following Abijah's ascension to the throne in the 18th year of King Jeroboam I of Israel, he marched north with the purpose of winning Israel back to the Davidic kingdom.^[13] Jeroboam surrounded Abijah's army, engaging in the battle of Mount Zemaraim.^[13] Abijah captured the Israelite cities of Jeshanah, Ephron (et-Taiyibeh) and Bethel.^[13]

Commentaries

According to the Deuteronomist,^[15] "God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem by raising up a son to succeed him" (1 Kings 15:4). The wording in the Septuagint is "the Lord gave him a remnant".^[16] Thus the unconditional covenant blessing of YHWH guaranteed his promise to King David, to stabilize the Kingdom of David despite its ruler. The Chronicler also emphasizes YHWH's promise as seen by Abijah's success against every effort by Jeroboam to defeat him.^[13] "Judah prevailed because they relied upon the Lord God of their fathers." (2 Chr. 13:18) God gave the Kingdom to David and his descendants (1 Chr. 17:14) by a covenant of salt, meaning, of permanence (cf. Leviticus 2:13).^[17]

Chronological discrepancies

According to 2 Chronicles 13:1-2, Abijah became king of Judah in the 18th year of the reign of Jeroboam, and reigned for three years.

William F. Albright has dated his reign to 915–913 BCE.

E. R. Thiele offers the dates 914/913 – 911/910 BCE.^[18] As explained in the Rehoboam article, Thiele's chronology for the first kings of Judah contained an internal inconsistency that later scholars corrected by dating these kings one year earlier, so that Abijah's dates are taken as 915/914 to 912/911 BCE in the present article.

Notes

References

Works cited

• 
  Easton, Matthew George (1894). Illustrated Bible Dictionary (2nd ed.). London: T. Nelson.
  


• 
  Eerdmans (2000). Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (David Noel Freedman, Allen C. Myers, Astrid B. Beck ed.). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing. ISBN 9780802824004.
  


• 
  Merrill, Eugene H. (2008). Kingdom of Priests: A History of Old Testament Israel. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker Academic. p. 347. ISBN 9781441217073.
  


• 
  Provan, I.W.; Hubbard, R.L.; Johnston, R.K. (2012). 1 & 2 Kings. Understanding the Bible Commentary Series. Baker Publishing Group. ISBN 978-1-4412-3830-6. Retrieved 23 August 2017.
  


• 
  Pulkrabek, W.W. (2007). Family Trees of the Bible: Family Tree Charts and Genealogical Information of the Main Characters in the Christian Bible. Vantage Press. ISBN 978-0-533-15607-8. Retrieved 23 August 2017.
  


• 
  Sweeney, M.A. (2007). I & II Kings: A Commentary. Old Testament library. Westminster John Knox Press. ISBN 978-0-664-22084-6.
  


• 
  Thiele, Edwin R. (1951). The Mysterious Numbers of the Hebrew Kings (New rev. ed.). Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Academic.
  


• 
  Tyndale (2001). Tyndale Bible Dictionary (Walter A. Elwell, Philip Wesley Comfort ed.). Wheaton, Ill.: Tyndale House Publishers. p. 5. ISBN 9780842370899.
  


• 
  Wycliffe (1962). The Wycliffe Bible Commentary (Charles F. Pfeiffer, Everett F. Harrison ed.). Moody Publishers. ISBN 9781575677163.
  


• 
  Zucker, D.J. (2013). The Bible's Writings: An Introduction for Christians and Jews. Wipf & Stock Publishers. ISBN 978-1-63087-112-3. Retrieved 23 August 2017.
  

Further reading

• 
  Lesley, J. P. (1881). "Notes on an Egyptian Element in the Names of the Hebrew Kings". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society. 19 (108): 412. JSTOR 982265.
  


• 
   McCurdy, J. Frederic; Ginzberg, Louis (1901–1906). "Abijah {entry #3}". In Singer, Isidore; et al. Abijah {entry #3}. The Jewish Encyclopedia. New York: Funk & Wagnalls.