And then King Rehoboam consulted with the elders who had served his father Solomon while he was still alive, saying, “How do you advise me to answer this people?”

He said to them, “What advice do you give, so that we may answer this people, who have spoken to me, saying, ‘Lighten the yoke which your father put on us’?”

The young men who had grown up with him spoke to him, saying, “This is what you should say to the people who spoke to you, saying: ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you make it lighter for us!’ You should speak this way to them: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist!

Now then, my father loaded you with a heavy yoke; yet I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions!’”

He spoke to them according to the advice of the young men, saying, “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to it; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.”

Those from all the tribes of Israel who set their hearts on seeking the Lord God of Israel followed them to Jerusalem, to sacrifice to the Lord God of their fathers.

Rehoboam loved Maacah the daughter of Absalom more than all his other wives and concubines. For he had taken eighteen wives and sixty concubines, and fathered twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters.

And Rehoboam lay down with his fathers and was buried in the city of David; and his son Abijah became king in his place.

Now behold, God is with us at our head, and His priests with the signal trumpets to sound the war cry against you. Sons of Israel, do not fight against the Lord God of your fathers, for you will not succeed.”

The sons of Israel were subdued at that time, and the sons of Judah conquered because they trusted in the Lord, the God of their fathers.

But Abijah became powerful, and he took fourteen wives for himself, and fathered twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters.

Asa Succeeds Abijah in Judah

So Abijah lay down with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David, and his son Asa became king in his place. The land was undisturbed for ten years during his days.

and commanded Judah to seek the Lord God of their fathers and to comply with the Law and the commandment.

They entered into the covenant to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart and soul;

He brought into the house of God the dedicated things of his father and his own dedicated things: silver, gold, and utensils.

“A treaty must be made between you and me, as there was between my father and your father. Behold, I have sent you silver and gold; go, break your treaty with Baasha king of Israel so that he will withdraw from me.”

So Asa lay down with his fathers, and died in the forty-first year of his reign.

He placed troops in all the fortified cities of Judah, and placed garrisons in the land of Judah and in the cities of Ephraim which his father Asa had captured.

His Good Reign

And the Lord was with Jehoshaphat because he followed the example of his father David’s earlier days and did not seek the Baals,

but sought the God of his father, followed His commandments, and did not act as Israel did.

This was their muster according to their fathers’ households: of Judah, commanders of thousands, Adnah was the commander, and with him three hundred thousand valiant warriors;

So Jehoshaphat lived in Jerusalem and went out again among the people from Beersheba to the hill country of Ephraim, and brought them back to the Lord, the God of their fathers.

In Jerusalem Jehoshaphat also appointed some of the Levites and priests, and some of the heads of the fathers’ households of Israel, for the judgment of the Lord, and to judge disputes among the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

and he said, “Lord, God of our fathers, are You not God in the heavens? And are You not ruler over all the kingdoms of the nations? Power and might are in Your hand so that no one can stand against You.

He walked in the way of his father Asa and did not deviate from it, doing right in the sight of the Lord.