1. In the eighteenth year of the reign of King Jeroboam of Israel, Abijah became king of Judah,
2. and he ruled for three years in Jerusalem. His mother was Maacah, the daughter of Absalom.
3. He committed the same sins as his father and was not completely loyal to the Lord his God, as his great-grandfather David had been.
4. But for David's sake, the Lord his God gave Abijah a son to rule after him in Jerusalem and to keep Jerusalem secure.
5. The Lord did this because David had done what pleased him and had never disobeyed any of his commands, except in the case of Uriah the Hittite.
6. The war which had begun between Rehoboam and Jeroboam continued throughout Abijah's lifetime.
7. And everything else that Abijah did is recorded in The History of the Kings of Judah.
8. Abijah died and was buried in David's City, and his son Asa succeeded him as king.
9. In the twentieth year of the reign of King Jeroboam of Israel, Asa became king of Judah,
10. and he ruled for 41 years in Jerusalem. His grandmother was Maacah, the daughter of Absalom.
11. Asa did what pleased the Lord, as his ancestor David had done.
12. He expelled from the country all the male and female prostitutes serving at the pagan places of worship, and he removed all the idols his predecessors had made.
13. He removed his grandmother Maacah from her position as queen mother, because she had made an obscene idol of the fertility goddess Asherah. Asa cut down the idol and burnt it in the valley of the Kidron.