15 ^1-2 Abijam began his three-year reign as king of Judah in Jerusalem during the eighteenth year of Jeroboam’s reign in Israel. (Abijam’s mother was Maacah, the daughter of Abishalom.) ³ He was as great a sinner as his father was, and his heart was not right with God, as King David’s was. ⁴ But despite Abijam’s sin, the Lord remembered David’s love^[a] and did not end the line of David’s royal descendants.