2 Chronicles 10-18

Good News Translation

The Northern Tribes Revolt^(A)

10 Rehoboam went to Shechem, where all the people of northern Israel had gathered to make him king. ² When Jeroboam son of Nebat, who had gone to Egypt to escape from King Solomon, heard this news, he returned home. ³ The people of the northern tribes sent for him, and they all went together to Rehoboam and said to him, ⁴ “Your father placed heavy burdens on us. If you make these burdens lighter and make life easier for us, we will be your loyal subjects.”

⁵ Rehoboam replied, “Give me three days to consider the matter. Then come back.” So the people left.

⁶ King Rehoboam consulted the older men who had served as his father Solomon's advisers. “What answer do you advise me to give these people?” he asked.

⁷ They replied, “If you are kind to these people and try to please them by giving a considerate answer, they will always serve you loyally.”

⁸ But he ignored the advice of the older men and went instead to the young men who had grown up with him and who were now his advisers. ⁹ “What do you advise me to do?” he asked. “What shall I say to the people who are asking me to make their burdens lighter?”

¹⁰ They replied, “This is what you should tell them: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father's waist.’ ¹¹ Tell them, ‘My father placed heavy burdens on you; I will make them even heavier. He beat you with whips; I'll flog you with bullwhips!’”

¹² Three days later Jeroboam and all the people returned to King Rehoboam, as he had instructed them. ¹³ The king ignored the advice of the older men and spoke harshly to the people, ¹⁴ as the younger men had advised. He said, “My father placed heavy burdens on you; I will make them even heavier. He beat you with whips; I'll flog you with bullwhips!” ¹⁵ It was the will of the Lord God to bring about what he had spoken to Jeroboam son of Nebat through the prophet Ahijah from Shiloh. This is why the king did not pay any attention to the people.

^16 (B)When the people saw that the king would not listen to them, they shouted, “Down with David and his family! What have they ever done for us? People of Israel, let's go home! Let Rehoboam look out for himself!”

So the people of Israel rebelled, ¹⁷ leaving Rehoboam as king only of the people who lived in the territory of Judah.

¹⁸ Then King Rehoboam sent Adoniram, who was in charge of the forced labor, to go to the Israelites, but they stoned him to death. At this, Rehoboam hurriedly got in his chariot and escaped to Jerusalem. ¹⁹ Ever since that time the people of the northern kingdom of Israel have been in rebellion against the dynasty of David.

Shemaiah's Prophecy^(C)

11 When King Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he called together 180,000 of the best soldiers from the tribes of Benjamin and Judah. He intended to go to war and restore his control over the northern tribes of Israel. ² But the Lord told the prophet Shemaiah ³ to give this message to King Rehoboam and to all the people of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin: ⁴ “Do not attack your own relatives. Go home, all of you. What has happened is my will.” They obeyed the Lord's command and did not go to fight Jeroboam.

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 (D)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^(E)

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 (F)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. ¹⁶ Rehoboam died and was buried in the royal tombs in David's City and his son Abijah succeeded him as king.

Abijah's War with Jeroboam^(G)

13 In the eighteenth year of the reign of King Jeroboam of Israel, Abijah became king of Judah, ² and he ruled three years in Jerusalem. His mother was Micaiah daughter of Uriel, from the city of Gibeah.

War broke out between Abijah and Jeroboam. ³ Abijah raised an army of 400,000 soldiers, and Jeroboam opposed him with an army of 800,000.

⁴ The armies met in the hill country of Ephraim. King Abijah went up Mount Zemaraim and called out to Jeroboam and the Israelites: “Listen to me!” he said. ⁵ “Don't you know that the Lord, the God of Israel, made an unbreakable covenant with David, giving him and his descendants kingship over Israel forever? ⁶ Jeroboam son of Nebat rebelled against Solomon, his king. ⁷ Later he gathered together a group of worthless scoundrels, and they forced their will on Rehoboam son of Solomon, who was too young and inexperienced to resist them. ⁸ Now you propose to fight against the royal authority that the Lord gave to David's descendants. You have a huge army and have with you the gold bull-calves that Jeroboam made to be your gods. ⁹ You drove out the Lord's priests, the descendants of Aaron, and you drove out the Levites. In their place you appointed priests in the same way that other nations do. Anybody who comes along with a bull or seven sheep can get himself consecrated as a priest of those so-called gods of yours.

¹⁰ “But we still serve the Lord our God and have not abandoned him. Priests descended from Aaron perform their duties, and Levites assist them. ¹¹ Every morning and every evening they offer him incense and animal sacrifices burned whole. They present the offerings of bread on a table that is ritually clean, and every evening they light the lamps on the gold lampstand. We do what the Lord has commanded, but you have abandoned him. ¹² God himself is our leader and his priests are here with trumpets, ready to blow them and call us to battle against you. People of Israel, don't fight against the Lord, the God of your ancestors! You can't win!”

¹³ Meanwhile Jeroboam had sent some of his troops to ambush the Judean army from the rear, while the rest faced them from the front. ¹⁴ The Judeans looked around and saw that they were surrounded. They cried to the Lord for help, and the priests blew the trumpets. ¹⁵ The Judeans gave a loud shout, and led by Abijah, they attacked; God defeated Jeroboam and the Israelite army. ¹⁶ The Israelites fled from the Judeans, and God let the Judeans overpower them. ¹⁷ Abijah and his army dealt the Israelites a crushing defeat—half a million of Israel's best soldiers were killed. ¹⁸ And so the people of Judah were victorious over Israel, because they relied on the Lord, the God of their ancestors.

¹⁹ Abijah pursued Jeroboam's army and occupied some of his cities: Bethel, Jeshanah, and Ephron, and the villages near each of these cities. ²⁰ Jeroboam never regained his power during Abijah's reign. Finally the Lord struck him down, and he died.

²¹ Abijah, however, grew more powerful. He had fourteen wives and fathered twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters. ²² The rest of the history of Abijah, what he said and what he did, is written in The History of Iddo the Prophet.

King Asa Defeats the Ethiopians

14 King Abijah died and was buried in the royal tombs in David's City. His son Asa succeeded him as king, and under Asa the land enjoyed peace for ten years. ² Asa pleased the Lord, his God, by doing what was right and good. ³ He removed the foreign altars and the pagan places of worship, broke down the sacred stone columns, and cut down the symbols of the goddess Asherah. ⁴ He commanded the people of Judah to do the will of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, and to obey his teachings and commands. ⁵ Because he abolished the pagan places of worship and the incense altars from all the cities of Judah, the kingdom was at peace under his rule. ⁶ He built fortifications for the cities of Judah during this time, and for several years there was no war, because the Lord gave him peace. ⁷ He told the people of Judah, “Let us fortify the cities by building walls and towers, and gates that can be shut and barred. We have control of the land because we have done the will of the Lord our God. He has protected us and given us security on every side.” And so they built and prospered. ⁸ King Asa had an army of 300,000 men from Judah, armed with shields and spears, and 280,000 men from Benjamin, armed with shields and bows. All of them were brave, well-trained men.

⁹ An Ethiopian^[b] named Zerah invaded Judah with an army of a million men and three hundred chariots and advanced as far as Mareshah. ¹⁰ Asa went out to fight him, and both sides took up their positions at Zephathah Valley near Mareshah. ¹¹ Asa prayed to the Lord his God, “O Lord, you can help a weak army as easily as a powerful one. Help us now, O Lord our God, because we are relying on you, and in your name we have come out to fight against this huge army. Lord, you are our God; no one can hope to defeat you.”

¹² The Lord defeated the Ethiopian^[c] army when Asa and the Judean army attacked them. They fled, ¹³ and Asa and his troops pursued them as far as Gerar. So many of the Ethiopians^[d] were killed that the army was unable to rally and fight.^[e] They were overpowered by the Lord and his army, and the army took large amounts of loot. ¹⁴ Then they were able to destroy the cities in the area around Gerar, because the people there were terrified of the Lord. The army plundered all those cities and captured large amounts of loot. ¹⁵ They also attacked the camps of some shepherds, capturing large numbers of sheep and camels. Then they returned to Jerusalem.

Asa's Reforms

15 The spirit of God came upon Azariah son of Oded, ² and he went to meet King Asa. He called out, “Listen to me, King Asa, and all you people of Judah and Benjamin! The Lord is with you as long as you are with him. If you look for him, he will let you find him, but if you turn away, he will abandon you. ³ For a long time Israel lived without the true God, without priests to teach them, and without a law. ⁴ But when trouble came, they turned to the Lord, the God of Israel. They searched for him and found him. ⁵ In those days no one could come and go in safety, because there was trouble and disorder in every land. ⁶ One nation oppressed another nation, and one city oppressed another city, because God was bringing trouble and distress on them. ⁷ But you must be strong and not be discouraged. The work that you do will be rewarded.”

⁸ When Asa heard the prophecy that Azariah son of^[f] Oded had spoken, he was encouraged. He did away with all the idols in the land of Judah and Benjamin and all the idols in the cities he had captured in the hill country of Ephraim. He also repaired the altar of the Lord that stood in the Temple courtyard.

⁹ Many people had come over to Asa's side from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon, and were living in his kingdom, because they had seen that the Lord was with him. Asa summoned all of them and the people of Judah and Benjamin. ¹⁰ They assembled in Jerusalem in the third month of the fifteenth year that Asa was king. ¹¹ On that day they offered sacrifices to the Lord from the loot they had brought back: seven hundred head of cattle and seven thousand sheep. ¹² They made a covenant in which they agreed to worship the Lord, the God of their ancestors, with all their heart and soul. ¹³ Anyone, young or old, male or female, who did not worship him was to be put to death. ¹⁴ In a loud voice they took an oath in the Lord's name that they would keep the covenant, and then they shouted and blew trumpets. ¹⁵ All the people of Judah were happy because they had made this covenant with all their heart. They took delight in worshiping the Lord, and he accepted them and gave them peace on every side.

¹⁶ King Asa removed his grandmother Maacah from her position as queen mother, because she had made an obscene idol of the fertility goddess Asherah. Asa cut down the idol, chopped it up, and burned the pieces in Kidron Valley. ¹⁷ Even though Asa did not destroy all the pagan places of worship in the land, he remained faithful to the Lord all his life. ¹⁸ He placed in the Temple all the objects his father Abijah had dedicated to God, as well as the gold and silver objects that he himself dedicated. ¹⁹ There was no more war until the thirty-fifth year of his reign.

Troubles with Israel^(H)

16 In the thirty-sixth year of the reign of King Asa of Judah, King Baasha of Israel invaded Judah and started to fortify Ramah in order to cut off all traffic in and out of Judah. ² So Asa took silver and gold from the treasuries of the Temple and the palace and sent it to Damascus, to King Benhadad of Syria, with this message: ³ “Let us be allies, as our fathers were. This silver and gold is a present for you. Now break your alliance with King Baasha of Israel so that he will have to pull his troops out of my territory.”

⁴ Benhadad agreed to Asa's proposal and sent his commanding officers and their armies to attack the cities of Israel. They captured Ijon, Dan, Abel Beth Maacah, and all the cities of Naphtali where supplies were stored. ⁵ When King Baasha heard what was happening, he stopped fortifying Ramah and abandoned the work. ⁶ Then King Asa gathered men from throughout Judah and had them carry off the stones and timbers that Baasha had been using at Ramah, and they used them to fortify the cities of Geba and Mizpah.

The Prophet Hanani

⁷ At that time the prophet Hanani went to King Asa and said, “Because you relied on the king of Syria instead of relying on the Lord your God, the army of the king of Israel^[g] has escaped from you. ⁸ Didn't the Ethiopians^[h] and the Libyans have large armies with many chariots and cavalry troops? But because you relied on the Lord, he gave you victory over them. ⁹ The Lord keeps close watch over the whole world, to give strength to those whose hearts are loyal to him. You have acted foolishly, and so from now on you will always be at war.” ¹⁰ This made Asa so angry with the prophet that he had him put in chains. It was at this same time that Asa began treating some of the people cruelly.

The End of Asa's Reign^(I)

¹¹ All the events of Asa's reign from beginning to end are recorded in The History of the Kings of Judah and Israel. ¹² In the thirty-ninth year that Asa was king, he was crippled by a severe foot disease; but even then he did not turn to the Lord for help, but to doctors. ¹³ Two years later he died ¹⁴ and was buried in the rock tomb which he had carved out for himself in David's City. They used spices and perfumed oils to prepare his body for burial, and they built a huge bonfire to mourn his death.

Jehoshaphat Becomes King

17 Jehoshaphat succeeded his father Asa as king and strengthened his position against Israel. ² He stationed troops in the fortified cities of Judah, in the Judean countryside, and in the cities which Asa had captured in the territory of Ephraim. ³ The Lord blessed Jehoshaphat because he followed the example of his father's early life and did not worship Baal. ⁴ He served his father's God, obeyed God's commands, and did not act the way the kings of Israel did. ⁵ The Lord gave Jehoshaphat firm control over the kingdom of Judah, and all the people brought him gifts, so that he became wealthy and highly honored. ⁶ He took pride in serving the Lord and destroyed all the pagan places of worship and the symbols of the goddess Asherah in Judah.

⁷ In the third year of his reign he sent out the following officials to teach in the cities of Judah: Benhail, Obadiah, Zechariah, Nethanel, and Micaiah. ⁸ They were accompanied by nine Levites and two priests. The Levites were Shemaiah, Nethaniah, Zebadiah, Asahel, Shemiramoth, Jehonathan, Adonijah, Tobijah, and Tobadonijah; and the priests were Elishama and Jehoram. ⁹ They took the book of the Law of the Lord and went through all the towns of Judah, teaching it to the people.

Jehoshaphat's Greatness

¹⁰ The Lord made all the surrounding kingdoms afraid to go to war against King Jehoshaphat. ¹¹ Some of the Philistines brought Jehoshaphat a large amount of silver and other gifts, and some Arabs brought him 7,700 sheep and 7,700 goats. ¹² So Jehoshaphat continued to grow more and more powerful. Throughout Judah he built fortifications and cities, ¹³ where supplies were stored in huge amounts.

In Jerusalem he stationed outstanding officers, ¹⁴ according to their clans. Adnah was the commander of the troops from the clans of Judah, and he had 300,000 soldiers under him. ¹⁵ Second in rank was Jehohanan, with 280,000 soldiers, ¹⁶ and third was Amasiah son of Zichri, with 200,000. (Amasiah had volunteered to serve the Lord.) ¹⁷ The commander of the troops from the clans of Benjamin was Eliada, an outstanding soldier, in command of 200,000 men armed with shields and bows. ¹⁸ His second in command was Jehozabad with 180,000 men, well-equipped for battle. ¹⁹ These soldiers served the king in Jerusalem, and in addition he stationed others in the other fortified cities of Judah.

The Prophet Micaiah Warns Ahab^(J)

18 When King Jehoshaphat of Judah became rich and famous, he arranged a marriage between a member of his family and the family of King Ahab of Israel. ² A number of years later Jehoshaphat went to the city of Samaria to visit Ahab. To honor Jehoshaphat and those with him, Ahab had a large number of sheep and cattle slaughtered for a feast. He tried to persuade Jehoshaphat to join him in attacking the city of Ramoth in Gilead. ³ He asked, “Will you go with me to attack Ramoth?”

Jehoshaphat replied, “I am ready when you are, and so is my army. We will join you.” ⁴ Then he added, “But first let's consult the Lord.”

⁵ So Ahab called in the prophets, about four hundred of them, and asked them, “Should I go and attack Ramoth, or not?”

“Attack it,” they answered. “God will give you victory.”

⁶ But Jehoshaphat asked, “Isn't there another prophet through whom we can consult the Lord?”

⁷ Ahab answered, “There is one more, Micaiah son of Imlah. But I hate him because he never prophesies anything good for me; it's always something bad.”

“You shouldn't say that!” Jehoshaphat replied.

⁸ So King Ahab called in a court official and told him to go and get Micaiah at once.

⁹ The two kings, dressed in their royal robes, were sitting on their thrones at the threshing place just outside the gate of Samaria, and all the prophets were prophesying in front of them. ¹⁰ One of them, Zedekiah son of Chenaanah, made iron horns and said to Ahab, “This is what the Lord says, ‘With these you will fight the Syrians and totally defeat them.’” ¹¹ All the other prophets said the same thing. “March against Ramoth and you will win,” they said. “The Lord will give you victory.”

¹² Meanwhile, the official who had gone to get Micaiah said to him, “All the other prophets have prophesied success for the king, and you had better do the same.”

¹³ But Micaiah answered, “By the living Lord I will say what my God tells me to!”

¹⁴ When he appeared before King Ahab, the king asked him, “Micaiah, should King Jehoshaphat and I go and attack Ramoth, or not?”

“Attack!” Micaiah answered. “Of course you'll win. The Lord will give you victory.”

¹⁵ But Ahab replied, “When you speak to me in the name of the Lord, tell the truth! How many times do I have to tell you that?”

^16 (K)Micaiah answered, “I can see the army of Israel scattered over the hills like sheep without a shepherd. And the Lord said, ‘These men have no leader; let them go home in peace.’”

¹⁷ Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, “I told you that he never prophesies anything good for me; it's always something bad!”

¹⁸ Micaiah went on: “Now listen to what the Lord says! I saw the Lord sitting on his throne in heaven, with all his angels standing beside him. ¹⁹ The Lord asked, ‘Who will deceive Ahab so that he will go and get killed at Ramoth?’ Some of the angels said one thing, and others said something else, ²⁰ until a spirit stepped forward, approached the Lord, and said, ‘I will deceive him.’ ‘How?’ the Lord asked. ²¹ The spirit replied, ‘I will go and make all of Ahab's prophets tell lies.’ The Lord said, ‘Go and deceive him. You will succeed.’”

²² And Micaiah concluded: “This is what has happened. The Lord has made these prophets of yours lie to you. But he himself has decreed that you will meet with disaster!”

²³ Then the prophet Zedekiah went up to Micaiah, slapped his face, and asked, “Since when did the Lord's spirit leave me and speak to you?”

²⁴ “You will find out when you go into some back room to hide,” Micaiah replied.

²⁵ Then King Ahab ordered one of his officers, “Arrest Micaiah and take him to Amon, the governor of the city, and to Prince Joash. ²⁶ Tell them to throw him in prison and to put him on bread and water until I return safely.”

²⁷ “If you return safely,” Micaiah exclaimed, “then the Lord has not spoken through me!” And he added, “Listen, everyone, to what I have said!”

The Death of Ahab^(L)

²⁸ Then King Ahab of Israel and King Jehoshaphat of Judah went to attack the city of Ramoth in Gilead. ²⁹ Ahab said to Jehoshaphat, “As we go into battle, I will disguise myself, but you wear your royal garments.” So the king of Israel went into battle in disguise.

³⁰ The king of Syria had ordered his chariot commanders to attack no one else except the king of Israel. ³¹ So when they saw King Jehoshaphat, they all thought that he was the king of Israel, and they turned to attack him. But Jehoshaphat gave a shout, and the Lord God rescued him and turned the attack away from him. ³² The chariot commanders saw that he was not the king of Israel, so they stopped pursuing him. ³³ By chance, however, a Syrian soldier shot an arrow which struck King Ahab between the joints of his armor. “I'm wounded!” he cried out to his chariot driver. “Turn around and pull out of the battle!” ³⁴ While the battle raged on, King Ahab remained propped up in his chariot, facing the Syrians. At sunset he died.