2 Chronicles 10–11

Israel Rebels Against Rehoboam

10:1–11:4pp—1Ki 12:1–24

10Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had gone there to make him king. ²When Jeroboam^a son of Nebat heard this (he was in Egypt, where he had fled^b from King Solomon), he returned from Egypt. ³So they sent for Jeroboam, and he and all Israel^c went to Rehoboam and said to him: ⁴“Your father put a heavy yoke on us,^d but now lighten the harsh labor and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you.”

⁵Rehoboam answered, “Come back to me in three days.” So the people went away.

⁶Then King Rehoboam consulted the elders^e who had served his father Solomon during his lifetime. “How would you advise me to answer these people?” he asked.

⁷They replied, “If you will be kind to these people and please them and give them a favorable answer,^f they will always be your servants.”

⁸But Rehoboam rejected^g the advice the elders^h gave him and consulted the young men who had grown up with him and were serving him. ⁹He asked them, “What is your advice? How should we answer these people who say to me, ‘Lighten the yoke your father put on us’?”

¹⁰The young men who had grown up with him replied, “The people have said to you, ‘Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but make our yoke lighter.’ Now tell them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist. ¹¹My father laid on you a heavy yoke; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.’ ”

¹²Three days later Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam, as the king had said, “Come back to me in three days.” ¹³The king answered them harshly. Rejecting the advice of the elders, ¹⁴he followed the advice of the young men and said, “My father made your yoke heavy; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.” ¹⁵So the king did not listen to the people, for this turn of events was from God,ⁱ to fulfill the word the Lord had spoken to Jeroboam son of Nebat through Ahijah the Shilonite.^j

¹⁶When all Israel^k saw that the king refused to listen to them, they answered the king:

“What share do we have in David,^l

what part in Jesse’s son?

To your tents, Israel!

Look after your own house, David!”

So all the Israelites went home. ¹⁷But as for the Israelites who were living in the towns of Judah, Rehoboam still ruled over them.

¹⁸King Rehoboam sent out Adoniram,^am who was in charge of forced labor, but the Israelites stoned him to death. King Rehoboam, however, managed to get into his chariot and escape to Jerusalem. ¹⁹So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day.

11When Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem,ⁿ he mustered Judah and Benjamin—a hundred and eighty thousand able young men—to go to war against Israel and to regain the kingdom for Rehoboam.

²But this word of the Lord came to Shemaiah^o the man of God: ³“Say to Rehoboam son of Solomon king of Judah and to all Israel in Judah and Benjamin, ⁴‘This is what the Lord says: Do not go up to fight against your fellow Israelites.^p Go home, every one of you, for this is my doing.’ ” So they obeyed the words of the Lord and turned back from marching against Jeroboam.

Rehoboam Fortifies Judah

⁵Rehoboam lived in Jerusalem and built up towns for defense in Judah: ⁶Bethlehem, Etam, Tekoa, ⁷Beth Zur, Soko, Adullam, ⁸Gath, Mareshah, Ziph, ⁹Adoraim, Lachish, Azekah, ¹⁰Zorah, Aijalon and Hebron. These were fortified cities^q in Judah and Benjamin. ¹¹He strengthened their defenses and put commanders in them, with supplies of food, olive oil and wine. ¹²He put shields and spears in all the cities, and made them very strong. So Judah and Benjamin were his.

¹³The priests and Levites from all their districts throughout Israel sided with him. ¹⁴The Levites^r even abandoned their pasturelands and property^s and came to Judah and Jerusalem, because Jeroboam and his sons had rejected them as priests of the Lord ¹⁵when he appointed^t his own priests^u for the high places and for the goat^v and calf^w idols he had made. ¹⁶Those from every tribe of Israel^x who set their hearts on seeking the Lord, the God of Israel, followed the Levites to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices to the Lord, the God of their ancestors. ¹⁷They strengthened^y the kingdom of Judah and supported Rehoboam son of Solomon three years, following the ways of David and Solomon during this time.

Rehoboam’s Family

¹⁸Rehoboam married Mahalath, who was the daughter of David’s son Jerimoth and of Abihail, the daughter of Jesse’s son Eliab. ¹⁹She bore him sons: Jeush, Shemariah and Zaham. ²⁰Then he married Maakah^z daughter of Absalom, who bore him Abijah,^a Attai, Ziza and Shelomith. ²¹Rehoboam loved Maakah daughter of Absalom more than any of his other wives and concubines. In all, he had eighteen wives^b and sixty concubines, twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters.

²²Rehoboam appointed Abijah^c son of Maakah as crown prince among his brothers, in order to make him king. ²³He acted wisely, dispersing some of his sons throughout the districts of Judah and Benjamin, and to all the fortified cities. He gave them abundant provisions^d and took many wives for them.