2 Chronicles 11

English Standard Version

Rehoboam Secures His Kingdom

11 ^(A)When Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, he assembled the house of Judah and Benjamin, 180,000 chosen warriors, to fight against Israel, to restore the kingdom to Rehoboam. ²But the word of the Lord came to ^(B)Shemaiah the man of God: ³“Say to Rehoboam the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all Israel in Judah and Benjamin, ⁴‘Thus says the Lord, You shall not go up or fight against ^(C)your relatives. Return every man to his home, for this thing is from me.’” So they listened to the word of the Lord and returned and did not go against Jeroboam.

⁵Rehoboam lived in Jerusalem, and he built ^(D)cities for defense in Judah. ⁶He built Bethlehem, Etam, Tekoa, ⁷Beth-zur, Soco, Adullam, ⁸Gath, ^(E)Mareshah, Ziph, ⁹Adoraim, Lachish, Azekah, ¹⁰Zorah, Aijalon, and Hebron, fortified cities that are in Judah and in Benjamin. ¹¹He made the fortresses strong, and put commanders in them, and stores of food, oil, and wine. ¹²And he put shields and spears in all the cities and made them very strong. So he held Judah and Benjamin.

Priests and Levites Come to Jerusalem

¹³And the priests and the Levites who were in all Israel presented themselves to him from all places where they lived. ¹⁴For the Levites left ^(F)their common lands and their holdings and came to Judah and Jerusalem, ^(G)because Jeroboam and his sons cast them out from serving as priests of the Lord, ¹⁵and he appointed his own ^(H)priests for the high places and for the goat idols and for ^(I)the calves that he had made. ¹⁶^(J)And those who had set their hearts to seek the Lord God of Israel came after them from all the tribes of Israel to Jerusalem to sacrifice to the Lord, the God of their fathers. ¹⁷^(K)They strengthened the kingdom of Judah, and for three years they made Rehoboam the son of Solomon secure, for they walked for three years in the way of David and Solomon.

Rehoboam's Family

¹⁸Rehoboam took as wife Mahalath the daughter of Jerimoth the son of David, and of Abihail the daughter of ^(L)Eliab the son of Jesse, ¹⁹and she bore him sons, Jeush, Shemariah, and Zaham. ²⁰After her he took ^(M)Maacah the daughter of Absalom, who bore him ^(N)Abijah, Attai, Ziza, and Shelomith. ²¹Rehoboam loved Maacah the daughter of Absalom above all his wives and concubines (he took eighteen wives and sixty concubines, and fathered twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters). ²²^(O)And Rehoboam appointed ^(P)Abijah the son of Maacah as chief prince among his brothers, for he intended to make him king. ²³And he dealt wisely and distributed some of his sons through all the districts of Judah and Benjamin, in all the fortified cities, and he gave them abundant provisions and procured wives for them.^[a]

Footnotes

2 Chronicles 11:23 Hebrew and sought a multitude of wives

Isaiah 41

English Standard Version

Fear Not, for I Am with You

41 ^(A)Listen to me in silence, ^(B)O coastlands;
let the peoples renew their strength;
let them approach, then let them speak;
let us together draw near for judgment.

²^(C)Who stirred up one from the east
    whom victory meets at every ^(D)step?^[a]
^(E)He gives up nations before him,
    so that he tramples kings underfoot;
he makes them like dust with his sword,
    ^(F)like driven stubble with his bow.
³He pursues them and passes on safely,
    by paths his feet have not trod.
⁴^(G)Who has performed and done this,
    calling the generations from the beginning?
^(H)I, the Lord, the first,
    and with the last; I am he.

⁵^(I)The coastlands have seen and are afraid;
    the ends of the earth tremble;
    they have drawn near and come.
⁶Everyone helps his neighbor
    and says to his brother, “Be strong!”
⁷^(J)The craftsman strengthens the goldsmith,
    and he who smooths with the hammer him who strikes the anvil,
saying of the soldering, “It is good”;
    and they strengthen it with nails ^(K)so that it cannot be moved.

⁸But you, Israel, ^(L)my servant,
    Jacob, ^(M)whom I have chosen,
    the offspring of Abraham, ^(N)my friend;
⁹you whom I took from the ends of the earth,
    and called ^(O)from its farthest corners,
saying to you, “You are ^(P)my servant,
    ^(Q)I have chosen you and not cast you off”;
¹⁰fear not, for I am with you;
    be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
    I will uphold you with ^(R)my righteous right hand.

¹¹^(S)Behold, all who are incensed against you
    shall be put to shame and confounded;
those who strive against you
    shall be as nothing and shall perish.
¹²^(T)You shall seek those who contend with you,
    but you shall not find them;
^(U)those who war against you
    shall be as nothing at all.
¹³For I, the Lord your God,
    hold your right hand;
it is I who say to you, “Fear not,
    I am the one who helps you.”

¹⁴Fear not, you ^(V)worm Jacob,
    you men of Israel!
I am the one who helps you, declares the Lord;
    your ^(W)Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.
¹⁵^(X)Behold, I make of you a threshing sledge,
    new, sharp, and having teeth;
you shall thresh ^(Y)the mountains and crush them,
    and you shall make the hills like chaff;
¹⁶^(Z)you shall winnow them, and ^(AA)the wind shall carry them away,
    and the tempest shall scatter them.
^(AB)And you shall rejoice in the Lord;
    in the Holy One of Israel you shall glory.

¹⁷^(AC)When the poor and needy seek water,
    and there is none,
    and their tongue is parched with thirst,
I the Lord will answer them;
    I the God of Israel will not forsake them.
¹⁸^(AD)I will open rivers on the bare heights,
    and fountains in the midst of the valleys.
^(AE)I will make the wilderness a pool of water,
    and the dry land springs of water.
¹⁹^(AF)I will put in the wilderness the cedar,
    the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive.
I will set in the desert ^(AG)the cypress,
    the plane and the pine together,
²⁰that they may see and know,
    may consider and understand together,
that ^(AH)the hand of the Lord has done this,
    the Holy One of Israel has created it.

The Futility of Idols

²¹Set forth your case, says the Lord;
    bring your proofs, says the King of Jacob.
²²Let them bring them, and ^(AI)tell us
    what is to happen.
Tell us the former things, what they are,
    that we may consider them,
that we may know their outcome;
    or declare to us the things to come.
²³^(AJ)Tell us what is to come hereafter,
    that we may know that you are gods;
^(AK)do good, or do harm,
    that we may be dismayed and terrified.^[b]
²⁴Behold, ^(AL)you are nothing,
    and your work is less than nothing;
    an abomination is he who chooses you.

²⁵^(AM)I stirred up one from the north, and he has come,
    ^(AN)from the rising of the sun, ^(AO)and he shall call upon my name;
he shall trample on rulers as on mortar,
    as the potter treads clay.
²⁶^(AP)Who declared it from the beginning, that we might know,
    and beforehand, that we might say, “He is right”?
There was none who declared it, none who proclaimed,
    none who heard your words.
²⁷^(AQ)I was the first to say^[c] to Zion, “Behold, here they are!”
    and ^(AR)I give to Jerusalem a herald of good news.
²⁸^(AS)But when I look, there is no one;
    among these there is no counselor
    who, when I ask, gives an answer.
²⁹^(AT)Behold, they are all a delusion;
    their works are nothing;
    their metal images are empty wind.