God

And when the kingdom of Roboam was strengthened and fortified, he forsook the law of the Lord, and all Israel with him.

And in the fifth year of the reign of Roboam, Sesac king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem (because they had sinned against the Lord)

And Semeias the prophet came to Roboam, and to the princes of Juda, that were gathered together in Jerusalem, fleeing from Sesac, and he said to them: Thus saith the Lord: You have left me, and I have left you in the hand of Sesac.

And the princes of Israel, and the king, being in a consternation, said: The Lord is just.

And when the Lord saw that they were humbled, the word of the Lord came to Semeias, saying: Because they are humbled, I will not destroy them, and I will give them a little help, and my wrath shall not fall upon Jerusalem by the hand of Sesac.

But yet they shall serve him, that they may know the difference between my service, and the service of a kingdom of the earth.

So Sesac king of Egypt departed from Jerusalem, taking away the treasures of the king's house, and he took all with him, and the golden shields that Solomon had made,

And when the king entered into the house of the Lord, the shieldbearers came and took them, and brought them back again to their armoury.

But yet because they were humbled, the wrath of the Lord turned away from them, and they were not utterly destroyed: for even in Juda there were found good works.

King Roboam therefore was strengthened in Jerusalem, and reigned: he was one and forty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the Lord chose out of all the tribes of Israel, to establish his name there: and the name of his mother was Naama an Ammonitess.

But he did evil, and did not prepare his heart to seek the Lord.

Do you not know that the Lord God of Israel gave to David the kingdom over Israel for ever, to him and to his sons by a covenant of salt?

And now you say that you are able to withstand the kingdom of the Lord, which he possesseth by the sons of David, and you have a great multitude of people, and golden calves, which Jeroboam hath made you for gods.

And you have cast out the priests of the Lord, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites: and you have made you priests, like all the nations of the earth: whosoever cometh and consecrateth his hand with a bullock of the herd, and with seven rams, is made a priest of those who are no gods.

But the Lord is our God, whom we forsake not, and the priests who minister to the Lord are the sons of Aaron, and the Levites are in their order.

And they offer holocausts to the Lord, every day, morning and evening, and incense made according to the ordinance of the law, and the loaves are set forth on a most clean table, and there is with us the golden candlestick, and the lamps thereof, to be lighted always in the evening: for we keep the precepts of the Lord our God, whom you have forsaken.

Therefore God is the leader in our army, and his priests who sound with trumpets, and resound against you: O children of Israel, fight not against the Lord the God of your fathers, for it is not good for you.

And when Juda looked back, they saw the battle coming upon them both before and behind, and they cried to the Lord: and the priests began to sound with the trumpets.

And all the men of Juda shouted: and behold when they shouted, God terrified Jeroboam, and all Israel that stood against Abia and Juda.

And the children of Israel fled before Juda, and the Lord delivered them into their hand.

And the children of Israel were brought down, at that time, and the children of Juda were exceedingly strengthened, because they had trusted in the Lord the God of their fathers.

And Jeroboam was not able to resist any more, in the days of Abia: and the Lord struck him, and he died.

And Asa did that which was good and pleasing in the sight of his God, and he destroyed the altars of foreign worship, and the high places.

And he commanded Juda to seek the Lord the God of their fathers, and to do the law, and all the commandments.

He built also strong cities in Juda, for he was quiet, and there had no wars risen in his time, the Lord giving peace.