cities "without fighting." Finally, he conquered Jerusalem without resistance, because "Rehoboam was afraid." Shishak's forces stripped the city, including the Holy Temple, of Solomon's gold, which was later replaced with brass crafted by Rehoboam. In the eighteenth year of Jeroboam's reign, Abijam, Rehoboam's son, became king of Judah. During his short reign of three years, Abijam went to considerable lengths to bring the Kingdom of Israel back under his control. He waged a major battle against Jeroboam on Mount Zemaraim, in Ephraim, using a force of 400,000, against Jeroboam's 800,000. Abijam addressed the armies of Israel, urging them to submit and to let the Kingdom of Israel be whole again, but his plea fell on deaf ears. Abijam then rallied his own troops with a phrase which has since become famous: "God is with us as our leader." His elite warriors fended off a pincer movement to rout Jeroboam's troops, killing 500,000 of them, while simultaneously annexing the towns of Bethel, Jeshanah, and Ephron, and their surrounding villages. Jeroboam was crippled by this severe defeat to Abijam and posed little threat to the Kingdom of Judah for the rest of his reign. Abijam died two years later, with Jeroboam dying about a year after. Historicity The matter of "proving" the revolt actually occurred is difficult. There is neither definitive proof nor disproof of a war of succession within Israelite society. While the existence of a true "united monarchy" of Israel is considered doubtful by most modern historians, there is no agreed theory on the historical origins of the independent kingdoms of Samaria and Judah. The matter of the historicity of the United Monarchy of Israel is central to ascertaining the historicity of Jeroboam's Revolt — if there was no unified state, there could not have been a succession conflict. The prevailing opinion is that the kingdoms of Samaria and Judah developed independently of one another, and that the narrative of a united Israelite monarchy and subsequent breakup is an invention of later writers, made in order to glorify David, and by extension the kingdom of Judah, which was finally codified into Israel's holy texts during the Babylonian exile. There are, however, some challenges to this theory. The Tel Dan Stele shows that the House of David was most likely a historical dynasty, and not a later literary invention. Line 9 of the stele is generally taken to mention a "house