4 Abijah went to stand on Mount Zemaraim, in the hill country of Ephraim. He shouted, ‘Listen to me, Jeroboam and all you Israelites! 5 The Lord, Israel's God, has chosen David and his descendants to be kings of Israel for all time. You know that God has promised that must happen. 6 Nebat's son Jeroboam was a servant of David's son, King Solomon. But he turned against his master. 7 He took some wicked useless men to join his group. They made themselves strong against Solomon's son, Rehoboam. Rehoboam was young and he had not been king for very long. So he was not strong enough to stop them.
8 Now you want to fight against the Lord's own kingdom that he has chosen David's descendants to rule over. You have a very large army. You bring with you the gold statues of young bulls that Jeroboam made for you as your gods. 9 But you chased away the Lord's own priests, the descendants of Aaron. You chased away the Levites. Instead you chose your own priests, as the people in other nations do. Anyone can become a priest to serve your false gods. He only has to come with a sacrifice of a young bull and seven male sheep!
10 But we still serve the Lord as our God. We have not turned away from him. We have the descendants of Aaron to serve as our priests. The Levites help them in their work. 11 They offer burnt offerings and sweet incense to the Lord every morning and every evening. They put out the special bread on his table every day. They light the lamps on the gold lampstand every evening. So we are the people who are obeying the rules of the Lord our God. But you have turned away from him.
12 Listen to me! God himself is our leader. He is here to help us. His priests are ready to make a loud noise with their trumpets to start the battle against you. Israelite people, do not fight against the Lord, the God of your ancestors. You will not win the battle.’
