And Abia stood upon mount Semeron, which was in Ephraim, and said: Hear me, O Jeroboam, and all Israel:

And Abijah riseth up on the hill of Zemaraim that is in the hill-country of Ephraim, and saith, 'Hear me, Jeroboam and all Israel!

And Abijah took up his position on Mount Zemaraim, in the hill-country of Ephraim, and said, Give ear to me, O Jeroboam and all Israel:

Then Abijah stood upon mount Zemaraim, which was in Ephraim, and he said: "Listen to me, Jeroboam and all of Israel.

Stood up upon Mount Zemaraim - "Which was a mount of the tribe of the house of Ephraim." - Targum. Jarchi thinks that Abijah went to the confines of the tribe of Ephraim to attack Jeroboam. It could not be Shomeron, the mount on which Samaria was built in the days of Omri king of Israel, 1-Kings 16:24.

And Abijah stood up upon mount (d) Zemaraim, which [is] in mount Ephraim, and said, Hear me, thou Jeroboam, and all Israel;
(d) Which was one of the peaks of mount Ephraim.

And Abijah stood upon Mount Zemaraim, which is in Mount Ephraim,.... Which might have its name from a city of Benjamin of this name, to which it was near, though within the borders of Ephraim, Joshua 18:22 formerly inhabited by the Zemarites, from whence it might have its name, Genesis 10:18 here Abijah stood, that he might be the better heard by the armies pitched in the valley; and very probably he desired a parley, and it was granted, otherwise he would not have been safe in the position in which he was:
and said, hear me, thou Jeroboam, and all Israel; as many as were now gathered together, and which were a great number.

Abijah stood up upon Mount Zemaraim--He had entered the enemy's territory and was encamped on an eminence near Beth-el (Joshua 18:22). Jeroboam's army lay at the foot of the hill, and as a pitched battle was expected, Abijah, according to the singular usage of ancient times, harangued the enemy. The speakers in such circumstances, while always extolling their own merits, poured out torrents of invective and virulent abuse upon the adversary. So did Abijah. He dwelt on the divine right of the house of David to the throne; and sinking all reference to the heaven-condemned offenses of Solomon and the divine appointment of Jeroboam, as well as the divine sanction of the separation, he upbraided Jeroboam as a usurper, and his subjects as rebels, who took advantage of the youth and inexperience of Rehoboam. Then contrasting the religious state of the two kingdoms, he drew a black picture of the impious innovations and gross idolatry introduced by Jeroboam, with his expulsion and impoverishment (2-Chronicles 11:14) of the Levites. He dwelt with reasonable pride on the pure and regular observance of the ancient institutions of Moses in his own dominion [2-Chronicles 13:11] and concluded with this emphatic appeal: "O children of Israel, fight ye not against Jehovah, the God of your fathers, for ye shall not prosper."

When the two armies lay over against each other, ready for the combat, Abijah addressed the enemy, King Jeroboam and all Israel, in a speech from Mount Zemaraim. The mountain צמרים is met with only here; but a city of this name is mentioned in Joshua 18:22, whence we would incline to the conclusion that the mountain near or upon which this city lay was intended. But if this city was situated to the east, not only of Bethel, but also of Jerusalem, on the road to Jericho (see on Joshua 18:22), as we may conclude from its enumeration between Beth-arabah and Bethel in Josh. loc. cit., it will not suit our passage, at least if Zemaraim be really represented by the ruin el Sumra to the east of Khan Hadur on the way from Jerusalem to Jericho. Robinson (Phys. Geog. S. 38) conjectures Mount Zemaraim to the east of Bethel, near the border of the two kingdoms, to which Mount Ephraim also extends. Abijah represented first of all (2-Chronicles 13:5-7) to Jeroboam and the Israelites that their kingdom was the result of a revolt against Jahve, who had given the kingship over Israel to David and his sons for ever.