Historical

11 Rehoboam arrived back in Jerusalem. He brought together all the men from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin who knew how to fight. There were 180,000 of them. Rehoboam wanted to attack the Israelite tribes so that he could rule them again as king. ² But the Lord told the prophet Shemaiah, ³ ‘Say this to Solomon's son Rehoboam, the king of Judah. Say it to all the Israelite people who belong to the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. ⁴ This is what the Lord says: “Do not go and attack your brothers. Do not fight against them. Instead, you must all go home. I, the Lord, have decided that this must happen.” ’

So they obeyed the Lord's message. They did not go to attack Jeroboam.^[a]

Rehoboam rules Judah as king

⁵ Rehoboam lived in Jerusalem. He built these strong cities in Judah to make it safe:

He made all those cities in Judah and Benjamin very strong. ¹¹ He made their buildings stronger. He put important officers in them to rule over them. He stored food, olive oil and wine in them. ¹² He supplied every city with shields and spears. He did all these things to make them very strong places. So Rehoboam kept his authority over Judah and Benjamin.

¹³ The priests and Levites who lived everywhere in Israel agreed to serve Rehoboam. ¹⁴ The Levites even left their lands and their houses to come to Judah and Jerusalem.^[b] They came because Jeroboam and his sons refused to let them serve the Lord as his priests. ¹⁵ Jeroboam chose his own priests to offer sacrifices at the altars that he had built on the hills. They worshipped the idols of goats and young bulls that Jeroboam had made. ¹⁶ But some people from every tribe in Israel still wanted to worship the Lord, Israel's God. So they came with the Levites to Jerusalem. They came to offer sacrifices to the Lord, the God of their ancestors. ¹⁷ These people helped to make the kingdom of Judah stronger. They were faithful to Solomon's son Rehoboam for three years. During that time, they lived in the way that David and Solomon had taught them to live.

Rehoboam's family

¹⁸ Rehoboam married Mahalath. Her father was David's son Jerimoth. Her mother was Abihail, the daughter of Jesse's son Eliab. ¹⁹ She gave birth to three sons for Rehoboam. Their names were Jeush, Shemariah and Zaham. ²⁰ Then Rehoboam married Absalom's daughter Maakah. She gave birth to Abijah, Attai, Ziza and Shelomith for him. ²¹ Rehoboam loved Absalom's daughter Maakah better than he loved any of his other wives. He had 18 wives and 60 slave wives. He was the father of 28 sons and 60 daughters.

²² Rehoboam chose Maakah's son Abijah to be the leader over his other sons. He wanted Abijah to become the next king. ²³ He did a wise thing with his other sons. He sent many of them to the different regions of Judah and Benjamin, to live in all the strong cities. He supplied them with plenty of food. He also found many women to become their wives.

Rehoboam turns away from the Lord

12 Rehoboam became a strong king who ruled with authority. But after that, he stopped obeying the law of the Lord. All the Israelites did the same thing. ² They did not serve the Lord in a faithful way. Because of that, King Shishak of Egypt attacked Jerusalem in the fifth year that Rehoboam was king Judah. ³ King Shishak's army had 1,200 chariots and 60,000 soldiers who rode on horses. Many other soldiers came with him from Egypt. They included men from Libya, Sukkoth and Ethiopia. ⁴ He took power over Judah's strong cities. Then his army marched to attack Jerusalem.

⁵ The prophet Shemaiah then came to speak to Rehoboam and the leaders of Judah. They had met together in Jerusalem because they were afraid of King Shishak. Shemaiah said to them, ‘The Lord says this: “You have turned away from me. So now I have turned away from you. I will let Shishak take power over you.” ’

⁶ The leaders of Israel and the king made themselves humble. They said, ‘The Lord is right to do that.’

⁷ The Lord saw that they had made themselves humble. So he said to Shemaiah, ‘Because they have made themselves humble, I will not destroy them. I will soon rescue them. I will not use Shishak to completely destroy Jerusalem's people. But because I am angry, ⁸ they will become his servants. Then they will learn what it is like to serve a foreign king instead of me.’

⁹ King Shishak of Egypt then attacked Jerusalem. He took away the valuable things that were in the Lord's temple and in the king's palace. He took everything for himself. That included the gold shields that King Solomon had made. ¹⁰ So Rehoboam used bronze to make other shields instead. He gave them to the officers of his own soldiers. These soldiers stood as guards at the entrance of the king's palace. ¹¹ Every time that the king went to the Lord's temple, the guards carried the shields. After that, they took them back to the guards' room where they stored them.

Rehoboam turns back to the Lord

¹² Rehoboam made himself humble. So the Lord did not destroy him. He stopped being angry with Rehoboam. He caused good things to happen in Judah.

¹³ Rehoboam made his authority as king in Jerusalem very strong. He was 41 years old when he became king. He ruled for 17 years in Jerusalem. That was the city that the Lord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel. He chose it as the place where people would give honour to his name. Rehoboam's mother was an Ammonite woman. Her name was Naamah. ¹⁴ Rehoboam did wicked things because he did not want to serve the Lord faithfully.

¹⁵ All the things that happened while Rehoboam was king of Judah are written in some books. The prophet Shemaiah and the prophet Iddo wrote those things in their books. The books include lists of the ancestors of Rehoboam's family. Rehoboam and Jeroboam fought wars against each other all the time.

¹⁶ Rehoboam died and they buried him beside his ancestors in the City of David. His son Abijah became king after him.^[c]

Abijah rules Judah as king

13 Abijah became king of Judah after Jeroboam had been king of Israel for 18 years. ² Abijah ruled in Jerusalem as king for three years. His mother's name was Micaiah. She was the daughter of Uriel from Gibeah.

Abijah and Jeroboam fought a war against each other. ³ Abijah attacked with an army of 400,000 brave soldiers that he had chosen. Jeroboam prepared to fight against him with 800,000 strong brave soldiers that he had chosen.

⁴ Abijah went to stand on Mount Zemaraim, in the hill country of Ephraim. He shouted, ‘Listen to me, Jeroboam and all you Israelites! ⁵ The Lord, Israel's God, has chosen David and his descendants to be kings of Israel for all time. You know that God has promised that must happen. ⁶ Nebat's son Jeroboam was a servant of David's son, King Solomon. But he turned against his master. ⁷ He took some wicked useless men to join his group. They made themselves strong against Solomon's son, Rehoboam. Rehoboam was young and he had not been king for very long. So he was not strong enough to stop them.

⁸ Now you want to fight against the Lord's own kingdom that he has chosen David's descendants to rule over. You have a very large army. You bring with you the gold statues of young bulls that Jeroboam made for you as your gods. ⁹ But you chased away the Lord's own priests, the descendants of Aaron. You chased away the Levites. Instead you chose your own priests, as the people in other nations do. Anyone can become a priest to serve your false gods. He only has to come with a sacrifice of a young bull and seven male sheep!

¹⁰ But we still serve the Lord as our God. We have not turned away from him. We have the descendants of Aaron to serve as our priests. The Levites help them in their work. ¹¹ They offer burnt offerings and sweet incense to the Lord every morning and every evening. They put out the special bread on his table every day. They light the lamps on the gold lampstand every evening. So we are the people who are obeying the rules of the Lord our God. But you have turned away from him.

¹² Listen to me! God himself is our leader. He is here to help us. His priests are ready to make a loud noise with their trumpets to start the battle against you. Israelite people, do not fight against the Lord, the God of your ancestors. You will not win the battle.’

¹³ But Jeroboam had sent some soldiers around behind Judah's army. Jeroboam was with the rest of his army, in front of Judah's army. The other soldiers were ready to attack from behind. ¹⁴ Judah's soldiers turned around. They saw that Jeroboam's soldiers were in front of them and behind them. So they called out to the Lord for help. The priests made a noise with their trumpets.

¹⁵ Judah's soldiers shouted very loudly. As King Abijah led Judah's soldiers into the battle, the Lord knocked down Jeroboam and all Israel's army. ¹⁶ Israel's soldiers ran away as Judah's army chased after them. God caused Judah's soldiers to win the fight. ¹⁷ Abijah and his army killed many of the Israel soldiers. 500,000 of Israel's best soldiers died. ¹⁸ Judah's soldiers trusted the Lord, the God of their ancestors, to help them. That was why they won the battle that day against Israel's army.

¹⁹ King Abijah chased King Jeroboam. He took these Israelite towns for himself: Bethel, Jeshanah and Ephron, as well as the villages around them.

²⁰ After that, while Abijah was Judah's king, Jeroboam never became strong again. Finally, the Lord punished Jeroboam so that he died. ²¹ But Abijah became more powerful. He married 14 wives. He became the father of 22 sons and 16 daughters.

²² All the other things that happened while Abijah ruled as king are written in the book of the prophet Iddo. It includes the things that Abijah did and the things that he said.

Abijah dies

14 Abijah died and they buried him beside his ancestors in the City of David. Abijah's son Asa became king after him. The country had peace for ten years while Asa was king.

Asa rules Judah as king

² Asa did things that pleased the Lord his God. ³ He removed the altars and other places where people worshipped foreign gods. He broke the stone pillars and he cut down the Asherah poles.^{[d] 4} Asa commanded the people of Judah to worship the Lord, the God of their ancestors. He told them to obey God's law and his commands. ⁵ He removed the altars on the hills. He also removed the altars in all Judah's cities where people burned incense. There was peace in his kingdom while he ruled.

⁶ While there was peace in the land, Asa made the cities of Judah strong and safe. No enemies fought wars against Judah during that time. The Lord gave Asa rest from any trouble.

⁷ Asa said to Judah's people, ‘We should build these towns and make them stronger. We must put walls around them, with towers and strong gates. Judah still belongs to us because we have obeyed the Lord our God. He has made us safe from our enemies all around us.’

So the people made these towns strong. Everything went well for them.

Zerah attacks Asa

⁸ Asa had an army of 300,000 men from Judah. They carried big shields and spears. He also had 280,000 men from Benjamin's tribe. Those men carried small shields and they could shoot arrows with their bows. They were all brave soldiers who could fight well.

⁹ A man from Ethiopia called Zerah marched out to attack Judah. He had a very big army of a million soldiers and 300 chariots. When he reached Mareshah, ¹⁰ Asa went out to fight against him. The two armies prepared to fight a battle in Zephathah valley, near Mareshah.

¹¹ Then Asa called out to the Lord his God to help him. He prayed, ‘There is nobody like you Lord. You have power to help a few weak people against many strong people. Help us, Lord our God, because we trust you. We want people to give honour to your name. That is why we have come to fight against this large army. Lord, you are our God. You cannot let these men win against you.’

¹² So the Lord knocked down Zerah's soldiers as Asa and Judah's army attacked them. The Ethiopian soldiers ran away. ¹³ Asa and his soldiers chased after them until they reached Gerar. So many Ethiopian soldiers died there that their army could not fight any more. The Lord and his army completely destroyed them. Judah's soldiers carried away lots of their enemies' things for themselves.

¹⁴ The Lord caused the people in the towns near Gerar to become very afraid. So Judah's soldiers were able to attack those towns. There were many valuable things in all those towns and Judah's men took them away for themselves. ¹⁵ They also attacked the tents of the people who took care of animals. They took away many sheep and camels from there. Then they returned to Jerusalem.