2 Chronicles 10–12

The Northern Tribes Revolt

10Rehoboam went to Shechem, where all the people of northern Israel had gathered to make him king. ²When Jeroboam son of Nebat, who had gone to Egypt to escape from King Solomon, heard this news, he returned home. ³The people of the northern tribes sent for him, and they all went together to Rehoboam and said to him, ⁴“Your father placed heavy burdens on us. If you make these burdens lighter and make life easier for us, we will be your loyal subjects.”

⁵Rehoboam replied, “Give me three days to consider the matter. Then come back.” So the people left.

⁶King Rehoboam consulted the older men who had served as his father Solomon’s advisers. “What answer do you advise me to give these people?” he asked.

⁷They replied, “If you are kind to these people and try to please them by giving a considerate answer, they will always serve you loyally.”

⁸But he ignored the advice of the older men and went instead to the young men who had grown up with him and who were now his advisers. ⁹“What do you advise me to do?” he asked. “What shall I say to the people who are asking me to make their burdens lighter?”

¹⁰They replied, “This is what you should tell them: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist.’ ¹¹Tell them, ‘My father placed heavy burdens on you; I will make them even heavier. He beat you with a whip; I’ll flog you with a horsewhip!’ ”

¹²Three days later Jeroboam and all the people returned to King Rehoboam, as he had instructed them. ¹³The king ignored the advice of the older men and spoke harshly to the people, ¹⁴as the younger men had advised. He said, “My father placed heavy burdens on you; I will make them even heavier. He beat you with a whip; I’ll flog you with a horsewhip!” ¹⁵It was the will of the Lord God to bring about what he had spoken to Jeroboam son of Nebat through the prophet Ahijah from Shiloh. This is why the king did not pay any attention to the people.

^16*When the people saw that the king would not listen to them, they shouted, “Down with David and his family! What have they ever done for us? People of Israel, let’s go home! Let Rehoboam look out for himself!”

So the people of Israel rebelled, ¹⁷leaving Rehoboam as king only of the people who lived in the territory of Judah.

¹⁸Then King Rehoboam sent Adoniram, who was in charge of the forced labour, to go to the Israelites, but they stoned him to death. At this, Rehoboam hurriedly got into his chariot and escaped to Jerusalem. ¹⁹Ever since that time the people of the northern kingdom of Israel have been in rebellion against the dynasty of David.

Shemaiah’s Prophecy 1 Kgs 12.21–24

11When King Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he called together 180,000 of the best soldiers from the tribes of Benjamin and Judah. He intended to go to war and restore his control over the northern tribes of Israel. ²But the Lord told the prophet Shemaiah ³to give this message to King Rehoboam and to all the people of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin: ⁴“Do not attack your fellow-Israelites. Go home, all of you. What has happened is my will.” They obeyed the Lord’s command and did not go to fight Jeroboam.

Rehoboam Fortifies the Cities

⁵Rehoboam remained in Jerusalem and had fortifications built for the following cities of Judah and Benjamin: ⁶Bethlehem, Etam, Tekoa, ⁷Bethzur, Soco, Adullam, ⁸Gath, Mareshah, Ziph, ⁹Adoraim, Lachish, Azekah, ¹⁰Zorah, Aijalon, and Hebron. ¹¹He had them strongly fortified and appointed a commander for each of them, and in each one he placed supplies of food, olive oil, and wine, ¹²and also shields and spears. In this way he kept Judah and Benjamin under his control.

Priests and Levites Come to Judah

¹³From all the territory of Israel priests and Levites came south to Judah. ¹⁴The Levites abandoned their pastures and other land and moved to Judah and Jerusalem, because King Jeroboam of Israel and his successors would not let them serve as priests of the Lord. ^15*Jeroboam appointed priests of his own to serve at the pagan places of worship and to worship demons and the idols he made in the form of bull calves. ¹⁶From all the tribes of Israel people who sincerely wanted to worship the Lord, the God of Israel, followed the Levites to Jerusalem, so that they could offer sacrifices to the Lord, the God of their ancestors. ¹⁷This strengthened the kingdom of Judah, and for three years they supported Rehoboam son of Solomon and lived as they had under the rule of King David and King Solomon.

Rehoboam’s Family

¹⁸Rehoboam married Mahalath, whose father was Jerimoth son of David, and whose mother was Abihail, the daughter of Eliab and granddaughter of Jesse. ¹⁹They had three sons, Jeush, Shemariah, and Zaham. ²⁰Later he married Maacah, the daughter of Absalom, and they had four sons: Abijah, Attai, Ziza, and Shelomith. ²¹In all, Rehoboam had eighteen wives and 60 concubines, and he fathered 28 sons and 60 daughters. Of all his wives and concubines he loved Maacah best, ²²and he favoured her son Abijah over all his other children, choosing him as the one to succeed him as king. ²³Rehoboam wisely assigned responsibilities to his sons, and stationed them throughout Judah and Benjamin in the fortified cities. He provided generously for them and also secured many wives for them.

An Egyptian Invasion of Judah

12As soon as Rehoboam had established his authority as king, he and all his people abandoned the Law of the Lord. ²In the fifth year of Rehoboam’s reign their disloyalty to the Lord was punished. King Shishak of Egypt attacked Jerusalem ³with an army of 1,200 chariots, 60,000 horsemen, and more soldiers than could be counted, including Libyan, Sukkite, and Ethiopian^t troops. ⁴He captured the fortified cities of Judah and advanced as far as Jerusalem.

⁵Shemaiah the prophet went to King Rehoboam and the Judean leaders who had gathered in Jerusalem to escape Shishak. He said to them, “This is the Lord’s message to you: ‘You have abandoned me, so now I have abandoned you to Shishak.’ ”

⁶The king and the leaders admitted that they had sinned, and they said, “What the Lord is doing is just.”

⁷When the Lord saw this, he spoke again to Shemaiah and said to him, “Because they admit their sin, I will not destroy them. But when Shishak attacks, they will barely survive. Jerusalem will not feel the full force of my anger, ⁸but Shishak will conquer them, and they will learn the difference between serving me and serving earthly rulers.”

^9*King Shishak came to Jerusalem and took the treasures from the Temple and from the palace. He took everything, including the gold shields that King Solomon had made. ¹⁰To replace them, Rehoboam made bronze shields and entrusted them to the officers responsible for guarding the palace gates. ¹¹Every time the king went to the Temple, the guards carried the shields and then returned them to the guardroom. ¹²Because he submitted to the Lord, the Lord’s anger did not completely destroy him, and things went well for Judah.

Summary of Rehoboam’s Reign

¹³Rehoboam ruled in Jerusalem and increased his power as king. He was 41 years old when he became king, and he ruled for seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the Lord had chosen from all the territory of Israel as the place where he was to be worshipped. Rehoboam’s mother was Naamah, from the land of Ammon. ¹⁴He did what was evil, because he did not try to find the Lord’s will.

¹⁵Rehoboam’s acts from beginning to end and his family records are found in The History of Shemaiah the Prophet and The History of Iddo the Prophet. Rehoboam and Jeroboam were constantly at war with each other. ¹⁶Rehoboam died and was buried in the royal tombs in David’s City and his son Abijah succeeded him as king.