2 Chronicles 13 · a question people ask
Was Abijah a good king? 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles seem to tell him differently.
1 Kings gives Abijam a verdict: "He walked in all the sins of his father, which he had done before him; and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father" (1 Kings 15:3). Then it says, "Nevertheless for David’s sake, the LORD his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem" (1 Kings 15:4). 2 Chronicles 13 gives Abijah no verdict of right or evil. It tells his speech, in which he says, "But as for us, the LORD is our God, and we have not forsaken him" (13:10); it says that "the children of Judah prevailed, because they relied on the LORD, the God of their fathers" (13:18); and it says, "Abijah grew mighty" (13:21). Both books point to David: 1 Kings through the lamp given "for David’s sake" (1 Kings 15:4), 2 Chronicles through Abijah's words about the kingdom given "to David forever" (13:5). Neither book explains how its account and the other's fit together, and these notes set them side by side without choosing.
The verses
“He walked in all the sins of his father, which he had done before him; and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father. Nevertheless for David’s sake, the LORD his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem, to set up his son after him and to establish Jerusalem;”
“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?”
““But as for us, the LORD is our God, and we have not forsaken him. We have priests serving the LORD, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites in their work.”
“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.”