etc., or אביּהוּ, 2Ch 13:21). אביּם, i.e., father of the sea, is unquestionably the older form of the name, which was reduced to אביּה, and then identified with the formation from אבי and יה = יהוּ (from יהוה).
Chap. 15
Verses 1-2
Reign of Abijam (cf., 2 Chron 13). - Abijam reigned three years, and his mother's name was Maacah, daughter (i.e., grand-daughter) of Absalom. We have the same in 2Ch 11:20-21; but in 2Ch 13:2 she is called Michajahu, daughter of Uriel of Gibeah. If אבישׁלום was without doubt Absalom, the well-known son of David, as we may infer from the fact that this name does not occur again in the Old Testament in connection with any other person, since Absalom had only one daughter, viz., Thamar (2Sa 14:27), who was fifty years old when Solomon died, Maacah must have been a daughter of this Thamar, who had married Uriel of Gibeah, and therefore a grand-daughter of Absalom. This is sustained by Josephus (Ant. viii. 10, 1). The form of the name מיכיהוּ is probably an error in copying for מעכה, as the name is also written in 2Ch 11:20, 2Ch 11:21, and not a different name, which Maacah assumed as queen, as Caspari supposes (Micha, p. 3, note 4).
Verses 3-5
Abijam walked as king in the footsteps of his father. Although he made presents to the temple (1Ki 15:15), his heart was not שׁלם, wholly or undividedly given to the Lord, like the heart of David (cf., 1Ki 11:4); but (כּי, after a previous negative) for David's sake Jehovah had left him a light in Jerusalem, to set up his son after him and to let Jerusalem stand, because (אשׁר) David had done right in the eyes of God, etc., i.e., so that it was only for David's sake that Jehovah did not reject him, and allowed the throne to pass to his son. For the fact itself compare 1Ki 11:13, 1Ki 11:36; and for the words, “except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite,” see 2 Sam 11 and 12.
Verses 6-8
1Ki 15:6-8 “And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all his life;” i.e., the state of hostility which had already existed between Rehoboam and Jeroboam continued “all the days of his life,” or so long as Abijam lived and reigned. If we take חיּיו כּל־ימי in this manner (not כּל־ימיהם, 1Ki 15:16), the statement loses the strangeness which it has at first sight, and harmonizes very well with that in 1Ki 15:7, that there was also war between Abijam and Jeroboam.
