6King Rehoboam took counsel with the elders who had served during the lifetime of his father Solomon. He said, “What answer do you counsel to give these people?” 7They answered him, “If you will be good to these people and appease them and speak to them with kind words, they will be your servants always.” 8But he ignored the counsel that the elders gave him, and took counsel with the young men who had grown up with him and were serving him. 9“What,” he asked, “do you counsel that we reply to these people who said to me, ‘Lighten the yoke that your father laid on us’?” 10And the young men who had grown up with him answered, “Speak thus to the people who said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, now you make it lighter for us.’ Say to them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins. 11My father imposed a heavy yoke on you, and I will add to your yoke; my father flogged you with whips, but I [will do so] with scorpions.’ ”
12Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day, since the king had told them, “Come back on the third day.” 13The king answered them harshly; thus King Rehoboam ignored the elders’ counsel. 14He spoke to them in accordance with the counsel of the young men, and said, b-“I will make-b your yoke heavy, and I will add to it; my father flogged you with whips, but I [will do so] with scorpions.” 15The king did not listen to the people, for God had brought it about in order that the LORD might fulfill the promise that He had made through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam son of Nebat. 16When all Israel [saw] that the king had not listened to them, the people answered the king:
“We have no portion in David,
No share in Jesse’s son!
To your tents, O Israel!
Now look to your own house, O David.”
So all Israel returned to their homes.c 17But Rehoboam continued to reign over the Israelites who lived in the towns of Judah. 18King Rehoboam sent out Hadoram, who was in charge of the forced labor, but the Israelites pelted him to death with stones. Thereupon, King Rehoboam hurriedly mounted his chariot and fled to Jerusalem. 19Israel has been in revolt against the house of David to this day.
11 aWhen Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he mustered the house of Judah and Benjamin, 180,000 picked fighting men, to make war with Israel in order to restore the kingdom to Rehoboam. 2But the word of the LORD came to Shemaiah, the man of God: 3“Say to Rehoboam son of Solomon king of Judah, and to all Israel in Judah and Benjamin: 4Thus said the LORD: You shall not set out to make war on your kinsmen. Let every man return to his home, for this thing has been brought about by Me.” They heeded the words of the LORD and refrained from marching against Jeroboam. 5Rehoboam dwelt in Jerusalem and built fortified towns in Judah. 6He built up Bethlehem, and Etam, and Tekoa, 7and Beth-zur, and Soco, and Adullam, 8and Gath, and Mareshah, and Ziph, 9and Adoraim, and Lachish, and Azekah, 10and Zorah, and Aijalon, and Hebron, which are in Judah and in Benjamin, as fortified towns. 11He strengthened the fortified towns and put commanders in them, along with stores of food, oil, and wine, 12and shields and spears in every town. He strengthened them exceedingly; thus Judah and Benjamin were his.
13The priests and the Levites, from all their territories throughout Israel, presented themselves to him. 14The Levites had left their pasturelands and their holdings and had set out for Judah and Jerusalem, for Jeroboam and his sons had prevented them from serving the LORD, 15having appointed his own priests for the shrines, goat-demons, and calves which he had made. 16From all the tribes of Israel, those intent on seeking the LORD God of Israel followed them to Jerusalem, to sacrifice to the LORD God of their fathers. 17They strengthened the kingdom of Judah, and supported Rehoboam son of Solomon for three years, for they followed the ways of David and Solomon for three years.
18Rehoboam married Mahalath daughter of Jerimoth son of David, and Abihail daughter of Eliab son of Jesse. 19She bore him sons: Jeush, Shemariah, and Zaham. 20He then took Maacah daughter of Absalom; she bore him Abijah, Attai, Ziza, and Shelomith. 21Rehoboam loved Maacah daughter of Absalom more than his other wives and concubines—for he took eighteen wives and sixty concubines; he begot twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters. 22Rehoboam designated Abijah son of Maacah as chief and leader among his brothers, for he intended him to be his successor. 23He prudently distributed all his sons throughout the regions of Judah and Benjamin and throughout the fortified towns; he provided them with abundant food, and he sought many wives for them.
12 When the kingship of Rehoboam was firmly established, and he grew strong, he abandoned the Teaching of the LORD, he and all Israel with him.
2In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, King Shishak of Egypt marched against Jerusalem—for they had trespassed against the LORD—3with 1,200 chariots, 60,000 horsemen and innumerable troops who came with him from Egypt: Lybians, Sukkites, and Kushites. 4He took the fortified towns of Judah and advanced on Jerusalem. 5The prophet Shemaiah came to Rehoboam and the officers of Judah, who had assembled in Jerusalem because of Shishak, and said to them, “Thus said the LORD: You have abandoned Me, so I am abandoning you to Shishak.” 6Then the officers of Israel and the king humbled themselves and declared, “The LORD is in the right.” 7When the LORD saw that they had submitted, the word of the LORD came to Shemaiah, saying, “Since they have humbled themselves, I will not destroy them but will grant them some measure of deliverance, and My wrath will not be poured out on Jerusalem through Shishak. 8They will be subject to him, and they will know the difference between serving Me and serving the kingdoms of the earth.” King Shishak of Egypt marched against Jerusalem. 9aHe took away the treasures of the House of the LORD and the treasures of the royal palace; he took away everything; he took away the golden shields that Solomon had made. 10King Rehoboam had bronze shields made in their place, and entrusted them to the officers of the guardb who guarded the entrance to the royal palace. 11Whenever the king entered the House of the LORD, the guards would carry them and then bring them back to the armory of the guards. 12After he had humbled himself, the anger of the LORD was averted and He did not destroy him entirely; in Judah, too, good things were found.
13King Rehoboam grew strong in Jerusalem and exercised kingship. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem—the city the LORD had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel to establish His name there. His mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonitess. 14He did what was wrong, for he had not set his heart to seek the LORD. 15The deeds of Rehoboam, early and late, are recorded in the chronicles of the prophet Shemaiah and Iddo the seer, in the manner of genealogy. There was continuous war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam. 16Rehoboam slept with his fathers and was buried in the City of David. His son Abijah succeeded him as king.
13In the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam, Abijah became king over Judah. 2He reigned three years in Jerusalem; his mother’s name was Micaiah daughter of Uriel of Gibeah. There was war between Abijah and Jeroboam. 3Abijah joined battle with a force of warriors, 400,000 picked men. Jeroboam arrayed for battle against him 800,000 picked men, warriors. 4Abijah stood on top of Mount Zemaraim in the hill country of Ephraim and said, “Listen to me, Jeroboam and all Israel. 5Surely you know that the LORD God of Israel gave David kingship over Israel forever—to him and his sons—by a covenant of salt. 6Jeroboam son of Nebat had been in the service of Solomon son of David, but he rose up and rebelled against his master. 7Riffraff and scoundrels gathered around him and pressed hard upon Rehoboam son of Solomon. Rehoboam was inexperienced and fainthearted and could not stand up to them. 8Now you are bent on opposing the kingdom of the LORD, which is in the charge of the sons of David, because you are a great multitude and possess the golden calves that Jeroboam made for you as gods. 9Did you not banish the priests of the LORD, the sons of Aaron and the Levites, and, like the peoples of the land, appoint your own priests? Anyone who offered himself for ordination with a young bull of the herd and seven rams became a priest of no-gods! 10As for us, the LORD is our God, and we have not forsaken Him. The priests who minister to the LORD are the sons of Aaron, and the Levites are at their tasks. 11They offer burnt offerings in smoke each morning and each evening, and the aromatic incense, the rows of bread on the pure table; they kindle the golden lampstand with its lamps burning each evening, for we keep the charge of the LORD our God, while you have forsaken it. 12See, God
