Old/New Testament
Rehoboam Acts Foolishly
10 Rehoboam went to Shechem because all the Israelites had gone there to make him king. 2 Jeroboam son of Nebat was in Egypt. He had gone there to run away from King Solomon. Jeroboam heard that Rehoboam was going to be the new king. So he returned from Egypt. 3 The people sent for Jeroboam. Then he and the people went to Rehoboam. They said to Rehoboam, 4 “Your father forced us to work very hard. Now, make it easier for us. Don’t make us work as hard as your father did. Then we will serve you.”
5 Rehoboam answered, “Come back to me in three days.” So the people left.
6 There were some elders who had helped Solomon make decisions during his lifetime. So King Rehoboam asked them what he should do. He said, “How do you think I should answer these people?”
7 They answered, “Be kind to these people. Please them and give them a kind answer. If you do, they will serve you always.”
8 But Rehoboam did not listen to the advice the elders gave him. He talked with the young men who had grown up with him. They advised him in making decisions. 9 Rehoboam asked them, “What is your advice? How should we answer these people? They said, ‘Don’t make us work as hard as your father did.’”
10 Then the young men who had grown up with him said, “The people said to you, ‘Your father forced us to work very hard. Now make our work easier.’ But you should tell those people, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist. 11 My father forced you to work hard. But I will make you work even harder. My father beat you with whips. But I will beat you with whips that have sharp points.’”
12 King Rehoboam had told the people, “Come back to me in three days.” So three days later Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam. 13 Then King Rehoboam spoke to them in a cruel way. He did not take the advice of the elders. 14 He followed the advice of the young men. He said, “My father forced you to work hard. But I will give you even more work. My father beat you with whips. But I will beat you with whips that have sharp points.” 15 So King Rehoboam did not do what the people wanted. God caused this to happen. He did this so the Lord could keep his promise to Jeroboam son of Nebat. The Lord had made this promise through Ahijah, a prophet from Shiloh.
16 The people of Israel saw that King Rehoboam did not listen to them. So they said to the king,
“We have no share in David.
We have no part in the son of Jesse.
People of Israel, let’s go to our own homes!
Let David’s son rule his own people.”
So all the Israelites went home. 17 But Rehoboam still ruled over the Israelites who lived in the towns of Judah.
18 Adoniram was in charge of the people who were forced to work. Rehoboam sent him to the people. But they threw stones at Adoniram until he died. But King Rehoboam was able to run to his chariot and escape to Jerusalem. 19 Since then, Israel has always turned against the family of David.
11 When Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, he gathered 180,000 of the best soldiers. They were from the people of Judah and Benjamin. He gathered them to fight Israel. He wanted to bring the kingdom back under his control. 2 But the Lord spoke his word to Shemaiah, the man of God. The Lord said, 3 “Shemaiah, talk to Solomon’s son Rehoboam, the king of Judah. Talk also to all the Israelites living in Judah and Benjamin. Say to them, 4 ‘The Lord says you must not go to war against your brothers. Every one of you should go home. I made all these things happen.’” So King Rehoboam and his army obeyed the Lord’s command. They turned back and did not attack Jeroboam.
Rehoboam Makes Judah Strong
5 Rehoboam lived in Jerusalem. He built strong cities in Judah to defend it against attacks. 6 He built up the cities of Bethlehem, Etam, Tekoa, 7 Beth Zur, Soco, Adullam, 8 Gath, Mareshah, Ziph, 9 Adoraim, Lachish, Azekah, 10 Zorah, Aijalon and Hebron. These were strong, walled cities in Judah and Benjamin. 11 When Rehoboam made those cities strong, he put commanders in them. He also put supplies of food, oil and wine in them. 12 Also, Rehoboam put shields and spears in all the cities. So he made them very strong. Rehoboam kept the peoples and cities of Judah and Benjamin under his control.
13 The priests and the Levites from all over Israel joined Rehoboam. 14 The Levites even left their pasturelands and fields and came to Judah and Jerusalem. They did this because Jeroboam and his sons refused to let them serve as priests to the Lord. 15 Jeroboam chose his own priests to serve in the places of worship. He chose his own priests for the goat and calf idols he had made. 16 There were people from all the tribes of Israel who wanted to obey the Lord, the God of Israel. They went to Jerusalem with the Levites. They went to sacrifice to the Lord, the God of their ancestors. 17 These people made the kingdom of Judah strong. And they supported Solomon’s son Rehoboam for three years. During this time they lived the way David and Solomon had lived.
Rehoboam’s Family
18 Rehoboam married Mahalath. She was the daughter of Jerimoth and Abihail. Jerimoth was David’s son. Abihail was Eliab’s daughter, and Eliab was Jesse’s son. 19 Mahalath gave Rehoboam these sons: Jeush, Shemariah and Zaham. 20 Then Rehoboam married Absalom’s daughter Maacah. And she gave Rehoboam these children: Abijah, Attai, Ziza and Shelomith. 21 Rehoboam loved Maacah more than his other wives and slave women. Rehoboam had 18 wives and 60 slave women. He was the father of 28 sons and 60 daughters.
22 Rehoboam chose Abijah to be the leader of his own brothers. He did this because he planned to make Abijah king. 23 Rehoboam acted wisely. He spread his sons through all the areas of Judah and Benjamin. He sent them to every strong, walled city. And he gave plenty of supplies to his sons. He also found wives for them.
Shishak Attacks Jerusalem
12 Rehoboam became a strong king. He also made his kingdom strong. Then he and the people of Judah stopped obeying the teachings of the Lord. 2 Shishak was the king of Egypt. He attacked Jerusalem in the fifth year Rehoboam was king. This happened because Rehoboam and the people were unfaithful to the Lord. 3 Shishak had 1,200 chariots and 60,000 horsemen. He brought troops of Libyans, Sukkites and Cushites from Egypt with him. There were so many they couldn’t be counted. 4 Shishak captured the strong, walled cities of Judah. And he came as far as Jerusalem.
5 Then Shemaiah the prophet came to Rehoboam and the leaders of Judah. They had gathered in Jerusalem because they were afraid of Shishak. Shemaiah said to them, “This is what the Lord says: ‘You have left me. So now I will leave you to face Shishak alone.’”
6 Then the leaders of Judah and King Rehoboam were sorry for what they had done. They said, “The Lord does what is right.”
7 The Lord saw that they were sorry for what they had done. So the Lord spoke his word to Shemaiah. The Lord said, “The king and the leaders are sorry. So I will not destroy them but will save them soon. I will not use Shishak to punish Jerusalem in my anger. 8 But the people of Jerusalem will become Shishak’s servants. Then they may learn that serving me is different than serving the kings of other nations.”
9 Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem. He took the treasures from the Temple of the Lord and from the king’s palace. He took everything, even the gold shields Solomon had made. 10 So King Rehoboam made bronze shields to take their place. He gave them to the commanders of the guards for the entrance to the king’s palace. 11 Whenever the king entered the Temple of the Lord, the guards went with him. They would carry the shields. Later, they would put them back in the guard room.
12 When Rehoboam was sorry for what he had done, the Lord held his anger back. So the Lord did not fully destroy Rehoboam. There was some good in Judah.
13 King Rehoboam made himself a strong king in Jerusalem. He was 41 years old when he became king. And he was king in Jerusalem for 17 years. Jerusalem is the city that the Lord chose from all the tribes of Israel. He chose to be worshiped in Jerusalem. Rehoboam’s mother was Naamah from the country of Ammon. 14 Rehoboam did evil things because he did not want to ask the Lord for help.
15 The things Rehoboam did as king, from the beginning to the end, are written down. They are in the records of Shemaiah the prophet. And they are in the records of Iddo the seer. These men wrote family histories. There were wars between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the time they ruled. 16 Rehoboam died and was buried in Jerusalem. Then Rehoboam’s son Abijah became king.
30 Jesus had not yet come into the town. He was still at the place where Martha had met him. 31 The Jews were with Mary in the house, comforting her. They saw Mary stand and leave quickly. They followed her, thinking that she was going to the tomb to cry there. 32 But Mary went to the place where Jesus was. When she saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”
33 Jesus saw that Mary was crying and that the Jews who came with her were crying, too. Jesus felt very sad in his heart and was deeply troubled. 34 He asked, “Where did you bury him?”
“Come and see, Lord,” they said.
35 Jesus cried.
36 So the Jews said, “See how much he loved him.”
37 But some of them said, “If Jesus healed the eyes of the blind man, why didn’t he keep Lazarus from dying?”
Jesus Raises Lazarus
38 Again Jesus felt very sad in his heart. He came to the tomb. The tomb was a cave with a large stone covering the entrance. 39 Jesus said, “Move the stone away.”
Martha said, “But, Lord, it has been four days since he died. There will be a bad smell.” Martha was the sister of the dead man.
40 Then Jesus said to her, “Didn’t I tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?”
41 So they moved the stone away from the entrance. Then Jesus looked up and said, “Father, I thank you that you heard me. 42 I know that you always hear me. But I said these things because of the people here around me. I want them to believe that you sent me.” 43 After Jesus said this, he cried out in a loud voice, “Lazarus, come out!” 44 The dead man came out. His hands and feet were wrapped with pieces of cloth, and he had a cloth around his face.
Jesus said to them, “Take the cloth off of him and let him go.”
The Leaders Plan to Kill Jesus
45 There were many Jews who had come to visit Mary. They saw what Jesus did. And many of them believed in him. 46 But some of them went to the Pharisees. They told the Pharisees what Jesus had done. 47 Then the leading priests and Pharisees called a meeting of the Jewish council. They asked, “What should we do? This man is doing many miracles. 48 If we let him continue doing these things, everyone will believe in him. Then the Romans will come and take away our Temple and our nation.”
49 One of the men there was Caiaphas. He was the high priest that year. Caiaphas said, “You people know nothing! 50 It is better for one man to die for the people than for the whole nation to be destroyed. But you don’t realize this.”
51 Caiaphas did not think of this himself. He was high priest that year. So he was really prophesying that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation 52 and for God’s scattered children. This would bring them all together and make them one.
53 That day they started planning to kill Jesus. 54 So Jesus no longer traveled openly among the Jews. He left there and went to a place near the desert. He went to a town called Ephraim and stayed there with his followers.
55 It was almost time for the Jewish Passover Feast. Many from the country went up to Jerusalem before the Passover. They went to do the special things to make themselves pure. 56 The people looked for Jesus. They stood in the Temple and were asking each other, “Is he coming to the Feast? What do you think?” 57 But the leading priests and the Pharisees had given orders about Jesus. They said that if anyone knew where Jesus was, he must tell them. Then they could arrest Jesus.
The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission.