2 Chronicles 11-12

Common English Bible

11 When Rehoboam arrived at Jerusalem, he assembled the house of Judah and Benjamin, one hundred eighty thousand select warriors, to fight against Israel and to restore the kingdom to Rehoboam. ² But the Lord’s word came to Shemaiah the man of God: ³ Tell Judah’s King Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, and all Israel in Judah and Benjamin, ⁴ This is what the Lord says: Don’t make war against your relatives. Go home, every one of you, because this is my plan. When they heard the Lord’s words, they abandoned their attack against Jeroboam.

⁵ Rehoboam lived in Jerusalem, but he built cities for Judah’s defense ⁶ in Bethlehem, Etam, Tekoa, ⁷ Beth-zur, Soco, Adullam, ⁸ Gath, Mareshah, Ziph, ⁹ Adoraim, Lachish, Azekah, ¹⁰ Zorah, Aijalon, and Hebron. These were the fortified cities in Judah and Benjamin. ¹¹ He made the fortifications stronger, placed commanders in them, and supplied them with food, oil, and wine. ¹² He also stored shields and spears in each of the cities, making them very strong. This is how Judah and Benjamin remained under his control.

¹³ The priests and the Levites from every region throughout all Israel sided with Rehoboam. ¹⁴ The Levites left their pastures and property to come to Judah and Jerusalem because Jeroboam and his sons had refused to let them serve as the Lord’s priests, ¹⁵ having appointed his own priests for the shrines and the goat and calf idols he had made. ¹⁶ People from every tribe of Israel who had made up their minds to seek the Lord, Israel’s God, came to Jerusalem to sacrifice to the Lord, the God of their ancestors. ¹⁷ They strengthened the kingdom of Judah and supported Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, for three years by following the way of David and Solomon those three years.

¹⁸ Rehoboam married Mahalath daughter of Jerimoth, David’s son, and Abihail daughter of Eliab, Jesse’s son. ¹⁹ The sons she bore him were Jeush, Shemariah, and Zaham. ²⁰ Later he married Maacah, Absalom’s daughter, who bore him Abijah, Attai, Ziza, and Shelomith. ²¹ Rehoboam loved Absalom’s daughter Maacah more than all his wives and secondary wives. In all, he had eighteen wives and sixty secondary wives, twenty-eight sons, and sixty daughters. ²² Rehoboam named Abijah, Maacah’s son, as his successor in order to make him king. ²³ He wisely placed some of his sons in every region of Judah and Benjamin, in every fortified city, and gave them plenty of food and sought many wives for them.

12 But as soon as Rehoboam had secured his royal power, he, along with all Israel, abandoned the Lord’s Instruction.

Rehoboam rules

² Egypt’s King Shishak attacked Jerusalem in the fifth year of King Rehoboam because Israel had been unfaithful to the Lord. ³ Accompanying Shishak from Egypt were twelve hundred chariots, sixty thousand horses, and countless Libyan, Sukkite, and Cushite warriors. ⁴ He captured the fortified cities of Judah and came toward Jerusalem. ⁵ Then the prophet Shemaiah went to Rehoboam and the leaders of Judah who had gathered at Jerusalem because of Shishak, and told them, This is what the Lord says: Since you have abandoned me, now I am abandoning you to Shishak’s power.

⁶ Then the leaders of Israel and the king submitted. “The Lord is right,” they said.

⁷ When the Lord saw that they had submitted, the Lord’s word came to Shemaiah: Since they have submitted, I won’t destroy them. I will deliver them in a little while, and I won’t use Shishak to pour out my anger against Jerusalem. ⁸ Nevertheless, they will be subject to him so that they learn the difference between serving me and serving other nations.

⁹ Egypt’s King Shishak attacked Jerusalem and seized the treasures of the Lord’s temple and the royal palace. He took everything, even the gold shields Solomon had made. ¹⁰ King Rehoboam replaced them with bronze shields and assigned them to the officers of the guard who protected the entrance to the royal palace. (¹¹ Whenever the king entered the Lord’s temple, the guards would carry the shields and then return them to the guardroom.) ¹² When Rehoboam submitted, the Lord was no longer angry with him, and total destruction was avoided. There were, after all, some good things still in Judah.

¹³ So King Rehoboam was securely established in Jerusalem. Rehoboam was 41 years old when he became king, and he ruled seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city the Lord had chosen from all the tribes of Israel to put his name. His mother’s name was Naamah from Ammon. ¹⁴ But Rehoboam did what was evil because he didn’t set his heart on seeking the Lord. ¹⁵ The deeds of Rehoboam, from beginning to end, aren’t they written in the records of the prophet Shemaiah and the seer Iddo, including the genealogical records? There was continual warfare between Rehoboam and Jeroboam. ¹⁶ Rehoboam lay down with his ancestors and was buried in David’s City. His son Abijah^[a] succeeded him as king.