10. in their work] sc. ministering unto the Lord, as above. Part of the ideal of the Priestly Code was that the Levites should be restricted to the duty of helping the priests, and should be prevented from executing priestly functions themselves. With this ideal the Chronicler plainly sympathised, but it could not always be realised.
¹¹and they burn unto the Lord every morning and every evening burnt offerings and sweet incense: the shewbread also set they in order upon the pure table; and the candlestick of gold with the lamps thereof, to burn every evening: for we keep the charge of the Lord our God; but ye have forsaken him.
11. every morning and every evening] Exodus xxix. 38–42.
sweet incense] Exodus xxx. 7.
the shewbread also set they in order] Literally and an ordering of bread [they set in order]. The Hebrew phrase used here for “shewbread” signifies bread arranged as for an offering. Another term is “bread of the presence,” i.e. bread set forth continually before the Lord (Exodus xxv. 30). See 1 Chronicles ix. 32 (note).
the candlestick] Exodus xxv. 31 ff., xl. 24, 25.
¹²And, behold, God is with us at our head, and his priests with the trumpets of alarm to sound an alarm against you. O children of Israel, fight ye not against the Lord, the God of your fathers; for ye shall not prosper.
12. the trumpets of alarm] (Numbers x. 9). Abijah here threatens his opponents with a jihād or holy war.
¹³But Jeroboam caused an ambushment to come about behind them: so they were before Judah, and the ambushment was behind them. ¹⁴And when Judah looked back, behold, the battle was before and behind them: and they cried unto the Lord, and the priests sounded with the trumpets.
13. Jeroboam caused an ambushment] While Abijah was endeavouring to shake the fidelity of the Northern army, the Northern leader secures a tactical advantage. The greater the advantages of the Israelites and the more disastrous the position ascribed to the army of Judah, so much the more glorious is the victory which Judah achieves by its reliance on Jehovah.