Topic
Abijam
10 passages cited, from 4 classic reference works.
These works date from 1884–1915 and are in the public domain. They reflect the Protestant scholarship of their time: their history, archaeology and dates can be out of date, and where they interpret, other traditions read the text differently. The verses are shown in the King James Version, the wording these works were written against.
The verses
The passages the works cite, those cited by more of them first.
- 1 Kings 15:1Easton · ISBE · Nave King of Judah
Now in the eighteenth year of king Jeroboam the son of Nebat reigned Abijam over Judah.
- 1 Kings 15:8Easton · ISBE · Nave Succeeded by Asa
And Abijam slept with his fathers; and they buried him in the city of David: and Asa his son reigned in his stead.
- 1 Kings 14:31ISBE · Nave King of Judah
And Rehoboam slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. And his mother’s name was Naamah an Ammonitess. And Abijam his son reigned in his stead.
- 1 Kings 15:7Easton · ISBE
Now the rest of the acts of Abijam, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? And there was war between Abijam and Jeroboam.
- 1 Kings 15:1–8Nave History of
Now in the eighteenth year of king Jeroboam the son of Nebat reigned Abijam over Judah. Three years reigned he in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Maachah, the daughter of Abishalom. And he walked in all the sins of his father, which he had done before…
- 2 Chronicles 11:22Nave History of
And Rehoboam made Abijah the son of Maachah the chief, to be ruler among his brethren: for he thought to make him king.
- 2 Chronicles 12:16Nave King of Judah
And Rehoboam slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David: and Abijah his son reigned in his stead.
- 2 Chronicles 13:1–22Nave History of
Now in the eighteenth year of king Jeroboam began Abijah to reign over Judah. He reigned three years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name also was Michaiah the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah. And there was war between Abijah and Jeroboam. And Abijah set the battle…
- 2 Chronicles 14:1Nave Succeeded by Asa
So Abijah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David: and Asa his son reigned in his stead. In his days the land was quiet ten years.
- Matthew 1:7ISBE
And Solomon begat Roboam; and Roboam begat Abia; and Abia begat Asa;
In the reference works
Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897) · 3 references
Father of the sea; i.e., “seaman” the name always used in Kings of the king of Judah, the son of Rehoboam, elsewhere called Abijah (1 Kings 15:1,7,8). (See ABIJAH.)
Smith's Bible Dictionary (1884) · 0 references
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915) · 5 references
a-bi'-jam ('abhiyam, "father of sea," or, "father of west"). The name given in Kings (1Ki 14:31; 15:1,7,8) to the son of Rehoboam who succeeded him as king of Judah. See ABIJAH.
The name has puzzled scholars. Some have proposed, by adding one letter, to change it into "father of his people." Others have observed that the Greek rendering in Kings is Abeiou. Either the Hebrew copy used by the Greek translator read 'abhiyahu, Abijah, or else the translator substituted the form of the name which was to him more familiar. A few existing copies of the Hebrew have the reading Abijah, and Mt 1:7 presupposes that as the Old Testament reading. So they infer that Abijam in Ki is an erroneous reading for Abijah. This seems at present to be the prevailing view, and it is plausible. It would be more convincing, however, if the name occurred but once in the passage in Kings, instead of occurring five times. It is improbable that a scribe would repeat the same error five times within a few sentences, while a translator, if he changed the name once, would of course change it the other four times.
Exploration has revealed the fact that the whole region near the eastern end of the Mediterranean was known as "the west." "Father of the west" is not an inapt name for Rehoboam to give to the boy who, he expects, will inherit the kingdom of Solomon and David. The effect of the secession of the ten tribes was to make that name a burlesque, and one does not wonder that it was superseded by Abijah, "My father is Yahweh."
Willis J. Beecher
In the topical indexes
Texts: Easton's Bible Dictionary (1897); Smith's Bible Dictionary (1884); International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915); Nave's Topical Bible (1896), from the CrossWire SWORD modules (public domain). Verse references were parsed from the works' own markup and checked against the KJV verse list.