Easton's Bible Dictionary Father of the sea; i.e., "seaman" the name always used in Kings of the king of Judah, the son of Rehoboam, elsewhere called Abijah (1 Kings 15:1, 7, 8). (see ABIJAH.) Int. Standard Bible Encyclopedia ABIJAM a-bi'-jam ('abhiyam, "father of sea," or, "father of west"). The name given in Kings (1 Kings 14:31; 1 Kings 15:1, 7, 8) to the son of Rehoboam who succeeded him as king of Judah. See ABIJAH. The name has puzzled scholars. Some have proposed, by adding one letter, to change it into "father of his people." Others have observed that the Greek rendering in Kings is Abeiou. Either the Hebrew copy used by the Greek translator read 'abhiyahu, Abijah, or else the translator substituted the form of the name which was to him more familiar. A few existing copies of the Hebrew have the reading Abijah, and Matthew 1:7 presupposes that as the Old Testament reading. So they infer that Abijam in Ki is an erroneous reading for Abijah. This seems at present to be the prevailing view, and it is plausible. It would be more convincing, however, if the name occurred but once in the passage in Kings, instead of occurring five times. It is improbable that a scribe would repeat the same error five times within a few sentences, while a translator, if he changed the name once, would of course change it the other four times. Exploration has revealed the fact that the whole region near the eastern end of the Mediterranean was known as "the west." "Father of the west" is not an inapt name for Rehoboam to give to the boy who, he expects, will inherit the kingdom of Solomon and David. The effect of the secession of the ten tribes was to make that name a burlesque, and one does not wonder that it was superseded by Abijah, "My father is Yahweh." Willis J. Beecher

Multi-Version Concordance Abijam (4 Occurrences) 1 Kings 14:31 Rehoboam slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David: and his mother's name was Naamah the Ammonitess. Abijam his son reigned in his place. (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS) 1 Kings 15:1 Now in the eighteenth year of king Jeroboam the son of Nebat began Abijam to reign over Judah. (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS) 1 Kings 15:7 The rest of the acts of Abijam, and all that he did, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? There was war between Abijam and Jeroboam. (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS) 1 Kings 15:8 Abijam slept with his fathers; and they buried him in the city of David: and Asa his son reigned in his place. (WEB KJV JPS ASV BBE DBY WBS YLT NAS)