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2 Chronicles 13 Bible study: A covenant of salt
Only 2 Chronicles tells Abijah's speech and battle, and it gives Judah's victory one reason, "because they relied on the LORD" (13:18), a word for leaning on him. And "Abijah grew mighty" (13:21) is, in Hebrew, the word 2 Chronicles opens with.
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“Thus the children of Israel were brought under at that time, and the children of Judah prevailed, because they relied on the LORD, the God of their fathers.”
Try it · Did you catch it?
“In 2 Chronicles 13, when the battle was before and behind them, Judah cried to the LORD and the priests sounded with the trumpets.”
Is that in 2 Chronicles 13, or not? Make your call.
What's really going on
A speech only 2 Chronicles tells
1 Kings gives this war one line: "There was war between Abijam and Jeroboam" (1 Kings 15:7). 2 Chronicles has almost the same words, "There was war between Abijah and Jeroboam" (13:2), and then tells one battle, beginning with a speech. "Abijah stood up on Mount Zemaraim, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, and said, “Hear me, Jeroboam and all Israel:" (13:4). His first words are about David: "Ought you not to know that the LORD, the God of Israel, gave the kingdom over Israel to David forever, even to him and to his sons by a covenant of salt?" (13:5) (tap salt, covenant and kingdom). Then he calls Judah's kingdom the LORD's: "Now you intend to withstand the kingdom of the LORD in the hand of the sons of David" (13:8). David had prayed, "Yours is the kingdom, LORD" (1 Chronicles 29:11), and in Hebrew kingdom is the same word in both verses. The speech runs from 13:4 to 13:12; 1 Kings has none of it.
Where it leads to Jesus
"Lord, save me!"
2 Chronicles 13:14leads toMatthew 14:30-31
"When Judah looked back, behold, the battle was before and behind them; and they cried to the LORD" (13:14), and "God struck Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah" (13:15). On the water, when Peter "saw that the wind was strong, he was afraid, and beginning to sink, he cried out, saying" (Matthew 14:30), "Lord, save me!" (Matthew 14:30). "Immediately Jesus stretched out his hand, took hold of him, and said to him" (Matthew 14:31), "You of little faith, why did you doubt?" (Matthew 14:31). Matthew doesn't cite 2 Chronicles 13, so setting the two side by side is a reading, resting on what happens in each: a cry for help in danger, and an answer. Some see in it the cry Judah made to the LORD now made to Jesus as Lord, and answered by his hand. Others read Matthew 14 in its own setting, where those in the boat "came and worshiped him, saying" (Matthew 14:33), "You are truly the Son of God!" (Matthew 14:33), and 2 Chronicles 13 as a battle in Abijah's reign, and draw no line from one to the other.
Honest questions
Questions people ask about 2 Chronicles 13
That was a taste
The rest of 2 Chronicles 13 is waiting in Favor
- "But as for us"
- Before and behind
- The covenant of salt
- Trumpets for war
- 11 questions as you read
- 12 more Hebrew words
- A short check at the end
- Your notes, saved as you go
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The Hebrew word behind it
מֶלַחmelachsay ME-lakh
Brown-Driver-Briggs: "salt". Strong's: "properly, powder, i.e. (specifically) salt". The LORD gave the kingdom to David "forever, even to him and to his sons by a covenant of salt" (13:5). Only three verses in the Hebrew Bible join salt and covenant: this one; "It is a covenant of salt forever before the LORD to you and to your offspring with you" (Numbers 18:19); and "You shall not allow the salt of the covenant of your God to be lacking from your meal offering" (Leviticus 2:13). None of them says why salt is used.
For your group
2 Chronicles 13 Bible study questions
- 1"The battle was before and behind them; and they cried to the LORD" (13:14). When have you felt hemmed in like that? What did you turn to first?
- 2Abijah says, "as for us, the LORD is our God, and we have not forsaken him" (13:10). Where is it easy for you to say the right words about God, and where is it harder to live them out?
- 3In Hebrew, "they relied on the LORD" (13:18) is the verb for leaning on something. What are you leaning on most this week, and what would leaning on the LORD look like?
Leading a group? In Favor, everyone reads 2 Chronicles 13 during the week and answers these questions privately. Answers stay sealed until you meet, then appear together, and you can print the week's sheet.
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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Hebrew and Greek words are checked against the original-language texts and public-domain lexicons. What we believe · Favor home