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11 Having returned to Jerusalem, King Rehoboam assembled 180,000 warriors from the territories of Judah and Benjamin in the South, and he charged them to fight against Israel and to reunite both kingdoms under one king, Rehoboam. 2 But the Eternal spoke to Shemaiah, the True God’s servant and prophet.
Eternal One: 3 Tell Rehoboam, Solomon’s son and the new king of Judah, and all the Israelites living in Judah and Benjamin, 4 what I am telling you: “I have decided to allow Israel to divide into two kingdoms. You will not fight against your Northern relatives and their king, Jeroboam. Return to your homes.”
The Southerners did as they were told, 5 and Rehoboam began to fortify Judah from his capital in Jerusalem. 6 He built Bethlehem, Etam, Tekoa, 7 Beth-zur, Soco, Adullam, 8 Gath, Mareshah, Ziph, 9 Adoraim, Lachish, Azekah, 10 Zorah, Aijalon, and Hebron, all of which are walled cities in the territories of Judah and Benjamin. 11 He reinforced the fortresses, staffed the defenses with leaders, and stocked the storage houses with food, oil, and wine. 12 In all the cities, he provided shields and spears for the citizens to protect them in case of attack. With these provisions, Rehoboam protected the Southern Kingdom in the territories of Judah and Benjamin.
13-15 Meanwhile, Jeroboam and the ruling family in the Northern Kingdom prohibited the priests and Levites from performing their duties for the Eternal. Jeroboam appointed his own priests to serve the religious centers of the Northern Kingdom, which honored false gods in the forms of goats and calves. So the priests and Levites left their homes among the Northern tribes, moved to the Southern Kingdom and Jerusalem, and supported Rehoboam as their king. 16 Likewise, those Israelites living in the Northern Kingdom who were dedicated to the Eternal One, the only True God of Israel, also moved to Jerusalem to make sacrifices to the Eternal One, True God of their fathers. 17 Those who moved south strengthened the Southern Kingdom with their dedication to the True God and His chosen King Rehoboam (son of Solomon) for three years. These people were faithful to God and followed the example of our beloved kings David and Solomon for three years.
As his nation is growing and strengthening, so is Rehoboam’s family.
18 His first wife, Mahalath, the daughter of Jerimoth (son of David) and Abihail (daughter of Jesse’s son Eliab) 19 gave birth to three sons: Jeush, Shemariah, and Zaham. 20 Rehoboam’s second wife, Maacah (granddaughter of Absalom), had four sons: Abijah, Attai, Ziza, and Shelomith. 21 Rehoboam loved his second wife, Maacah, more than all his other 18 wives and 60 concubines, who gave him a total of 28 sons and 60 daughters. 22 Of those children, Rehoboam appointed Abijah (eldest son of his favorite wife Maacah) as the leader among his brothers and as the crown prince. 23 Rehoboam then wisely made some of his other sons governors of the territories and fortified cities in Judah and Benjamin. He ensured their contentment and loyalty, giving them food and selecting their wives.
12 After three years of prosperity and military strength, Rehoboam and all Israel living in the Southern Kingdom rejected the Eternal’s laws. 2 Their unfaithfulness resulted in Shishak, king of Egypt, attacking Jerusalem during King Rehoboam’s fifth year. 3 Shishak’s army included 1,200 chariots, 60,000 horsemen, and countless mercenaries from Libya, Suk, and Ethiopia.[a] 4 He conquered the fortified cities in Judah, and as he approached Jerusalem 5 Shemaiah the prophet brought another message from the True God to Rehoboam and Judah’s governors (who had fled to Jerusalem at the threat of Shishak’s army).
Eternal One (through Shemaiah): Because you have abandoned Me to follow your own gods, I have abandoned you and allowed you to be defeated by Shishak.
Rehoboam and the Governors (humbling themselves): 6 The Eternal’s punishment of us is just.
Eternal One (through Shemaiah): 7 Because you have humbled yourselves, I will not destroy you. I will save Jerusalem from My wrath, to be administered by Shishak. 8 But you will serve him since you no longer serve Me, and you will remember the pain of serving foreign kings and long for the ease of serving Me.
9 Then Shishak, king of Egypt, attacked Jerusalem and plundered the Eternal’s temple and the palace of the king. He took every treasure, including Solomon’s golden shields.
Shishak, a Libyan general who took over the Egyptian throne, has been interested in Israel’s affairs for some time. First, he harbored Jeroboam when he rebelled against Solomon. Now, Pharaoh is conquering the region. Although God does not allow Shishak to destroy Jerusalem, the Israelites lose a precious part of their heritage and a significant amount of wealth when he raids the palace and temple. This incident is enough to remind Rehoboam and the people of their ancestors’ servitude in Egypt and of God’s love of His people. If they don’t want to return to lives of bondage, they must humble themselves and resume proper worship of God.
10 To replace his father’s golden shields, King Rehoboam cast bronze shields and gave them to the commanders who guarded the palace entrance. 11 The commanders carried those shields whenever they accompanied the king to the Eternal’s temple, then they returned the shields to the guardroom.
12 Because Rehoboam had humbled himself, the Eternal subdued His anger and did not destroy him. Things were good in the Southern Kingdom 13 when 41-year-old King Rehoboam began his strong 17-year reign in Jerusalem (the city the Eternal had chosen from all the tribes of Israel to establish His reputation).
Rehoboam’s mother was Naamah the Ammonitess. 14 During his reign, he abandoned the ways of the Eternal and did evil. 15 The actions of King Rehoboam, from his birth to his death, are recorded in the chronicles of Shemaiah the prophet and in the visions of Iddo the seer (according to the genealogies).
Rehoboam and Jeroboam were constantly fighting one another. 16 After Rehoboam joined his ancestors in death and was laid with his fathers in the city of David, Jerusalem, his son Abijah ruled Israel in his place.
13 1-2 Abijah, the son of Rehoboam and Micaiah[b] (daughter of Uriel of Gibeah), became king over Judah during Jeroboam’s 18th year as king of the Northern Kingdom. He ruled for 3 years from Jerusalem and battled against Jeroboam. 3 Abijah, who initiated the war, had an army of 400,000 heroic men, but he was drastically outnumbered by Jeroboam’s army of 800,000 heroic men. 4 Abijah stood on Mount Zemaraim, which is in the hill country of Ephraim, and addressed Jeroboam and all of the soldiers from the Northern Kingdom.
Abijah: Listen to me, Jeroboam and all Israel! 5 Do you in the Northern Kingdom not know that the Eternal One, the True God of Israel, gave the rule over all of Israel, both the Northern and Southern Kingdoms, to David and his descendants by a covenant of salt?
Salt in the ancient world not only serves as a preservative, but it also hinders the spread of yeast and reminds those eating a treaty meal of a mutual oath.
6 Yet Jeroboam, Nebat’s son and the servant of David’s son Solomon, rebelled against his master.
Jeroboam and all of the Israelites from the North follow false gods and rebel against God’s authority. When they deny David’s descendants as the rightful kings, they deny God and His choice.
Abijah: 7 In his rebellion, Jeroboam surrounded himself with worthless men and scoundrels who took advantage of Solomon’s own son, Rehoboam, when he was young and impressionable early in his reign. He had no hope of defending himself and the nation against them.
8 Not only have you rebelled against the Eternal’s kingdom ruled by the descendants of David, but you have allowed your great numbers to make you arrogant. You have also rebelled against His laws by worshiping and relying on the golden calves which Jeroboam cast as gods for you. 9 You even drove the priests of the Eternal (the sons of Aaron and the Levites) from your midst and replaced them with non-Levite priests from foreigners in the land! Anyone who wants to be a priest of your false gods needs only pay for his commission with the sacrifice of a young bull and seven rams.
10 The Eternal One is our True God, and we have not rebelled against Him in favor of idols and illegitimate priests. The sons of Aaron continue in their divinely appointed duty of serving the Eternal as priests, and the Levites perform their work as well. 11 Every morning and evening they give to the Eternal what He prescribed during the time of Moses: burnt offerings, fragrant incense, unleavened bread on the clean table, and light from the golden lampstand. Unlike you, who have rebelled against Him, we are vigilant in obeying the Eternal One, our True God.
12 Remember, as you prepare to fight against us, that the True God is on our side and is leading us. His priests will blow the signal trumpets to alert Him that you are here to fight us, and He will rescue us from our enemies as He promised.[c] O Israelites, God’s chosen people, do not fight against the Eternal One, the True God of your fathers, because you will not succeed.
13 During Abijah’s appeal to the Northern Israelites, Jeroboam was not paying attention. Instead, he was dividing his forces into two fronts—one to meet Judah in front of them and one to ambush them from the rear.
14-16 When Judah realized what the Northern forces had done, the men shouted to the Eternal and the priests blew their signal trumpets just as Abijah promised. God was faithful to His promise; He crushed Jeroboam and his forces. As they fled, the True God gave the victory over Israel to Abijah and Judah. 17 Abijah and his army slaughtered 500,000 of the Israelite warriors. 18 The Northern Israelites were defeated because the people of Judah trusted in the Eternal One, the True God of their ancestors. 19 Abijah pursued the fleeing Jeroboam and captured several Northern cities and their surrounding towns and regions: Bethel (one of the Northern Kingdom’s shrine cities), Jeshanah, and Ephron.
20 Jeroboam was weakened by his battles with Judah, and he never regained his former strength. The Eternal struck him, and Jeroboam died. 21 But Abijah’s strength increased, and he married 14 wives and fathered 22 sons and 16 daughters. 22 The actions of Abijah, his works and his words, are recorded in the chronicles of Iddo the prophet.
26 A similar thing happens when we pray. We are weak and do not know how to pray, so the Spirit steps in and articulates prayers for us with groaning too profound for words. 27 Don’t you know that He who pursues and explores the human heart intimately knows the Spirit’s mind because He pleads to God for His saints to align their lives with the will of God? 28 We are confident that God is able to orchestrate everything to work toward something good and beautiful when we love Him and accept His invitation to live according to His plan. 29-30 From the distant past, His eternal love reached into the future. You see, He knew those who would be His one day, and He chose them beforehand to be conformed to the image of His Son so that Jesus would be the firstborn of a new family of believers, all brothers and sisters. As for those He chose beforehand, He called them to a different destiny so that they would experience what it means to be made right with God and share in His glory.
31 So what should we say about all of this? If God is on our side, then tell me: whom should we fear? 32 If He did not spare His own Son, but handed Him over on our account, then don’t you think that He will graciously give us all things with Him? 33 Can anyone be so bold as to level a charge against God’s chosen? Especially since God’s “not guilty” verdict is already declared. 34 Who has the authority to condemn? Jesus the Anointed who died, but more importantly, conquered death when He was raised to sit at the right hand of God where He pleads on our behalf. 35 So who can separate us? What can come between us and the love of God’s Anointed? Can troubles, hardships, persecution, hunger, poverty, danger, or even death? The answer is, absolutely nothing. 36 As the psalm says,
On Your behalf, our lives are endangered constantly;
we are like sheep awaiting slaughter.[a]
37 But no matter what comes, we will always taste victory through Him who loved us. 38 For I have every confidence that nothing—not death, life, heavenly messengers, dark spirits, the present, the future, spiritual powers, 39 height, depth, nor any created thing—can come between us and the love of God revealed in the Anointed, Jesus our Lord.
37 I chased my enemies and caught them
and did not stop until they were destroyed.
38 I broke them and threw them down beneath my feet,
and they could not rise up again.
39 For You equipped me for battle,
and You made my enemies fall beneath me.
40 You made my enemies turn tail and run,
and all who wanted my destruction, I destroyed.
41 They looked everywhere, but no one came to rescue them;
they asked the Eternal, but He did not answer them.
42 I beat them to sand, to dust that blows in the wind;
I flung them away like trash in the gutters.
43 You rescued me from conflict with the peoples;
You raised me up to rule over nations.
People who did not know me have come to serve me.
44 Strangers come to me, afraid.
As soon as they hear about me, they serve me;
45 Strangers who have lost heart
come fearfully to me from behind their high walls.
46 The Eternal is alive! My Rock is blessed,
and exalted is the True God of my deliverance—
47 The God who avenged me
and placed the peoples under me,
48 Who rescued me from all my foes.
Truly, You raised me up above my enemies
and saved me from the violent ones.
49 For this I will praise You among the nations, O Eternal,
and sing praises to Your name.
50 He is a tower of salvation for His king
and shows His enduring love to His anointed,
to David and his descendants forever.
27 My child, should you stop listening to instruction,
you will wander from the voice of knowledge.
28 A worthless witness ridicules justice,
and the mouth of the wrongdoer savors every morsel of trouble.
29 Severe penalties are prepared for those who mock,
and fools expect their backs to be flogged.
The Voice Bible Copyright © 2012 Thomas Nelson, Inc. The Voice™ translation © 2012 Ecclesia Bible Society All rights reserved.