1
It was in the eighteenth year of King Yarov'am the son of N'vat that Aviyam began his reign over Y'hudah.
2
He ruled three years in Yerushalayim; his mother's name was Ma'akhah the daughter of Avishalom.
3
He committed all the sins his father had committed before him; he was not wholehearted with ADONAI his God, as David his forefather had been.
4
Nevertheless, for David's sake ADONAI his God gave him a lamp burning in Yerushalayim by establishing his son after him and making Yerushalayim secure.
5
For David had done what was right from ADONAI's perspective; he had not turned away from anything he had ordered him to do, as long as he lived, except in the matter of Uriyah the Hitti.
6
There was war between Rechav'am and Yarov'am as long as he lived.
7
Other activities of Aviyam and all his accomplishments are recorded in the Annals of the Kings of Y'hudah. But there was war between Aviyam and Yarov'am.
In this chapter we have a short history of the reign of Abijam, 1Ki 15:1-8 and of Asa, 1Ki 14:9-24, both kings of Judah; and of the reigns of Nadab the son of Jeroboam, and of Baasha, who destroyed his family, both kings of Israel, 1Ki 15:25-34.