Commentaria in II Paralipomenon
Chapter 13
1. In the eighteenth year of king Jeroboam, Abia reigned over Juda. 2. He reigned three years in Jerusalem, and the name of his mother was Michaia, the daughter of Uriel of Gabaa: and there was war between Abia and Jeroboam. 3. And when Abia had entered into battle, and had with him most warlike men, and four hundred thousand chosen men: Jeroboam set the battle in array against him with eight hundred thousand men, who also themselves were chosen and most valiant for war. 4. Then Abia stood upon the mount Semeron, which was in Ephraim, and said: Hear, O Jeroboam, and all Israel: 5. Do you not know that the Lord the God of Israel hath given the kingdom over Israel to David for ever, to him and to his sons by a covenant of salt? 6. And Jeroboam the son of Nabat, the servant of Solomon the son of David, rose up, and rebelled against his lord. 7. And there were gathered to him very vain men, and children of Belial; and they prevailed against Roboam the son of Solomon: for Roboam was unskilful, and fearful of heart, and could not resist them. 8. Now therefore you say that you are able to resist the kingdom of the Lord, which he possesseth by the sons of David, and you have a great multitude of people, and the golden calves which Jeroboam made you for gods. 9. And you have cast out the priests of the Lord, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites; and have made you priests like all the people of other lands: whosoever cometh and consecrateth his hand with a bullock out of the herd, and seven rams, is made a priest of them that are not gods. 10. But our Lord is God, whom we forsake not, and the priests that minister to the Lord are of the sons of Aaron, and the Levites are in their order. 11. They offer holocausts to the Lord every day, morning and evening, and incense made according to the precepts of the law, and the loaves are set forth upon the cleanest table, and with us is the golden candlestick, and its lamps, to be lighted always in the evening: for we keep the commandments of the Lord our God, whom you have forsaken. 12. So God is the leader in our army, and his priests, who sound with trumpets, and resound against you: children of Israel, fight not against the Lord the God of your fathers, for it is not expedient for you. 13. While he was saying this, Jeroboam was laying an ambush behind. And while he stood over against the enemies, he encompassed Juda with his army unawares. 14. And Juda looking back saw the battle coming on both before and behind, and cried to the Lord: and the priests began to sound with trumpets. 15. And all the men of Juda shouted: and behold as they shouted, God struck terror into Jeroboam, and all Israel that stood over against Abia and Juda. 16. And the children of Israel fled from Juda: and God delivered them into their hand. 17. And Abia and his people made a great slaughter of them, and there fell wounded of Israel five hundred thousand valiant men. 18. And the children of Israel were humbled at that time, and the children of Juda were exceedingly strengthened, because they had trusted in the Lord the God of their fathers. 19. And Abia pursued after Jeroboam in his flight, and took his cities, Bethel and its dependencies, and Jesana with its dependencies, and Ephron also and its dependencies: 20. neither was Jeroboam able to resist any more in the days of Abia, and the Lord struck him, and he died. 21. But Abia, having strengthened his empire, took fourteen wives: and begot twenty-two sons, and sixteen daughters. 22. And the rest of the acts of Abia, and of his ways and works, are written most diligently in the book of the prophet Addo.
Verse 2. Michaia the daughter of Uriel.—See what I said in 3 Kings, chapter XV, verse 2. Verse 4. Abia stood upon the mount—so that his speech could be heard by all the Israelites encamped round about. This speech of his is pious and effective, in which by many reasons he endeavours to persuade them to leave their new-fangled religion and king, and return to the God of their fathers and the kingdom of David in Jerusalem: and especially because he has God fighting for him, whom they, being idolaters, have against them; as if to say: You act madly if you wish to fight against God. Read it and weigh it.
Verse 5. By a covenant of salt—that is, by a firm, stable, and everlasting covenant. For salt keeps things from putrefaction whole and safe: hence salt is a symbol of eternity, as I said on Leviticus, chapter II, verse 13. Our Sanchez adds, and says: It is clear that this covenant about the kingdom in the family of David was perpetually conditional, namely if the offspring of David kept the covenant, Psalm LXXXVIII, 31. God therefore gave the kingdom to the house of David with a grain of salt, namely if it did not fall away from the faith which it ought to have kept whole, or if the offspring of David itself applied salt, and did not suffer the covenant that was struck to be corrupted and decay.
Verse 9. Whosoever cometh and consecrateth (the Hebrew and the Septuagint, filleth) his hand with a bullock out of the herd (Hebrew, with a young bullock, the son of an ox) and seven rams, is made a priest of them that are not gods.—As if to say: As you have false gods, so also you have false priests; for God did not choose them, as he chose Aaron and his descendants; but whosoever, however vile and wicked, by offering with his own hands a bullock and seven rams has consecrated his hands, by this very thing becomes a priest of idols, namely of the golden calves. Note: to fill the hand, in Hebrew, is the same as to consecrate a priest. For by filling his hands with victims, and offering them with his own hands, he consecrated himself a priest. For by this rite was the consecration of a priest made, as is clear from Leviticus VIII.
Verse 11. The loaves of proposition are set upon the cleanest table, etc.—From this place and the following, where mention is made of only one table and one candlestick, Tornielli gathers that Sesac king of Egypt, when he plundered the treasures of the temple, left of the “ten tables and ten candlesticks” which king Solomon had placed in the temple only one table and one candlestick, and that the Jews were thereafter content with these, as they had been before the temple was raised by Solomon.
Verse 20. Whom the Lord struck, and he died.—Whom, namely Jeroboam, of whom the discourse immediately before spoke; for Jeroboam miserably perished after two or three years. But the Hebrews in Seder Olam understand not Jeroboam but Abia himself, who they say was ungrateful to God, and did not render due thanks for so great a victory, and therefore died a little after, having reigned only three years, and having died two years before Jeroboam. But this does not sufficiently agree with what is immediately added: “But Abia, having strengthened his empire, took fourteen wives, etc.”
Abia is succeeded by his son Asa, who, having rooted out idolatry and being strengthened by God, routs Zara king of the Ethiopians with a thousand thousand soldiers.