Chronological
10 Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had gone to Shechem to make him king.
2 Jeroboam the son of Nebat was in Egypt, where he had fled from the presence of King Solomon, when he heard about the new king; so Jeroboam returned from Egypt.
3 And the people sent for him. So Jeroboam and all Israel came to Rehoboam, saying,
4 Your father [King Solomon] made our yoke grievous. So now make lighter the grievous service of your father and his heavy yoke that he put upon us, and we will serve you.
5 Rehoboam replied, Come again to me after three days. And the people departed.
6 King Rehoboam took counsel with the old men who stood before Solomon his father while he was alive, saying, What counsel do you give me in reply to the people?
7 And they answered him, If you are kind to [these] people and please them and speak good words to them, they will be your servants forever.
8 But the king forsook the counsel which the old men gave him and took counsel with the young men who were brought up with him and stood before him.
9 And he said to them, What answer do you advise that we give to the demand of [these] people, Make the yoke your father put upon us lighter?
10 The young men who were brought up with him said to him, Tell the people who said to you, Your father made our yoke heavy, but you make it lighter: My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins.
11 For whereas my father put a heavy yoke upon you, I will add to your yoke. My father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.
12 The third day Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam as he had said.
13 And the king answered them harshly, forsaking the counsel of the old men,
14 And answered them after the advice of the young men, saying, My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to it; my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.
15 So the king did not heed the people, for it was [a]brought about of God, that the Lord might perform His word which He spoke by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam son of Nebat.(A)
16 And when all Israel saw that the king would not listen to and heed them, they answered [him], What portion have we in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. Every man to your tents, O Israel! Now, David [tribe of Judah], see to your own house [under your tyrant King Rehoboam]! So all Israel went to their homes.
17 But as for the Israelites who dwelt in Judah’s cities, Rehoboam ruled over them.
18 Then King Rehoboam sent Hadoram, who was over the forced labor, and the Israelites stoned him and he died. But King Rehoboam hastened to get up to his royal chariot to flee to Jerusalem.
19 And Israel has rebelled against the house of David to this day.
11 And when Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, he assembled of the house of Judah and Benjamin 180,000 chosen warriors to fight against [the ten rebellious tribes of] Israel to bring the kingdom again to Rehoboam.
2 But the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah the man of God, saying,
3 Say to Rehoboam son of Solomon king of Judah and to all Israel in Judah and Benjamin,
4 Thus says the Lord: You shall not go up or fight against your brethren. Return every man to his house, for this thing is from Me. And they obeyed the Lord and returned from going against Jeroboam.
5 Rehoboam dwelt in Jerusalem and built cities for defense in Judah.
6 He built Bethlehem, Etam, Tekoa,
7 Beth-zur, Soco, Adullam,
8 Gath, Mareshah, Ziph,
9 Adoraim, Lachish, Azekah,
10 Zorah, Aijalon, and Hebron, which are fortified cities in Judah and Benjamin.
11 He fortified the strongholds and put captains in them, with stores of food, oil, and vintage fruits.
12 And in each city he put shields and spears, and made them very strong. So he held Judah and Benjamin.
13 And the priests and the Levites who were in all Israel came over to Rehoboam from wherever they lived.
14 For the Levites left their suburbs and their possessions and came to Judah and Jerusalem, for Jeroboam and his sons had cast them out from executing the priest’s office to the Lord.
15 And he appointed his own priests for the high places and for the [idols of demon] he-goats, and calves he had made.(B)
16 And after them out of all the tribes of Israel there came to Jerusalem those who set their hearts to seek and inquire of the Lord, the God of Israel, to sacrifice to the Lord, the God of their fathers.
17 So they strengthened the kingdom of Judah and upheld Rehoboam son of Solomon for three years; for they walked in the ways of David and Solomon for three years.
18 Rehoboam took as wife Mahalath, whose father was Jerimoth son of David; her mother was Abihail daughter of Eliab son of Jesse.
19 She bore him sons: Jeush, Shamariah, and Zaham.
20 And after her he took Maacah daughter [granddaughter] of Absalom, who bore him Abijah, Attai, Ziza, and Shelomith.
21 And Rehoboam loved Maacah daughter [granddaughter] of Absalom more than all his wives and concubines—for he took eighteen wives and sixty concubines, and he had twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters.
22 And Rehoboam made Abijah son of Maacah the chief prince among his brethren, for he intended to make him king.
23 And he dealt understandingly and dispersed his children throughout all Judah and Benjamin to every fortified city. He gave them abundant supplies, and he sought many wives for them.
12 When Rehoboam had established the kingdom and had strengthened himself, he forsook the law of the Lord, and all Israel with him.
2 And in the fifth year of King Rehoboam, because they had transgressed and been unfaithful to the Lord, Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem
3 With 1,200 chariots and 60,000 horsemen, and the people were without number who came with him from Egypt—the Libyans, Sukkiim, and Ethiopians.
4 And he took the fortified cities of Judah and came on to Jerusalem.
5 Then Shemaiah the prophet came to Rehoboam and the princes of Judah who had gathered at Jerusalem because of Shishak, and said to them, Thus says the Lord: You have forsaken Me, so I have abandoned you into the hands of Shishak.
6 Then the princes of Israel and the king humbled themselves and said, The Lord is righteous.
7 And when the Lord saw that they humbled themselves, the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah, saying, They have humbled themselves, so I will not destroy them, but I will grant them some deliverance; and My wrath shall not be poured out upon Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak.
8 Nevertheless, they shall be his servants, that they may know [the difference between] My service and the service of the kingdoms of the countries.
9 So Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem; he took away the treasures of the house of the Lord and of the king’s house. He took everything. He took away also the shields of gold Solomon had made.
10 Instead of them King Rehoboam made shields of bronze and committed them to the hands of the officers of the guard who kept the door of the king’s house.
11 And whenever the king entered the Lord’s house, the guards came and got the shields of bronze and brought them again into the guard chamber.
12 When Rehoboam humbled himself, the wrath of the Lord turned from him, so as not to destroy him entirely; also in Judah conditions were good.
13 So King Rehoboam established and strengthened himself in Jerusalem and reigned. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city in which the Lord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel to put His Name [and the symbol of His presence]. His mother was Naamah an Ammonitess.
14 And he did evil because he did not set his heart to seek (inquire of, yearn for) the Lord with all his desire.
15 Now the acts of Rehoboam, from first to last, are they not written in the histories of Shemaiah the prophet and of Iddo the seer regarding genealogies? There were wars between Rehoboam of Judah and Jeroboam of Israel continually.
16 And Rehoboam slept with his fathers and was buried in the City of David; and Abijah his son reigned in his stead.
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