11 Rehoboam arrived back in Jerusalem. He brought together all the men from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin who knew how to fight. There were 180,000 of them. Rehoboam wanted to attack the Israelite tribes so that he could rule them again as king. ² But the Lord told the prophet Shemaiah, ³ ‘Say this to Solomon's son Rehoboam, the king of Judah. Say it to all the Israelite people who belong to the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. ⁴ This is what the Lord says: “Do not go and attack your brothers. Do not fight against them. Instead, you must all go home. I, the Lord, have decided that this must happen.” ’

So they obeyed the Lord's message. They did not go to attack Jeroboam.^[a]

Rehoboam rules Judah as king

⁵ Rehoboam lived in Jerusalem. He built these strong cities in Judah to make it safe:

He made all those cities in Judah and Benjamin very strong. ¹¹ He made their buildings stronger. He put important officers in them to rule over them. He stored food, olive oil and wine in them. ¹² He supplied every city with shields and spears. He did all these things to make them very strong places. So Rehoboam kept his authority over Judah and Benjamin.

¹³ The priests and Levites who lived everywhere in Israel agreed to serve Rehoboam. ¹⁴ The Levites even left their lands and their houses to come to Judah and Jerusalem.^[b] They came because Jeroboam and his sons refused to let them serve the Lord as his priests. ¹⁵ Jeroboam chose his own priests to offer sacrifices at the altars that he had built on the hills. They worshipped the idols of goats and young bulls that Jeroboam had made. ¹⁶ But some people from every tribe in Israel still wanted to worship the Lord, Israel's God. So they came with the Levites to Jerusalem. They came to offer sacrifices to the Lord, the God of their ancestors. ¹⁷ These people helped to make the kingdom of Judah stronger. They were faithful to Solomon's son Rehoboam for three years. During that time, they lived in the way that David and Solomon had taught them to live.

Rehoboam's family

¹⁸ Rehoboam married Mahalath. Her father was David's son Jerimoth. Her mother was Abihail, the daughter of Jesse's son Eliab. ¹⁹ She gave birth to three sons for Rehoboam. Their names were Jeush, Shemariah and Zaham. ²⁰ Then Rehoboam married Absalom's daughter Maakah. She gave birth to Abijah, Attai, Ziza and Shelomith for him. ²¹ Rehoboam loved Absalom's daughter Maakah better than he loved any of his other wives. He had 18 wives and 60 slave wives. He was the father of 28 sons and 60 daughters.

²² Rehoboam chose Maakah's son Abijah to be the leader over his other sons. He wanted Abijah to become the next king. ²³ He did a wise thing with his other sons. He sent many of them to the different regions of Judah and Benjamin, to live in all the strong cities. He supplied them with plenty of food. He also found many women to become their wives.