^33 (A)After this event Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way, but again he made priests from every class of people for the high places; whoever wished, he consecrated him, and he became one of the priests of the high places. ^34 (B)And this thing was the sin of the house of Jeroboam, so as ^(C)to exterminate and destroy it from the face of the earth.

Judgment on the House of Jeroboam

14 At that time Abijah the son of Jeroboam became sick. ² And Jeroboam said to his wife, “Please arise, and disguise yourself, that they may not recognize you as the wife of Jeroboam, and go to Shiloh. Indeed, Ahijah the prophet is there, who told me that ^(A)I would be king over this people. ^3 (B)Also take ^[a]with you ten loaves, some cakes, and a jar of honey, and go to him; he will tell you what will become of the child.” ⁴ And Jeroboam’s wife did so; she arose ^(C)and went to Shiloh, and came to the house of Ahijah. But Ahijah could not see, for his eyes were ^[b]glazed by reason of his age.

⁵ Now the Lord had said to Ahijah, “Here is the wife of Jeroboam, coming to ask you something about her son, for he is sick. Thus and thus you shall say to her; for it will be, when she comes in, that she will pretend to be another woman.”

⁶ And so it was, when Ahijah heard the sound of her footsteps as she came through the door, he said, “Come in, wife of Jeroboam. Why do you pretend to be another person? For I have been sent to you with bad news. ⁷ Go, tell Jeroboam, ‘Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ^(D)“Because I exalted you from among the people, and made you ruler over My people Israel, ⁸ and ^(E)tore the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it to you; and yet you have not been as My servant David, ^(F)who kept My commandments and who followed Me with all his heart, to do only what was right in My eyes; ⁹ but you have done more evil than all who were before you, ^(G)for you have gone and made for yourself other gods and molded images to provoke Me to anger, and ^(H)have cast Me behind your back— ¹⁰ therefore behold! ^(I)I will bring disaster on the house of Jeroboam, and ^(J)will cut off from Jeroboam every male in Israel, ^(K)bond and free; I will take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam, as one takes away refuse until it is all gone. ¹¹ The dogs shall eat ^(L)whoever belongs to Jeroboam and dies in the city, and the birds of the air shall eat whoever dies in the field; for the Lord has spoken!” ’ ¹² Arise therefore, go to your own house. ^(M)When your feet enter the city, the child shall die. ¹³ And all Israel shall mourn for him and bury him, for he is the only one of Jeroboam who shall ^[c]come to the grave, because in him ^(N)there is found something good toward the Lord God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam.

^14 (O)“Moreover the Lord will raise up for Himself a king over Israel who shall cut off the house of Jeroboam; ^[d]this is the day. What? Even now! ¹⁵ For the Lord will strike Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water. He will ^(P)uproot Israel from this ^(Q)good land which He gave to their fathers, and will scatter them ^(R)beyond ^[e]the River, ^(S)because they have made their ^[f]wooden images, provoking the Lord to anger. ¹⁶ And He will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, ^(T)who sinned and who made Israel sin.”

¹⁷ Then Jeroboam’s wife arose and departed, and came to ^(U)Tirzah. ^(V)When she came to the threshold of the house, the child died. ¹⁸ And they buried him; and all Israel mourned for him, ^(W)according to the word of the Lord which He spoke through His servant Ahijah the prophet.

Rehoboam Fortifies the Cities

⁵ So Rehoboam dwelt in Jerusalem, and built cities for defense in Judah. ⁶ And he built Bethlehem, Etam, Tekoa, ⁷ Beth Zur, Sochoh, Adullam, ⁸ Gath, Mareshah, Ziph, ⁹ Adoraim, Lachish, Azekah, ¹⁰ Zorah, Aijalon, and Hebron, which are in Judah and Benjamin, fortified cities. ¹¹ And he fortified the strongholds, and put captains in them, and stores of food, oil, and wine. ¹² Also in every city he put shields and spears, and made them very strong, having Judah and Benjamin on his side.

The Family of Rehoboam

¹⁸ Then Rehoboam took for himself as wife Mahalath the daughter of Jerimoth the son of David, and of Abihail the daughter of ^(A)Eliah the son of Jesse. ¹⁹ And she bore him children: Jeush, Shamariah, and Zaham. ²⁰ After her he took ^(B)Maachah the ^[a]granddaughter of ^(C)Absalom; and she bore him ^(D)Abijah, Attai, Ziza, and Shelomith. ²¹ Now Rehoboam loved Maachah the granddaughter of Absalom more than all his ^(E)wives and his concubines; for he took eighteen wives and sixty concubines, and begot twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters. ²² And Rehoboam ^(F)appointed ^(G)Abijah the son of Maachah as chief, to be leader among his brothers; for he intended to make him king. ²³ He dealt wisely, and ^[b]dispersed some of his sons throughout all the territories of Judah and Benjamin, to every ^(H)fortified city; and he gave them provisions in abundance. He also sought many wives for them.

^22 (A)Now Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord, and they ^(B)provoked Him to jealousy with their sins which they committed, more than all that their fathers had done. ²³ For they also built for themselves ^(C)high^[a] places, ^(D)sacred pillars, and ^(E)wooden images on every high hill and ^(F)under every green tree. ^24 (G)And there were also ^[b]perverted persons in the land. They did according to all the ^(H)abominations of the nations which the Lord had cast out before the children of ^(I)Israel.

Egypt Attacks Judah^(A)

12 Now ^(B)it came to pass, when Rehoboam had established the kingdom and had strengthened himself, that ^(C)he forsook the law of the Lord, and all Israel along with him.

¹⁴ And he did evil, because he did not prepare his heart to seek the Lord.

^2 (A)And it happened in the fifth year of King Rehoboam that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, because they had transgressed against the Lord, ³ with twelve hundred chariots, sixty thousand horsemen, and people without number who came with him out of Egypt—^(B)the Lubim and the Sukkiim and the Ethiopians. ⁴ And he took the fortified cities of Judah and came to Jerusalem.

⁵ Then ^(C)Shemaiah the prophet came to Rehoboam and the leaders of Judah, who were gathered together in Jerusalem because of Shishak, and said to them, “Thus says the Lord: ‘You have forsaken Me, and therefore I also have left you in the hand of Shishak.’ ”

⁶ So the leaders of Israel and the king ^(D)humbled themselves; and they said, ^(E)“The Lord is righteous.”

⁷ Now when the Lord saw that they humbled themselves, ^(F)the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah, saying, “They have humbled themselves; therefore I will not destroy them, but I will grant them some deliverance. My wrath shall not be poured out on Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak. ⁸ Nevertheless ^(G)they will be his servants, that they may distinguish ^(H)My service from the service of the kingdoms of the nations.”

^9 (I)So Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, and took away the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king’s house; he took everything. He also carried away the gold shields which Solomon had ^(J)made. ¹⁰ Then King Rehoboam made bronze shields in their place, and committed them ^(K)to the hands of the captains of the guard, who guarded the doorway of the king’s house. ¹¹ And whenever the king entered the house of the Lord, the guard would go and bring them out; then they would take them back into the guardroom. ¹² When he humbled himself, the wrath of the Lord turned from him, so as not to destroy him completely; and things also went well in Judah.

³⁰ And there was ^(A)war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all their days.