Historical

11 When Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, he called together from the house of Judah and Benjamin one hundred and eighty thousand^[a] choice men to make war and to battle with Israel in order to restore the kingdom to Rehoboam.

² But the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah the man of God saying: ³ Speak to Rehoboam, son of Solomon and king of Judah, and to all Israel in Judah and Benjamin, ⁴ “So says the Lord: You are not to go up and fight against your brothers. Each man must return to his house, for this event is from Me.” So they obeyed the word of the Lord and turned back from attacking Jeroboam.

Rehoboam Secures the Kingdom

⁵ So Rehoboam dwelled in Jerusalem and built siege cities in Judah. ⁶ He built Bethlehem, Etam, Tekoa, ⁷ Beth Zur in the east, Soko, Adullam, ⁸ Gath, Mareshah in the west, Ziph, ⁹ Adoraim, Lachish in the south, Azekah, ¹⁰ Zorah, Aijalon in the northwest, and central Hebron, all of which were fortified cities in Judah and Benjamin. ¹¹ He strengthened the fortresses and set leaders in them with stockpiles of food, oil, and wine. ¹² And in all the cities he placed shields and spears, and he greatly strengthened these places. So he held Judah and Benjamin.

¹³ And the priests and Levites in all Israel came before him from all their territories. ¹⁴ For the Levites left their pasture lands and properties, and they traveled to Judah and Jerusalem because Jeroboam and his sons excluded them from serving as priests to the Lord. ¹⁵ And he set for himself priests for the high places and for the goat and calf idols that he made. ¹⁶ And those who set their hearts to seek the Lord God of Israel followed after them from all the tribes of Israel, and they came to Jerusalem to sacrifice to the Lord God of their fathers. ¹⁷ So they strengthened the kingdom of Judah and supported Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, for three years, for they walked in the way of David and Solomon for three years.

Rehoboam’s Family

¹⁸ And Rehoboam took Mahalath for a wife, the daughter of both Jerimoth the son of David and of Abihail the daughter of Eliab the son of Jesse, ¹⁹ and she bore sons to him: Jeush, Shemariah, and Zaham. ²⁰ Then after her he took Maakah the daughter of Absalom. And she bore to him Abijah, Attai, Ziza, and Shelomith. ²¹ And Rehoboam loved Maakah the daughter of Absalom more than his other wives and concubines (for he took eighteen wives and sixty concubines), and he had twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters.

²² And Rehoboam set Abijah the son of Maakah as chief and head over his brothers for he planned to make him king. ²³ And he was discerning and spread out all his sons to all the lands of Judah and Benjamin, even among the fortified cities, and he provided for them an abundance of provisions and wives.

Egypt Attacks Jerusalem^(A)

12 Now when the reign of Rehoboam was established and strong, he, and all of Israel with him, abandoned the law of the Lord. ² And in the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt went up against Jerusalem for they had acted unfaithfully against the Lord, ³ with one thousand two hundred chariots and sixty thousand horses. The people were without number who came with him from Egypt—Libyans, Sukkiktes, and Ethiopians. ⁴ And he captured the fortified cities that were in Judah, and he came even to Jerusalem.

⁵ Then Shemaiah the prophet came to Rehoboam and the rulers of Judah who were assembled in Jerusalem before Shishak, and he said to them, “So the Lord says: You have abandoned Me, so I have abandoned you into the hand of Shishak.”

⁶ Then the king and the rulers of Israel humbled themselves and said, “The Lord is righteous.”

⁷ So when the Lord observed that they had humbled themselves, the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah, “They have humbled themselves, so I will not destroy them. I will let some of them escape, and My anger will not pour out against Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak. ⁸ For they will be slaves to him so that they experience My labor and the labor of the kingdoms of other lands.”

⁹ So Shishak king of Egypt went up against Jerusalem and took away the treasures of the house of the Lord and of the palace of the king. He took everything, even the gold shields that Solomon made. ¹⁰ And King Rehoboam made bronze shields in their place and entrusted them to the hands of the rulers of the guards, those who guarded the entrance to the king’s palace. ¹¹ And it happened that whenever the king came to the house of the Lord, the guards came and carried the shields and then returned them to the guardroom.

¹² And when he humbled himself, the anger of the Lord turned away from him so that there was not a complete annihilation. Moreover, there were some good things in Judah during this time.

The Death of Rehoboam

¹³ So King Rehoboam was strong and reigned in Jerusalem. For Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned for seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city that the Lord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to put His name there. His mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonite. ¹⁴ And he acted evil because he did not set his heart to seek out the Lord.

¹⁵ Now, are not the acts of Rehoboam written from beginning to end in the annals of Shemaiah the prophet and Iddo the seer, according to genealogy? And there were battles between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all their days. ¹⁶ And Rehoboam slept with his fathers and was buried in the City of David, and Abijah ruled in his place.

Abijah, King of Judah^(B)

13 In the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam, Abijah became king of Judah. ² He reigned for three years in Judah, and his mother’s name was Micaiah,^[b] the granddaughter of Uriel of Gibeah.

And there was a war between Abijah and Jeroboam. ³ Abijah set the battle in order with an army of valiant men of war, four hundred thousand choice men. Jeroboam also drew up battle lines against him with an army of eight hundred thousand men, mighty men of valor.

⁴ Then Abijah went up to Mount Zemaraim that is in the hills of Ephraim, and he said, “Listen to me, Jeroboam and all Israel! ⁵ Do you all not know that the Lord God of Israel has perpetually given the kingdom of Israel to David, even to him and to his sons with a covenant of salt? ⁶ And Jeroboam the son of Nebat, the servant of Solomon son of David, stood up and rebelled against his lord Rehoboam. ⁷ Then vain, worthless men gathered together around him and defied Rehoboam son of Solomon. And Rehoboam was young and timid in heart and was not strong before them.

⁸ “And now you think that you can withstand before the kingdom of the Lord by the hand of the sons of David. And you all are a great multitude, and with you are the golden calves that Jeroboam has made for you to be gods. ⁹ Have you all not driven out the priests of the Lord, even the Levites and sons of Aaron, and made for yourselves priests from the peoples of other lands? Whoever comes to be dedicated and has in his hand a young bull or seven rams becomes a priest to what is not a god.

¹⁰ “But for us, the Lord is our God, and we have not abandoned Him. And our priests serve the Lord and are sons of Aaron, Levites with their service. ¹¹ They sacrifice burnt offerings to the Lord every morning and evening and put out an incense of spices. They also set the showbread in place on the ritual table and set the golden lampstand with its lamps to burn every evening. For we keep the duty of the Lord our God, but you all have abandoned Him. ¹² God is with us as a leader, and His priests with their battle trumpets to call for battle against you all. O sons of Israel, do not fight against the Lord the God of your fathers because you will not find success.”

¹³ So Jeroboam went around them with an ambush to come from behind them. Those from Israel were in front of Judah, while the ambush was behind them. ¹⁴ Then Judah turned and saw that the battle was both in front of and behind them. Then they cried out to the Lord, and the priests sounded their trumpets. ¹⁵ Then the men from Judah shouted out; and it happened when Judah shouted out, God struck down Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah. ¹⁶ The men of Israel fled before Judah, and God gave them into their hand. ¹⁷ Abijah and his people struck them down with a great slaughter, and the slain from Israel who fell that day were five hundred thousand choice men. ¹⁸ So the sons of Israel were subdued at that time, and the people of Judah were strong for they depended on the Lord God of their fathers.

¹⁹ And Abijah chased after Jeroboam and captured cities from him: Bethel, Jeshanah, and Ephron with their surrounding villages. ²⁰ And Jeroboam did not again recover his strength in the days of Abijah, and the Lord struck down Jeroboam, and he died.

²¹ So Abijah grew strong and took fourteen wives and had twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters.

²² And the remainder of the acts of Abijah, both his ways and words, are written in the story of the prophet Iddo.

14 And Abijah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the City of David. Asa his son then reigned in his place. In his days the land was quiet for ten years.

Asa, King of Judah^(C)

² Asa did what was good and right in the eyes of the Lord his God. ³ He took down the foreign altars and high places, and he shattered the pillars and cut down the images of Asherah. ⁴ Then he urged Judah to seek the Lord the God of their fathers and to keep the law and commandments. ⁵ And he also removed all the high places and incense altars in the cities in Judah. And the kingdom was at rest under Asa. ⁶ He built fortified cities in Judah because the land was quiet; and there was no war in these years, for the Lord gave peace to him.

⁷ And he said to Judah, “Let us build up these cities and let us surround them with walls, towers, gates, and bars for the land before us is still ours because we have sought after the Lord our God. We have sought Him, and He has given us peace all around.” So they built and had success.

⁸ And it happened that Asa had an army from Judah carrying large shields and spears numbering three hundred thousand. And from Benjamin he had an army carrying shields and bows numbering two hundred eighty thousand. All of these were mighty men of valor.

⁹ But Zerah the Ethiopian Cushite came out against them with an army of a million men and three hundred chariots. And he came up to Mareshah. ¹⁰ Then Asa went out to engage him, and they arranged for battle in the Valley of Zephathah near Mareshah.

¹¹ And Asa cried out the Lord his God, and said, “Lord, it is nothing with You to help, whether with many or with those who have no power. Help us, O Lord our God; for we trust in You, and in Your name we come against this multitude. O Lord, You are our God. Let no man prevail against You.”

¹² So the Lord struck down the Ethiopian Cushites before Asa and Judah, and the Cushites fled. ¹³ Then Asa and those with him pursued them until Gerar. And the Cushites fell till there was not one left alive because they were struck down before the Lord and His army. And those in Judah carried off a very great plunder. ¹⁴ And they struck down all the cities surrounding Gerar because the terror of the Lord was on them. And they plundered all the cities because there was a great amount of possessions in them. ¹⁵ And they also struck the tents holding livestock, and they carried off sheep and a great amount of camels. Then they returned to Jerusalem.