Chronological

Rehoboam’s Foolish Choices^(A)

10 Rehoboam traveled to Shechem, because all of Israel went there to install him as king. ² Nebat’s son Jeroboam heard about it in Egypt, where he had fled to get away from Solomon the king. Jeroboam returned from Egypt ³ after being summoned. When Jeroboam and all of Israel arrived, they spoke to Rehoboam, ⁴ “Your father made our burdens unbearable.^[a] Therefore you must lighten your father’s requirements and his heavy burden that he placed on us, and we’ll serve you.”

⁵ “Come back again in three days,” Rehoboam^[b] told them. So the people left ⁶ while King Rehoboam conferred with his advisors who had worked with his father Solomon during his administration. He asked them, “What is your advice as to what response I should return to these people?”

⁷ In reply, they told him, “If you will be kind to this people, please them, and speak appropriately to them with kind words, they’ll serve you forever.”

⁸ But Rehoboam^[c] ignored the counsel that his elder advisors had given him. Instead, he consulted the younger men who had grown up with him and worked for^[d] him. ⁹ As a result, he asked them, “What’s your advice, so we can give an answer to these people who have asked me, ‘Please lighten the burden that your father put on us’?”

¹⁰ “This is what you should tell the people who asked you: ‘Your father made our burden heavy, but you must make it lighter for us!’” the young men who had grown up with Rehoboam^[e] replied. “Tell them ‘My little finger will be thicker than my father’s whole body!^{[f] 11} Not only that, but since my father loaded you down heavily, I’m going to add to that burden. If my father disciplined you with whips, I’m going to do so^[g] with scorpions!’”

¹² So Jeroboam and all the people went back to Rehoboam on the third day, just as they had been directed when the king said, “Come back again in three days.” ¹³ But the king answered them strictly and ignored the counsel of his elders. ¹⁴ Instead, Rehoboam^[h] spoke to them along the lines of what the younger men suggested. He told them, “My father burdened you heavily, but I will add to that burden. If my father disciplined you with whips, I will, too—with scorpions!”

¹⁵ The king would not listen to the people because the turn of events was from God, so that the Lord might fulfill his prediction that he spoke through Nebat’s son Ahijah the Shilonite. ¹⁶ All of Israel—since the king wasn’t going to listen to them—the people responded to the king, “What’s the point in following David? We have no inheritance in the descendants of Jesse. Let’s go home,^[i] Israel! David, take care of your own household!” So all of Israel left for home.^{[j] 17} And so Rehoboam ruled over the Israelis who lived in the cities of Judah.

¹⁸ King Rehoboam sent Hadoram, who was in charge of conscripted labor, but the Israelis stoned him to death, and King Rehoboam had to jump in his chariot and flee back in a hurry to Jerusalem. ¹⁹ That’s how Israel came to be in rebellion against David’s dynasty to this day.

Rehoboam Reigns over Judah Only^(B)

11 When Rehoboam returned to Jerusalem, he gathered together 180,000 specially chosen soldiers from the households of Judah and Benjamin to fight against Israel and restore the kingdom to Rehoboam. ² But a message from the Lord came to Shemaiah, a man of God: ³ “Tell Solomon’s son Rehoboam, king of Judah and all of Israel in Judah and Benjamin: ⁴ ‘This is what the Lord says: “You are not to fight or even to approach your relatives in battle. Every soldier is to return to his own home, for this development comes from me.”’” So they listened to what the Lord had to say and called off their attack on Jeroboam.

⁵ Rehoboam continued to live in Jerusalem and built defensive fortification cities throughout Judah, ⁶ including Bethlehem, Etam, Tekoa, ⁷ Beth-zur, Soco, Adullam, ⁸ Gath, Mareshah, Ziph, ⁹ Adoraim, Lachish, Azekah, ¹⁰ Zorah, Aijalon, and Hebron. These were all fortified cities throughout Judah and Benjamin. ¹¹ He also strengthened the fortified cities, assigned officers to them, and stockpiled food, oil, and wine. ¹² He also stockpiled shields and spears in every city and fortified them greatly to secure his rule over Judah and Benjamin.

The Priests and Levites Support Rehoboam^(C)

¹³ The priests and descendants of Levi throughout Israel also supported him in their districts, ¹⁴ because the descendants of Levi left their pasture lands and their property to live in Judah and Jerusalem, since Jeroboam and his sons had excluded them from participating in priestly services to the Lord. ¹⁵ Jeroboam had appointed his own priests to serve at the high places and to serve the satyrs^[k] and calves that he had made. ¹⁶ As a result, anyone from all of the tribes of Israel who was determined to seek the Lord God of Israel followed the descendants of Levi^[l] to Jerusalem so they could sacrifice to the Lord God of their ancestors, ¹⁷ and they continued to strengthen the kingdom of Judah, supporting Solomon’s son Rehoboam for three years, by living^[m] the way David and Solomon did for three years.

Rehoboam’s Wives and Children

¹⁸ Rehoboam married Mahalath, the daughter of David’s son Jerimoth, along with Abihail, the daughter of Jesse’s son Eliab, ¹⁹ who bore him these sons: Jeush, Shemariah, and Zaham. ²⁰ After this he married Absalom’s daughter Maacah, who bore him Abijah, Attai, Ziza, and Shelomith. ²¹ Rehoboam loved Absalom’s daughter Maacah more than he did all of his wives and mistresses. (He married eighteen wives and 60 concubines, fathering 28 sons and 60 daughters.) ²² Later, Rehoboam appointed Abijah, his son from Maacah, as senior family leader among his brothers, since he intended to establish Abijah^[n] as king. ²³ Rehoboam^[o] was wise to distribute some of his children throughout all of the territories of Judah and Benjamin, placing them in all of the fortified cities. He allotted them abundant supplies of food and sought many wives for them.^[p]

Shishak Invades Judah^(D)

12 At the height of his power, after he had consolidated his rule, Rehoboam abandoned the Lord’s Law, along with all of Israel with him. ² Because he had been unfaithful to the Lord, during the fifth year of King Rehoboam’s reign, King Shishak of Egypt attacked Jerusalem ³ with 1,200 chariots and 60,000 cavalry. The Lubim, Sukkiim, and the Ethiopians who invaded from Egypt with Shishak^[q] were innumerable. ⁴ Shishak^[r] captured the fortified cities of Judah and invaded as far as Jerusalem.

⁵ Right then, Shemaiah the prophet approached Rehoboam and the princes of Judah who had gathered together in Jerusalem because of Shishak, and he told them, “This is what the Lord says: ‘You abandoned me, so I’ve abandoned you to Shishak.’”

⁶ In response, the princes of Israel and the king humbled themselves and declared, “The Lord is righteous.”

⁷ When the Lord observed that they had humbled themselves, the Lord spoke to Shemaiah, “They have humbled themselves, so I won’t destroy them. Instead, I’ll grant them some deliverance by not pouring out my indignation on Jerusalem, using Shishak to do it. ⁸ Nevertheless, they will become his slaves so they may learn to differentiate between what it means to serve me and to serve the kingdoms of these nations.” ⁹ So King Shishak of Egypt invaded Jerusalem and looted the treasure stores in the Lord’s Temple and in the royal palace. He took everything, including the golden shields that Solomon had made. ¹⁰ After this, King Rehoboam made shields out of bronze to take their place, committing them to the care and custody of the commanders of those who guarded the entrance to the royal palace. ¹¹ As often as the king entered the Lord’s Temple, the guards came and transported the shields^[s] to the Temple^[t] and then brought them back to the guard’s quarters. ¹² After he had humbled himself, the Lord stopped being angry with him, and did not destroy Rehoboam^[u] completely. Furthermore, conditions became good in Judah.

The Death of Rehoboam^(E)

¹³ King Rehoboam consolidated his reign in Jerusalem. Rehoboam was 41 years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city that that Lord had chosen from all the tribes of Israel in which to establish his name. Rehoboam’s mother was Naamah from Ammon. ¹⁴ He practiced evil by not setting his heart to seek the Lord. ¹⁵ Now Rehoboam’s accomplishments, from first to last, are written in the records of Shemaiah the prophet and of Iddo the seer, enrolled by genealogy, are they not? ¹⁶ Later, Rehoboam died, as had his ancestors, and his son Abijah became king to replace him.