Rehoboam Acts Foolishly

10 Jeroboam son of Nebat was still in Egypt where he had run away from Solomon. When he heard about Solomon’s death, he returned to his city, Zeredah, in the hills of Ephraim.

Rehoboam and all the Israelites went to Shechem to make Rehoboam the king. The people said to Rehoboam, ⁴ “Your father forced us to work very hard. Now, make it easier for us. Stop the heavy work that your father forced us to do and we will serve you.”

⁵ Rehoboam answered, “Come back to me in three days, and I will answer you.” So the people left.

⁶ There were some older men who had helped Solomon make decisions when he was alive. So King Rehoboam asked these men what he should do. He said, “How do you think I should answer the people?”

⁷ They answered, “If you do what is good for the people, you will please them. If you speak kindly to them, they will always work for you.”

⁸ But Rehoboam did not listen to the advice from the older men. He asked the young men who were his friends. ⁹ Rehoboam said, “The people said, ‘Give us easier work than your father gave us.’ How do you think I should answer them? What should I tell them?”

¹⁰ Then the young men who grew up with him answered, “Those people came to you and said, ‘Your father forced us to work very hard. Now make our work easier.’ So you should tell them, ‘My little finger is stronger than my father’s whole body. ¹¹ My father forced you to work hard, but I will make you work much harder! My father punished you with whips, but I will punish you with whips that have sharp metal tips.’”

¹² Three days later, Jeroboam and all the people came back to Rehoboam, just as he had told them to do. ¹³ King Rehoboam did not listen to the advice from the older men, and he was rude to the people. ¹⁴ He did what his friends told him to do and said, “My father forced you to work hard, but I will make you work much harder! My father punished you with whips, but I will punish you with whips that have sharp metal tips.” ¹⁵ So the king did not do what the people wanted. The Lord caused this to happen. He did this in order to keep the promise he made to Jeroboam son of Nebat when he sent Ahijah, the prophet from Shiloh, to speak to him.

¹⁶ The Israelites saw that the new king refused to listen to them, so they said to him,

So the Israelites went home. ¹⁷ But Rehoboam still ruled over the Israelites who lived in the cities of Judah.

¹⁸ A man named Adoniram was one of the men who directed the workers. King Rehoboam sent Adoniram to talk to the people, but the Israelites threw stones at him until he died. King Rehoboam ran to his chariot and escaped to Jerusalem. ¹⁹ So Israel rebelled against the family of David, and that is how things are even today.

11 Rehoboam went back to Jerusalem and gathered together an army of 180,000 men from the families of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin. Rehoboam wanted to go fight against the Israelites and take back his kingdom. ² But the Lord spoke to a man of God named Shemaiah. He said, ³ “Talk to Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to men of Judah and Benjamin. ⁴ Say to them, ‘The Lord says that you must not go to war against your brothers. Everyone, go home! I made all this happen.’” So all the men in Rehoboam’s army obeyed the Lord and went home. They did not attack Jeroboam.

Rehoboam Strengthens Judah

⁵ Rehoboam lived in Jerusalem and built strong cities in Judah to defend against attacks. ⁶ He repaired the cities of Bethlehem, Etam, Tekoa, ⁷ Beth Zur, Soco, Adullam, ⁸ Gath, Mareshah, Ziph, ⁹ Adoraim, Lachish, Azekah, ¹⁰ Zorah, Aijalon, and Hebron. These cities in Judah and Benjamin were made strong. ¹¹ When Rehoboam made these cities strong, he put commanders in them. He also put supplies of food, oil, and wine in them. ¹² Also, he put shields and spears in every city and made the cities very strong. He kept the peoples and cities of Judah and Benjamin under his control.

¹³ The priests and the Levites from all over Israel agreed with Rehoboam and joined him. ¹⁴ The Levites left their grasslands and their own fields and came to Judah and Jerusalem. The Levites did this because Jeroboam and his sons refused to let them serve as priests to the Lord.

¹⁵ Jeroboam chose his own priests to serve in the high places, where he set up the goat and calf idols he had made. ¹⁶ When the Levites left Israel, the people in all the tribes of Israel who were faithful to the Lord, the God of Israel, came to Jerusalem to sacrifice to the Lord, the God of their fathers. ¹⁷ These people made the kingdom of Judah strong, and they supported Solomon’s son Rehoboam for three years. They did this because during that time they lived the way David and Solomon had lived.

Rehoboam’s Family

¹⁸ Rehoboam married Mahalath. Her father was Jerimoth. Her mother was Abihail. Jerimoth was David’s son. Abihail was Eliab’s daughter, and Eliab was Jesse’s son. ¹⁹ Mahalath gave Rehoboam these sons: Jeush, Shemariah, and Zaham. ²⁰ Then Rehoboam married Maacah. Maacah was Absalom’s granddaughter.^[a] And Maacah gave Rehoboam these children: Abijah, Attai, Ziza, and Shelomith. ²¹ Rehoboam loved Maacah more that he loved all his other wives and slave women. Rehoboam had 18 wives and 60 slave women. He was the father of 28 sons and 60 daughters.

²² Rehoboam chose Abijah to be the leader among his own brothers. He did this because he planned to make Abijah king. ²³ Rehoboam acted wisely and spread all his sons through all the areas of Judah and Benjamin to every strong city. And Rehoboam gave plenty of supplies to his sons. He also looked for wives for them.

Shishak King of Egypt Attacks Jerusalem

12 Rehoboam became a strong king and made his kingdom strong. Then Rehoboam and the whole tribe of Judah^[b] refused to obey the law of the Lord.

² During the fifth year that Rehoboam was king, Shishak king of Egypt came to attack Jerusalem. This happened because Rehoboam and the people of Judah rebelled against the Lord. ³ Shishak had 1200 chariots, 60,000 horse riders, and an army that no one could count. In Shishak’s large army there were Libyan soldiers, Sukkite soldiers, and Ethiopian soldiers. ⁴ Shishak defeated the strong cities of Judah. Then Shishak brought his army to Jerusalem.

⁵ Then Shemaiah the prophet came to Rehoboam and the leaders of Judah. The leaders of Judah had gathered together in Jerusalem because they all were afraid of Shishak. Shemaiah said to Rehoboam and the leaders of Judah, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Rehoboam, you and the people of Judah have left me and refused to obey my law. So now I will leave you to face Shishak without my help.’”

⁶ Then the leaders of Judah and King Rehoboam were sorry and humbled themselves. They said, “The Lord is right.”

⁷ The Lord saw that the king and the leaders of Judah had humbled themselves. Then the message from the Lord came to Shemaiah. The Lord said, “The king and the leaders humbled themselves. So I will not destroy them, but I will save them soon. I will not use Shishak to pour out my anger on Jerusalem. ⁸ But the people of Jerusalem will become Shishak’s servants. This will happen so that they may learn that serving me is different from serving the kings of other nations.”

⁹ Shishak took the treasures from the Lord’s Temple and from the king’s palace. He also took the gold shields that Solomon had made. ¹⁰ King Rehoboam made more shields to put in their places, but they were made from bronze. He gave them to the guards on duty at the palace gates. ¹¹ Every time the king went to the Lord’s Temple, the guards took out the shields and went with him. After they were finished, they put the shields back on the wall in the guardroom.

¹² Rehoboam humbled himself, and the Lord stopped being angry with him. So he did not completely destroy Rehoboam. There was some good in Judah.

¹³ King Rehoboam made himself a strong king in Jerusalem. He was 41 years old when he became king of Judah. Rehoboam ruled 17 years in Jerusalem, the city the Lord chose for his own. He chose this city from all the other cities of Israel. Rehoboam’s mother was Naamah. She was an Ammonite. ¹⁴ Rehoboam did evil because he didn’t decide in his heart to obey the Lord.

¹⁵ All the things Rehoboam did when he was king, from the beginning to the end of his rule, are written in the writings of Shemaiah the prophet and in the writings of Iddo the seer. Those men wrote family histories. And there were wars between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the time both kings ruled. ¹⁶ Rehoboam rested with his ancestors and was buried in the City of David. Then Rehoboam’s son Abijah became the next king after him.