2 Chronicles 13:20

20 Jeroboam never did recover from his defeat while Abijah lived. Later on God struck him down and he died.

2 Chronicles 13:20 Meaning and Commentary

2 Chronicles 13:20

Neither did Jeroboam recover strength again in the days of
Abijah
So as to bring an army into the field against him, and fight him:

and the Lord struck him;
by some Jewish writers ^F1, this is interpreted of Abijah; and the reason of his being stricken, they say, was because he did not destroy the calf when he took Bethel; but it is best to understand it of Jeroboam, since Abijah is afterwards said to wax mighty:

and he died;
not immediately, for he lived two years after Abijah, ( 1 Kings 14:20 ) ( 15:9 ) , but continued under a lingering disease he was smitten with, and which issued in his death.

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FOOTNOTES:

F1 Bereshit Rabba, sect. 65. fol. 58. 8. Seder Olam Rabba, c. 16.

2 Chronicles 13:20 In-Context

18 The army of Israel fell flat on its face - a humiliating defeat. The army of Judah won hands down because they trusted God, the God of their ancestors.

19 Abijah followed up his victory by pursuing Jeroboam, taking the towns of Bethel, Jeshanah, and Ephron with their surrounding villages.

20 Jeroboam never did recover from his defeat while Abijah lived. Later on God struck him down and he died.

21 Meanwhile Abijah flourished; he married fourteen wives and ended up with a family of twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters.

22 The rest of the history of Abijah, what he did and said, is written in the study written by Iddo the prophet.