7. Then straight after Rehoboam became king, you and your bunch of worthless followers challenged Rehoboam, who was too young to know how to stop you.
8. Now you and your powerful army think you can stand up to the kingdom that the Lord has given to David's descendants. The only gods you have are those gold statues of calves that Jeroboam made for you.
9. You don't even have descendants of Aaron on your side, because you forced out the Lord's priests and Levites. In their place, you appoint ordinary people to be priests, just as the foreign nations do. In fact, anyone who brings a bull and seven rams to the altar can become a priest of your so called gods.
10. But we have not turned our backs on the Lord God! Aaron's own descendants serve as our priests, and the Levites are their assistants.
11. Twice every day they offer sacrifices and burn incense to the Lord. They set out the sacred loaves of bread on a table that has been purified, and they light the lamps in the gold lampstand every day at sunset. We follow the commands of the Lord our God—you have rejected him!
12. That's why God is on our side and will lead us into battle when the priests sound the signal on the trumpets. It's no use, Israelites. You might as well give up. There's no way you can defeat the Lord, the God your ancestors worshipped.
13. But while Abijah was talking, Jeroboam had sent some of his troops to attack Judah's army from behind, while the rest attacked from the front.
14. Judah's army realized they were trapped, and so they prayed to the Lord. The priests blew the signal on the trumpet,
15. and the troops let out a battle cry. Then with Abijah leading them into battle, God defeated Jeroboam and Israel's army.
16. The Israelites ran away, and God helped Judah's soldiers slaughter
17. five hundred thousand enemy troops.