A common name, meaning "Yahweh is my father," represented in the OT by at least eight different persons (both males and females). They are, in the order of their appearance:
1) The second son of the prophet Samuel, whom he appointed, together with his firstborn, Joel, as judges over Israel at Beersheba (1 Sam 8:1). They, however, "turned aside after dishonest gain and accepted bribes and perverted justice" (v3), and the elders asked Samuel to have them removed and in their place they asked for a king to serve over them.
2) The son of Jeroboam I, the son of Nebat, the first king of the partitioned Israel. He had fallen sick and Jeroboam had asked his wife disguised as a common woman and go seek out the prophet Ahijah for God's healing for the child (1 Ki 14:1-11). Ahijah, however, saw through the pretence and, instead, told her to deliver to her husband the judgment of God for having done "more evil than all who lived before you. You have made for yourself other gods, idols made of metal; you have provoked me to anger and thrust me behind your back. "'Because of this, I am going to bring disaster on the house of Jeroboam. I will cut off from Jeroboam every last male in Israel—slave or free. I will burn up the house of Jeroboam as one burns dung, until it is all gone. Dogs will eat those belonging to Jeroboam who die in the city, and the birds of the air will feed on those who die in the country." As for the child, he would die because "he is the only one in the house of Jeroboam in whom the Lord, the God of Israel, has found anything good" (v12).
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3) The son of Rehoboam by Maacah (or Micaiah) and the grandson of Solomon (1 Ki 14:31); he ascended to the throne upon Rehoboam's death, "acting wisely, dispensing some of his sons throughout the districts of Judah and Benjamin, and to all the fortified cities" (2 Chron 11:23). He ruled for three years, beginning about 913 BC, in the 18th year of the reign of Jeroboam I. Constant warfare with Jeroboam was a signature of Abijah's reign. Abijah was also not unlike his grandfather: he had fourteen wives by whom he fathered twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters, all except Asa, who succeeded him, remaining nameless (2 Chron 13:21).
4) The "wife of Hezron and mother of Ashhur the father of Tekoa" of the tribe of Judah (1 Chron 2:24). Nothing else is known about her.
5). One of the sons of Beker (or Becher) of the tribe of Benjamin (1 Chron 7:8). Nothing else is known about him.
6) One of the descendants of Eleazar from whom one of the 24 priestly divisions—the 8th—was named (1 Chron 24:10). It was to this priestly division to which Zechariah, the father of John the Baptizer, belonged (Lk 1:5).
7. The daughter of Zechariah (no relation to the prophet) and the mother of King Hezekiah (2 Chron 29:1; she was, therefore, the wife of King Ahaz). In 2 Ki 18:2, she is called Abi.
8. Nehemiah names Abijah twice; whether they refer to the same person or not is impossible to tell. Abijah is first mentioned in Neh 10:7 as one of those who put their seal to a covenant initiated by Nehemiah as an act of communal renewal and commitment to serve Yahweh. Neh 12:4 lists Abijah as one of the priests and Levites who had returned with Zerubbabel from exile. If the two names indeed refer to the same person, he would have lived a very long life.
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