But Abijah waxed mighty. — And Abijah strengthened himself, after his life-and-death struggle with Jeroboam. (See on 2 Chronicles 12:13.)
And married fourteen wives, and begat twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters. — Abijah reigned only three years altogether. He must, therefore, have had most of these wives and children before his accession. (2 Chronicles 11:21-23 may be said to imply this; see Note on 2 Chronicles 11:23.) A stop should be placed after the first clause, thus: “And Abijah strengthened himself. And he took him fourteen wives, and begat twenty-two sons,” etc. The two facts are merely placed side by side, though a tacit contrast may be suggested between the number of Abijah’s off-spring, and the speedy extirpation of the house of Jeroboam.