Rehoboam Fortifies the Cities

⁵ Rehoboam remained in Jerusalem and had fortifications built for the following cities of Judah and Benjamin: ⁶ Bethlehem, Etam, Tekoa, ⁷ Bethzur, Soco, Adullam, ⁸ Gath, Mareshah, Ziph, ⁹ Adoraim, Lachish, Azekah, ¹⁰ Zorah, Aijalon, and Hebron. ¹¹ He had them strongly fortified and appointed a commander for each of them, and in each one he placed supplies of food, olive oil, and wine, ¹² and also shields and spears. In this way he kept Judah and Benjamin under his control.

Priests and Levites Come to Judah

¹³ From all the territory of Israel priests and Levites came south to Judah. ¹⁴ The Levites abandoned their pastures and other land and moved to Judah and Jerusalem, because King Jeroboam of Israel and his successors would not let them serve as priests of the Lord. ^15 (A)Jeroboam appointed priests of his own to serve at the pagan places of worship and to worship demons and the idols he made in the form of bull-calves. ¹⁶ From all the tribes of Israel people who sincerely wanted to worship the Lord, the God of Israel, followed the Levites to Jerusalem, so that they could offer sacrifices to the Lord, the God of their ancestors. ¹⁷ This strengthened the kingdom of Judah, and for three years they supported Rehoboam son of Solomon and lived as they had under the rule of King David and King Solomon.

Rehoboam's Family

¹⁸ Rehoboam married Mahalath, whose father was Jerimoth son of David and whose mother was Abihail, the daughter of Eliab and granddaughter of Jesse. ¹⁹ They had three sons, Jeush, Shemariah, and Zaham. ²⁰ Later he married Maacah, the daughter of Absalom, and they had four sons: Abijah, Attai, Ziza, and Shelomith. ²¹ In all, Rehoboam had eighteen wives and sixty concubines, and he fathered twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters. Of all his wives and concubines he loved Maacah best, ²² and he favored her son Abijah over all his other children, choosing him as the one to succeed him as king. ²³ Rehoboam wisely assigned responsibilities to his sons and stationed them throughout Judah and Benjamin in the fortified cities. He provided generously for them and also secured many wives for them.

An Egyptian Invasion of Judah^(B)

12 As soon as Rehoboam had established his authority as king, he and all his people abandoned the Law of the Lord. ² In the fifth year of Rehoboam's reign their disloyalty to the Lord was punished. King Shishak of Egypt attacked Jerusalem ³ with an army of twelve hundred chariots, sixty thousand cavalry, and more soldiers than could be counted, including Libyan, Sukkite, and Ethiopian^[a] troops. ⁴ He captured the fortified cities of Judah and advanced as far as Jerusalem.

⁵ Shemaiah the prophet went to King Rehoboam and the Judean leaders who had gathered in Jerusalem to escape Shishak. He said to them, “This is the Lord's message to you: ‘You have abandoned me, so now I have abandoned you to Shishak.’”

⁶ The king and the leaders admitted that they had sinned, and they said, “What the Lord is doing is just.”

⁷ When the Lord saw this, he spoke again to Shemaiah and said to him, “Because they admit their sin, I will not destroy them. But when Shishak attacks, they will barely survive. Jerusalem will not feel the full force of my anger, ⁸ but Shishak will conquer them, and they will learn the difference between serving me and serving earthly rulers.”

^9 (C)King Shishak came to Jerusalem and took the treasures from the Temple and from the palace. He took everything, including the gold shields that King Solomon had made. ¹⁰ To replace them, Rehoboam made bronze shields and entrusted them to the officers responsible for guarding the palace gates. ¹¹ Every time the king went to the Temple, the guards carried the shields and then returned them to the guardroom. ¹² Because he submitted to the Lord, the Lord's anger did not completely destroy him, and things went well for Judah.

Summary of Rehoboam's Reign

¹³ Rehoboam ruled in Jerusalem and increased his power as king. He was forty-one years old when he became king, and he ruled for seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the Lord had chosen from all the territory of Israel as the place where he was to be worshiped. Rehoboam's mother was Naamah, from the land of Ammon. ¹⁴ He did what was evil, because he did not try to find the Lord's will.

¹⁵ Rehoboam's acts from beginning to end and his family records are found in The History of Shemaiah the Prophet and The History of Iddo the Prophet. Rehoboam and Jeroboam were constantly at war with each other.