The Daily Audio Bible

11 When Rehoboam arrived at Jerusalem, he assembled the house of Judah and Benjamin, one hundred eighty thousand select warriors, to fight against Israel and to restore the kingdom to Rehoboam. ² But the Lord’s word came to Shemaiah the man of God: ³ Tell Judah’s King Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, and all Israel in Judah and Benjamin, ⁴ This is what the Lord says: Don’t make war against your relatives. Go home, every one of you, because this is my plan. When they heard the Lord’s words, they abandoned their attack against Jeroboam.

⁵ Rehoboam lived in Jerusalem, but he built cities for Judah’s defense ⁶ in Bethlehem, Etam, Tekoa, ⁷ Beth-zur, Soco, Adullam, ⁸ Gath, Mareshah, Ziph, ⁹ Adoraim, Lachish, Azekah, ¹⁰ Zorah, Aijalon, and Hebron. These were the fortified cities in Judah and Benjamin. ¹¹ He made the fortifications stronger, placed commanders in them, and supplied them with food, oil, and wine. ¹² He also stored shields and spears in each of the cities, making them very strong. This is how Judah and Benjamin remained under his control.

¹³ The priests and the Levites from every region throughout all Israel sided with Rehoboam. ¹⁴ The Levites left their pastures and property to come to Judah and Jerusalem because Jeroboam and his sons had refused to let them serve as the Lord’s priests, ¹⁵ having appointed his own priests for the shrines and the goat and calf idols he had made. ¹⁶ People from every tribe of Israel who had made up their minds to seek the Lord, Israel’s God, came to Jerusalem to sacrifice to the Lord, the God of their ancestors. ¹⁷ They strengthened the kingdom of Judah and supported Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, for three years by following the way of David and Solomon those three years.

¹⁸ Rehoboam married Mahalath daughter of Jerimoth, David’s son, and Abihail daughter of Eliab, Jesse’s son. ¹⁹ The sons she bore him were Jeush, Shemariah, and Zaham. ²⁰ Later he married Maacah, Absalom’s daughter, who bore him Abijah, Attai, Ziza, and Shelomith. ²¹ Rehoboam loved Absalom’s daughter Maacah more than all his wives and secondary wives. In all, he had eighteen wives and sixty secondary wives, twenty-eight sons, and sixty daughters. ²² Rehoboam named Abijah, Maacah’s son, as his successor in order to make him king. ²³ He wisely placed some of his sons in every region of Judah and Benjamin, in every fortified city, and gave them plenty of food and sought many wives for them.

12 But as soon as Rehoboam had secured his royal power, he, along with all Israel, abandoned the Lord’s Instruction.

Rehoboam rules

² Egypt’s King Shishak attacked Jerusalem in the fifth year of King Rehoboam because Israel had been unfaithful to the Lord. ³ Accompanying Shishak from Egypt were twelve hundred chariots, sixty thousand horses, and countless Libyan, Sukkite, and Cushite warriors. ⁴ He captured the fortified cities of Judah and came toward Jerusalem. ⁵ Then the prophet Shemaiah went to Rehoboam and the leaders of Judah who had gathered at Jerusalem because of Shishak, and told them, This is what the Lord says: Since you have abandoned me, now I am abandoning you to Shishak’s power.

⁶ Then the leaders of Israel and the king submitted. “The Lord is right,” they said.

⁷ When the Lord saw that they had submitted, the Lord’s word came to Shemaiah: Since they have submitted, I won’t destroy them. I will deliver them in a little while, and I won’t use Shishak to pour out my anger against Jerusalem. ⁸ Nevertheless, they will be subject to him so that they learn the difference between serving me and serving other nations.

⁹ Egypt’s King Shishak attacked Jerusalem and seized the treasures of the Lord’s temple and the royal palace. He took everything, even the gold shields Solomon had made. ¹⁰ King Rehoboam replaced them with bronze shields and assigned them to the officers of the guard who protected the entrance to the royal palace. (¹¹ Whenever the king entered the Lord’s temple, the guards would carry the shields and then return them to the guardroom.) ¹² When Rehoboam submitted, the Lord was no longer angry with him, and total destruction was avoided. There were, after all, some good things still in Judah.

¹³ So King Rehoboam was securely established in Jerusalem. Rehoboam was 41 years old when he became king, and he ruled seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city the Lord had chosen from all the tribes of Israel to put his name. His mother’s name was Naamah from Ammon. ¹⁴ But Rehoboam did what was evil because he didn’t set his heart on seeking the Lord. ¹⁵ The deeds of Rehoboam, from beginning to end, aren’t they written in the records of the prophet Shemaiah and the seer Iddo, including the genealogical records? There was continual warfare between Rehoboam and Jeroboam. ¹⁶ Rehoboam lay down with his ancestors and was buried in David’s City. His son Abijah^[a] succeeded him as king.

Abijah rules Judah

13 Abijah^[b] became king over Judah in the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam. ² He ruled for three years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Micaiah; she was Uriel’s daughter from Gibeah. When war broke out between Abijah and Jeroboam, ³ Abijah went to fight with an army of four hundred thousand select troops against Jeroboam’s select forces numbering eight hundred thousand, who were arrayed in battle formation.

⁴ Abijah stood on the heights of Mount Zemaraim in Ephraim’s highlands and said:

¹³ Meanwhile, Jeroboam had sent troops around behind them for an ambush so that the main force was in front of Judah while the ambush was behind. ¹⁴ When Judah looked around and suddenly realized that they were surrounded, they cried out to the Lord while the priests sounded the trumpets ¹⁵ and raised the battle cry. When they raised the battle cry, God defeated Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah. ¹⁶ So the Israelites fled before Judah, and God gave Judah the victory. ¹⁷ Abijah and his people struck them severely: five hundred thousand select warriors were killed. ¹⁸ Israel was subdued on that occasion, and Judah succeeded because they relied on the Lord, the God of their ancestors. ¹⁹ Abijah pursued Jeroboam and took these cities away from him: Bethel, Jeshanah, and Ephron,^[d] along with their villages. ²⁰ Jeroboam failed to regain power during the time of Abijah. The Lord finally struck him down, and he died. ²¹ Abijah, however, grew strong. He married fourteen wives; he had twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters. ²² The rest of Abijah’s deeds, what he did and what he said, are written in the account of the prophet Iddo.

²⁶ In the same way, the Spirit comes to help our weakness. We don’t know what we should pray, but the Spirit himself pleads our case with unexpressed groans. ²⁷ The one who searches hearts knows how the Spirit thinks, because he pleads for the saints, consistent with God’s will. ²⁸ We know that God works all things together for good for the ones who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose. ²⁹ We know this because God knew them in advance, and he decided in advance that they would be conformed to the image of his Son. That way his Son would be the first of many brothers and sisters. ³⁰ Those who God decided in advance would be conformed to his Son, he also called. Those whom he called, he also made righteous. Those whom he made righteous, he also glorified.

³¹ So what are we going to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? ³² He didn’t spare his own Son but gave him up for us all. Won’t he also freely give us all things with him?

³³ Who will bring a charge against God’s elect people? It is God who acquits them. ³⁴ Who is going to convict them? It is Christ Jesus who died, even more, who was raised, and who also is at God’s right side. It is Christ Jesus who also pleads our case for us.

³⁵ Who will separate us from Christ’s love? Will we be separated by trouble, or distress, or harassment, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? ³⁶ As it is written,

³⁷ But in all these things we win a sweeping victory through the one who loved us. ³⁸ I’m convinced that nothing can separate us from God’s love in Christ Jesus our Lord: not death or life, not angels or rulers, not present things or future things, not powers ³⁹ or height or depth, or any other thing that is created.