II. The Post-Solomonic Monarchy of Judah

Chapter 10

Division of the Kingdom. ^1 (A)Rehoboam went to Shechem, where all Israel^[a] had come to make him king. ² When Jeroboam, son of Nebat, heard about it, he was in Egypt where he had fled from King Solomon; and he returned from Egypt. ³ They sent for him; Jeroboam and all Israel came and said to Rehoboam: ⁴ “Your father put on us a heavy yoke. If you now lighten the harsh servitude and the heavy yoke your father imposed on us, we will be your servants.” ⁵ He answered them, “Come back to me in three days,” and the people went away.

⁶ King Rehoboam asked advice of the elders who had been in his father Solomon’s service while he was still alive, and asked, “How do you advise me to answer this people?” ⁷ They replied, “If you will deal kindly with this people and please them, giving them a favorable reply, they will be your servants forever.” ⁸ But he ignored the advice the elders had given him and asked advice of the young men who had grown up with him and were in his service. ⁹ He said to them, “What answer do you advise us to give this people, who have told me, ‘Lighten the yoke your father imposed on us’?” ¹⁰ The young men who had grown up with him replied: “This is what you must say to this people who have told you, ‘Your father laid a heavy yoke on us; lighten it for us.’ You must say, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins. ¹¹ My father put a heavy yoke on you; I will make it heavier. My father beat you with whips; I will use scorpions!’”

¹² On the third day, Jeroboam and the whole people came back to King Rehoboam as the king had instructed them: “Come back to me in three days.” ¹³ Ignoring the advice the elders had given him, King Rehoboam gave the people a harsh answer. ¹⁴ He spoke to them as the young men had advised: “My father laid a heavy yoke on you; I will make it heavier. My father beat you with whips; I will use scorpions.” ¹⁵ The king did not listen to the people, for this turn of events was from God: the Lord fulfilled the word he had spoken through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam, the son of Nebat.^(B)

^16 (C)When all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king:

So all Israel went off to their tents, ¹⁷ but the Israelites who lived in the cities of Judah had Rehoboam as their king. ¹⁸ King Rehoboam then sent out Hadoram, who was in charge of the forced labor, but the Israelites stoned him to death. King Rehoboam, however, managed to mount his chariot and flee to Jerusalem. ¹⁹ And so Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day.

Chapter 11

^1 (D)On his arrival in Jerusalem, Rehoboam assembled the house of Judah and Benjamin—one hundred and eighty thousand elite warriors—to wage war against Israel and restore the kingdom to Rehoboam. ² However, the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah, a man of God: ³ Say to Rehoboam, son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all the Israelites in Judah and Benjamin: ⁴ “Thus says the Lord: You must not go out to war against your kinsmen. Return home, each of you, for it is I who have brought this about.” They obeyed the word of the Lord and turned back from going against Jeroboam.

Rehoboam’s Works.^{[b] 5} Rehoboam took up residence in Jerusalem and built fortified cities in Judah. ⁶ He built up Bethlehem, Etam, Tekoa, ⁷ Beth-zur, Soco, Adullam, ⁸ Gath, Mareshah, Ziph, ⁹ Adoraim, Lachish, Azekah, ¹⁰ Zorah, Aijalon, and Hebron; these were fortified cities in Judah and Benjamin. ¹¹ Then he strengthened the fortifications and put commanders in them, along with supplies of food, oil, and wine. ¹² In every city were shields and spears, and he made them very strong. Thus Judah and Benjamin remained his.

Refugees from the North. ¹³ Now the priests and Levites throughout Israel presented themselves to him from all parts of their land, ¹⁴ for the Levites left their assigned pasture lands and their holdings and came to Judah and Jerusalem, because Jeroboam and his sons rejected them as priests of the Lord.^{(E) 15} In their place, he himself appointed priests for the high places as well as for the satyrs and calves he had made.^{(F) 16} After them, all those, of every tribe of Israel, who set their hearts to seek the Lord, the God of Israel, came to Jerusalem to sacrifice to the Lord, the God of their ancestors. ¹⁷ Thus they strengthened the kingdom of Judah and made Rehoboam, son of Solomon, prevail for three years; for they walked in the way of David and Solomon three years.

Rehoboam’s Family. ¹⁸ Rehoboam married Mahalath, daughter of Jerimoth, son of David and of Abihail, daughter of Eliab, son of Jesse. ¹⁹ She bore him sons: Jehush, Shemariah, and Zaham. ²⁰ After her, he married Maacah, daughter of Absalom, who bore him Abijah,^(G) Attai, Ziza, and Shelomith. ²¹ Rehoboam loved Maacah, daughter of Absalom, more than all his other wives and concubines; he had taken eighteen wives and sixty concubines, and he fathered twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters. ²² Rehoboam put Abijah, son of Maacah, first among his brothers, as leader, for he intended to make him king. ²³ He acted prudently, distributing his various sons throughout all the districts of Judah and Benjamin, in all the fortified cities; and he gave them generous provisions and sought an abundance of wives for them.

Chapter 12

Rehoboam’s Apostasy. ¹ Once Rehoboam had established himself as king and was firmly in charge, he abandoned the law of the Lord, and so did all Israel with him.^{(H) 2} So in the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak, king of Egypt, attacked Jerusalem, for they had acted treacherously toward the Lord.^{(I) 3} He had twelve hundred chariots and sixty thousand horsemen, and there was no counting the army that came with him from Egypt—Libyans, Sukkites,^[c] and Ethiopians. ⁴ They captured the fortified cities of Judah and came as far as Jerusalem. ⁵ Then Shemaiah^(J) the prophet came to Rehoboam and the commanders of Judah who had gathered at Jerusalem because of Shishak, and said to them: “Thus says the Lord: You have abandoned me, and so I have abandoned you to the power of Shishak.”

⁶ Then the commanders of Israel and the king humbled themselves saying, “The Lord is in the right.” ⁷ When the Lord saw that they had humbled themselves, the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah: Because they have humbled themselves, I will not destroy them; I will give them some deliverance, and my wrath shall not be poured out upon Jerusalem through Shishak. ⁸ But they shall be his servants. Then they will know what it is to serve me and what it is to serve the kingdoms of the earth. ^9 (K)Thereupon Shishak, king of Egypt, attacked Jerusalem and took away the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the house of the king. He took everything, including the gold shields that Solomon had made. ¹⁰ To replace them, King Rehoboam made bronze shields, which he entrusted to the officers of the attendants on duty at the entrance of the king’s house. ¹¹ Whenever the king visited the house of the Lord, the attendants would carry them, and then return them to the guardroom. ¹² Because he had humbled himself, the anger of the Lord turned from him so as not to destroy him completely; in Judah, moreover, there was some good.

¹³ King Rehoboam was firmly in power in Jerusalem and continued to rule. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city in which, out of all the tribes of Israel, the Lord chose to set his name. His mother’s name was Naamah, the Ammonite.^{(L) 14} He did evil, for he had not set his heart to seek the Lord. ^15 (M)The acts of Rehoboam, first and last, are recorded in the history of Shemaiah the prophet and of Iddo the seer (his family record). There were wars between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all their days. ¹⁶ Rehoboam rested with his ancestors; he was buried in the City of David. His son Abijah^[d] succeeded him as king.

Chapter 8

The Flesh and the Spirit.^{[a] 1} Hence, now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. ² For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has freed you from the law of sin and death.^{(A) 3} For what the law, weakened by the flesh, was powerless to do, this God has done: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for the sake of sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,^{(B) 4} so that the righteous decree of the law might be fulfilled in us, who live not according to the flesh but according to the spirit.^{(C) 5} For those who live according to the flesh are concerned with the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the spirit with the things of the spirit. ⁶ The concern of the flesh is death, but the concern of the spirit is life and peace.^{(D) 7} For the concern of the flesh is hostility toward God; it does not submit to the law of God, nor can it;^{(E) 8} and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.^{(F) 9} But you are not in the flesh; on the contrary, you are in the spirit, if only the Spirit of God dwells in you. Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.^{(G) 10} But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit is alive because of righteousness.^{(H) 11} If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also, through his Spirit that dwells in you. ¹² Consequently, brothers, we are not debtors to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. ¹³ For if you live according to the flesh, you will die, but if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.^(I)

Children of God Through Adoption.^{[b] 14} For those who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.^{(J) 15} For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received a spirit of adoption, through which we cry, “Abba,^[c] Father!”^{(K) 16} The Spirit itself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,^{(L) 17} and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if only we suffer with him so that we may also be glorified with him.^(M)

Destiny of Glory.^{[d] 18} I consider that the sufferings of this present time are as nothing compared with the glory to be revealed for us.^{(N) 19} For creation awaits with eager expectation the revelation of the children of God; ²⁰ for creation was made subject to futility, not of its own accord but because of the one who subjected it,^(O) in hope ²¹ that creation itself would be set free from slavery to corruption and share in the glorious freedom of the children of God.^{(P) 22} We know that all creation is groaning in labor pains even until now;^{(Q) 23} and not only that, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, we also groan within ourselves as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.^{(R) 24} For in hope we were saved. Now hope that sees for itself is not hope. For who hopes for what one sees?^{(S) 25} But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait with endurance.

²⁶ In the same way, the Spirit too comes to the aid of our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we ought, but the Spirit itself intercedes with inexpressible groanings. ²⁷ And the one who searches hearts knows what is the intention of the Spirit, because it intercedes for the holy ones according to God’s will.^(T)

God’s Indomitable Love in Christ. ^28 [e]We know that all things work for good for those who love God,^[f] who are called according to his purpose.^{(U) 29 [g]}For those he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, so that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.^{(V) 30} And those he predestined he also called; and those he called he also justified; and those he justified he also glorified.^(W)

^31 [h]What then shall we say to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?^{(X) 32} He who did not spare his own Son but handed him over for us all, how will he not also give us everything else along with him?^{(Y) 33} Who will bring a charge against God’s chosen ones? It is God who acquits us.^{(Z) 34} Who will condemn? It is Christ [Jesus] who died, rather, was raised, who also is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us.^{(AA) 35} What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword? ³⁶ As it is written:^(AB)

³⁷ No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us.^{(AC) 38} For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things,^[i] nor future things, nor powers,^{(AD) 39} nor height, nor depth,^[j] nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.