11. They sacrifice burnt offerings to the Lord every morning and every evening. They offer sweet-smelling incense and rows of bread on the clean table. The lamps on the gold lamp stand burn every evening. We’re following the instructions the Lord our God gave us, but you have abandoned him.
12. God is with us as our leader. His priests will sound their trumpets to call ⌊the army⌋ to fight you. Men of Israel, don’t wage war against the Lord God of your ancestors. You won’t succeed.”
13. But Jer o boam had set an ambush to attack them from behind. So Jer o boam’s army was in front of Judah, and the ambush was behind them.
14. When Judah’s soldiers looked around, the battle was in front of them and behind them. They cried out to the Lord, the priests blew the trumpets,
15. and the men of Judah shouted. When they shouted, God attacked Jer o boam and all Israel in front of Abijah and Judah.
16. The Israelites fled from Judah’s ⌊army⌋, and God handed them over to Judah.
17. So Abijah and his men defeated them decisively, and 500,000 of the best men of Israel were killed.
18. So the Israelites were humbled at that time, and the men of Judah won because they trusted the Lord God of their ancestors.
19. Abijah pursued Jer o boam and captured some of his cities: Bethel and its villages, Jeshanah and its villages, and Ephron and its villages.
20. Jer o boam never regained power during Abijah’s time. The Lord caused Jer o boam to become sick, and Jer o boam died.
21. But Abijah became strong. He married 14 wives and fathered 22 sons and 16 daughters.
22. Everything else about Abijah—how he lived and what he said—is written in the history by the prophet Iddo.