The Kings of Israel and Judah (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. ABIJAH. Abijah succeeds Rehoboam?Influence of his mother, Maachah ? Early assigned a high position by his father?His youthful experiences?His successful campaign against Jeroboam?Shortness of his reign?Its religious character. Of Abijah,1 the son and successor of Rehoboam, very little is known. His mother was Maachah, the daughter, or probably rather the grandaughter, of Absalom, and was Rehoboam's principal and favourite wife. Her leanings were towards idolatry (1 Kings xv. 13), and any influence which she may have exercised upon her son is likely to have been towards evil. Rehoboam's affection for Maachah caused him, not only to designate Abijah, her eldest son (2 Chron. xi. 20), as his successor, but to put him at a very early age in a position of authority over his brethren (ibid. ver. 22), and to give him an establishment on a scale of Oriental magnificence. Abijah, we are told (2 Chron. xiii. 21), "waxed mighty, and married fourteen wives, and begat twenty and two sons, and sixteen daughters." He was probably of full age at his father's accession, having grown to manhood during the later years of Solomon, at a time when female influence of an evil kind was predominant, and when there was little scope for manly virtues. When his father came to the throne, there was an improvement in his surroundings. He was given a position of responsibility,2 and no doubt bore a part in those wars which occupied so large 1 Two forms of the name are given, Abijah and Abijam. The latter is probably an intentional change (Lightfoot), resembling that of Beth-el into Beth-aven and of Jehoahaz into Ahaz. a Chron. xi. a2- a portion of the reign of Rehoboam. He must have been a witness of the invasion of Shishak (Sheshonk), have seen the environs of Jerusalem blackened ...