Beginning

Chapter 9

The Queen of Sheba. ¹ When the Queen of Sheba was informed about Solomon’s reputation, she came to Jerusalem to test him with difficult questions. Arriving with a very large retinue, and with camels bearing spices, an immense quantity of gold, and precious stones, she came to Solomon and discussed everything she had on her mind. ² Solomon answered all of her questions. There was nothing she asked that he was unable to explain to her.

³ When the Queen of Sheba witnessed the wisdom of Solomon, the palace he had built, ⁴ the food served at his table, the seating of his ministers, the attendants and the elegance of their clothing, the cupbearers in their robes, and the burnt offerings that he presented in the house of the Lord, it literally took her breath away.

⁵ Then she said to the king: “The reports I heard in my own country about your accomplishments and your wisdom proved to be true. ⁶ However, I did not believe those reports to be accurate until I came and saw all this with my own eyes. Moreover, I have come to realize that I was not told even half of the greatness of your wisdom. You far surpass everything I had heard about you.

⁷ “How fortunate your people are! Happy are these servants of yours who are continually attending you and listening to your wisdom! ⁸ Blessed is the Lord, your God, who has taken such great delight in you and placed you on his throne as king for the Lord, your God. Because of the love of your God for Israel and his desire to have Israel endure forever, he has appointed you to be their king so that you may ensure that justice and righteousness will be maintained.”

⁹ Then she presented King Solomon with one hundred and twenty talents of gold, large quantities of spices, and precious stones. There had never been spices previously to equal those that the Queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.

¹⁰ Besides all this, the servants of Huram and the servants of Solomon who had brought gold from Ophir also brought large amounts of algum wood and precious stones. ¹¹ From the algum wood the king made stairs for the house of the Lord and for the king’s palace, as well as lyres and harps for the singers. Nothing to match them had ever been seen before in the land of Judah.

¹² King Solomon gave the Queen of Sheba everything she desired and requested, far surpassing what she had brought to the king. Then she departed with her servants and journeyed back to her own land.

¹³ The weight of the gold that Solomon received each year amounted to six hundred and sixty-six talents of gold ¹⁴ in addition to the tolls levied on merchants and what was collected from foreign trade. All the kings of Arabia and the governors of the provinces also brought gold and silver to Solomon.

¹⁵ Moreover, King Solomon made two hundred large shields of beaten gold, with six hundred shekels of beaten gold going into each shield, ¹⁶ and three hundred bucklers of beaten gold, with three hundred shekels of gold going into each buckler. The king stored all these in the House of the Forest of Lebanon.

¹⁷ King Solomon also made a large ivory throne which he overlaid with pure gold. ¹⁸ The throne had six steps, and a footstool of gold was fastened to it. There were armrests on each side of the seat, with two lions standing beside the arms, ¹⁹ while twelve lions stood on either side of the six steps. Nothing like it had ever been made in any other kingdom.

²⁰ Furthermore, all of Solomon’s drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the House of the Forest of Lebanon were made of pure gold. Silver was not regarded as anything of value in the days of King Solomon. ²¹ The king had a fleet of ships that sailed to Tarshish with the servants of Huram. Once every three years a fleet of ships from Tarshish used to return with a cargo of gold, silver, ivory, apes, and monkeys.

²² Thus King Solomon surpassed all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom, ²³ and all the kings of the earth sought to consult Solomon in order to hear from him the wisdom that God had implanted in his heart. ²⁴ Moreover, every single one of those kings brought a gift with him: objects of silver and gold, garments, weapons, spices, horses, and mules in an annual tribute.

²⁵ Solomon had four thousand stalls for horses and chariots, and twelve thousand horses, which he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem. ²⁶ He ruled over all the kings from the Euphrates to the land of the Philistines and the border of Egypt.

²⁷ King Solomon made silver as common in Jerusalem as stone, and cedars as plentiful as the sycamores of the foothills. ²⁸ Horses were imported for Solomon from Egypt and from all the other countries.

²⁹ The Death of Solomon. The rest of the acts of Solomon’s reign, from first to last, are recorded in the history of Nathan the prophet, in the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite, and, in the visions of Iddo the seer concerning Jeroboam, the son of Nebat.^[a]

³⁰ Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel for forty years. ³¹ Then he rested with his ancestors and was buried in the city of his father David. He was succeeded by his son Rehoboam.

The Monarchy before Hezekiah

Chapter 10

The Kingdom Divided. ¹ Rehoboam immediately went to Shechem, for all Israel had gone there. ² When Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, learned about this in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon, he then returned from Egypt.

³ The people thereupon summoned Jeroboam, and he and all Israel came to Rehoboam and said to him: ⁴ “Your father laid a heavy yoke upon us. However, if you agree to lighten the harsh labor and the heavy yoke that he imposed on us, we will serve you.” ⁵ Rehoboam replied to them: “Come back to me again in three days, and then I will inform you of my decision.” On hearing this, the people departed.

⁶ Then King Rehoboam sought the counsel of the elders who had served as attendants and advisors to his father Solomon during his lifetime. He asked them: “What answer do you advise me to give to this people?” ⁷ They replied: “If you will treat this people with kindness and be fair in your dealings with them, they will remain your servants forever.”

⁸ However, Rehoboam rejected the advice that the elders had given him and proceeded to consult the young men who had grown up with him and who now attended him. ⁹ He said to them: “What reply do you advise me to give to this people who have requested that I lighten the yoke that my father imposed on them?”

¹⁰ The young men who had grown up with him replied: “This is the answer that you should give to this people who said to you: ‘Your father made our yoke heavy. We implore you to lighten it for us.’ Tell them: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins. ¹¹ Although my father laid a heavy yoke on you, I shall make it heavier. My father beat you with whips, but I will scourge you with scorpions.’ ”

¹² On the third day, Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam as the king had instructed them to do. ¹³ The king replied to them sharply, having rejected the advice which the elders had given him. ¹⁴ Rather, he followed the advice of the younger men and said: “My father laid a heavy yoke on you, but I will make it even heavier. My father beat you with whips, but I will scourge you with scorpions.”

¹⁵ Thus the king did not listen to the people, for this turn of events was ordained by God so that the Lord might fulfill his word that he had spoken to Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, through Ahijah the Shilonite.

^16 [b]When all Israel realized that the king would not listen to them, the people answered the king:

Then all Israel departed to their tents. ¹⁷ Therefore, Rehoboam reigned over only those Israelites who lived in the towns of Judah.

¹⁸ When King Rehoboam sent forth Hadoram, the commander in charge of the forced labor, the Israelites stoned him to death. However, King Rehoboam managed to mount his chariot and flee to Jerusalem. ¹⁹ Thus from that day to this, Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David.

Chapter 11

¹ When Rehoboam reached Jerusalem, he mustered one hundred and eighty thousand chosen warriors of the house of Judah and Benjamin to fight against David and restore the kingdom to him. ² However, this word of the Lord came to Shemaiah, the man of God: ³ “Say to Rehoboam, son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all Israel in Judah and Benjamin: ⁴ ‘Thus says the Lord: You are not to march out to fight against your brothers. Return home, every single one of you, for this is my doing.’ ” Therefore, they obeyed the command of the Lord and turned back from their campaign against Jeroboam.

Rehoboam’s Works. ⁵ Rehoboam took up residence in Jerusalem, and he built a number of fortified cities in Judah. ⁶ He built up Bethlehem, Etam, Tekoa, ⁷ Beth-zur, Soco, Adullam, ⁸ Gath, Mareshah, Ziph, ⁹ Adoram, Lachish, Azekah, ¹⁰ Zorah, Aijalon, and Hebron. These were the fortified cities in Judah and Benjamin.

¹¹ He then strengthened the defenses of these fortifications and stationed commanders in them, as well as supplies of food, oil, and wine. ¹² He also supplied all the cities with large shields and spears of great strength. Thus he retained control of Judah and Benjamin.

¹³ Jeroboam’s Priests. The priests and the Levites throughout Israel placed themselves at Rehoboam’s disposal. ¹⁴ Actually the Levites had abandoned their pasture lands and their holdings and had come to Judah and Jerusalem because Jeroboam and his sons had rejected their services as priests of the Lord. ¹⁵ Jeroboam therefore appointed his own priests for the high places and for the satyrs and calves he had made.

¹⁶ On the other hand, those who were determined to seek the Lord, the God of Israel, followed the Levites to Jerusalem to sacrifice to the Lord, the God of their ancestors. ¹⁷ They strengthened the kingdom of Judah, and for three years they made Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, secure, for they followed the example of David and Solomon for three years.

¹⁸ Rehoboam’s Wives. Rehoboam married Mahalath, who was the daughter of Jerimoth, the son of David, and whose mother was Abihail, the daughter of Eliab son of Jesse. ¹⁹ She bore him sons: Jeush, Shemariah, and Zaham.

²⁰ After her he married Maacah, the daughter of Absalom, who bore him Abijah, Attai, Ziza, and Shelomith. ²¹ Rehoboam loved Maacah, the daughter of Absalom, more than all his other wives and concubines. He had eighteen wives and sixty concubines, and he fathered twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters.

²² Rehoboam appointed Abijah, the son of Maacah, as the chief prince among his brothers, inasmuch as he intended to make him king. ²³ He acted wisely by distributing some of his sons throughout all the districts of Judah and Benjamin in all the fortified cities. He also gave them copious provisions and obtained a number of wives for them.

Chapter 12

Rehoboam’s Unfaithfulness. ¹ After Rehoboam’s kingdom was firmly established and he grew ever more powerful, he, and all Israel^[c] with him, abandoned the law of the Lord. ² In the fifth year of the reign of King Rehoboam, because he and his people had been unfaithful to the Lord, King Shishak of Egypt attacked Jerusalem^{[d] 3} with twelve hundred chariots and sixty thousand horsemen. In addition, he also brought with him from Egypt a vast army beyond counting—Libyans, Sukkites,^[e] and Ethiopians.

⁴ After Shishak had captured the fortified cities of Judah and had arrived at the outskirts of Jerusalem, ⁵ the prophet Shemaiah came to Rehoboam and the commanders of Judah who had gathered at Jerusalem because of Shishak, and he said to them: “Thus says the Lord: ‘You have abandoned me, and therefore I have abandoned you to the power of Shishak.’ ” ⁶ Then the officers of Israel and the king humbled themselves and said: “The Lord is just.”

⁷ When the Lord saw that they had humbled themselves, this word of the Lord came to Shemaiah: “Because they have humbled themselves, I will not destroy them. Rather, I will grant them some degree of deliverance, and my wrath shall not be poured out upon Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak. ⁸ However, they shall become his servants, so that they may come to understand the difference between serving me and serving the rulers of other countries.”

⁹ Therefore, Shishak, the king of Egypt, attacked Jerusalem and carried away the treasures of the house of the Lord as well as the treasures of the king’s palace. He seized everything, including the shields of gold that Solomon had made. ¹⁰ Therefore, King Rehoboam made bronze shields to replace them and entrusted them to the commanders of the guard on duty at the entrance of the king’s palace.

¹¹ Whenever the king entered the house of the Lord, the guards would accompany him, bearing the shield and then afterward would return them to the guardroom. ¹² Because Rehoboam had humbled himself, the anger of the Lord was averted from him so as not to destroy him completely, and the conditions in Judah continued to improve.

¹³ Therefore, King Rehoboam strengthened his power in Jerusalem and continued to reign. He was forty-one years old when he first ascended the throne, and he reigned for seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city in which, out of all the tribes of Israel, the Lord chose to be honored. His mother’s name was Naamah, an Ammonite. ¹⁴ However, he followed an evil path, for he had not truly resolved to seek the Lord.

¹⁵ The events of Rehoboam’s reign, from beginning to end, are written in the records of Shemaiah the prophet and of Iddo the seer. There was continual warfare between Rehoboam and Jeroboam. ¹⁶ Rehoboam slept with his ancestors and was buried in the City of David. His son Abijah succeeded him as king.