1. IN THE eighteenth year of King Jeroboam son of Nebat, Abijam began to reign over Judah.
2. He reigned three years in Jerusalem. His mother was Maacah (Micaiah) daughter [granddaughter] of Abishalom (Absalom).
3. He walked in all the sins of his father [Rehoboam] before him; and his heart was not blameless with the Lord his God, as the heart of David his father [forefather].
4. Nevertheless, for David's sake the Lord his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem, setting up his son after him and establishing Jerusalem,
5. Because David did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and turned not aside from anything that He commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.
6. There was war between [Abijam's father] Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days of [Rehoboam's] life.
7. 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.
8. Abijam slept with his fathers and they buried him in the City of David. Asa his son reigned in his stead.
9. In the twentieth year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Asa began to reign over Judah.
10. Forty-one years he reigned in Jerusalem. His mother was [also named] Maacah (Micaiah) daughter of Abishalom (Absalom). [I Kings 15:2.]
11. And Asa did right in the eyes of the Lord, as did David his father [forefather].
12. He put away the sodomites (male cult prostitutes) out of the land and removed all the idols that his fathers [Solomon, Rehoboam, and Abijam] had made or promoted. [I Kings 11:5-11; 14:22.]
13. Also Maacah his mother he removed from being queen mother, because she had an image made for [the goddess] Asherah. Asa destroyed her image, burning it by the brook Kidron.