Rehoboam

¹⁰ Solomon’s son was Rehoboam: Abijah was his son, Asa his son, Jehoshaphat his son,

¹¹ Joram his son, Ahaziah his son, Joash his son,

And Solomon rested with his fathers and was buried in the city of his father David. And his son Rehoboam reigned in his place.

¹ Then Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had gone there to make him king.

² When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard about this, he was still in Egypt where he had fled from King Solomon and had been living ever since.

³ So they sent for Jeroboam, and he and the whole assembly of Israel came to Rehoboam and said,

⁴ “Your father put a heavy yoke on us. But now you should lighten the burden of your father’s service and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you.”

Then King Rehoboam consulted with the elders who had served his father Solomon during his lifetime. “How do you advise me to respond to these people?” he asked.

After three days, Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam, since the king had said, “Come back to me on the third day.”

¹⁶ When all Israel saw that the king had refused to listen to them, they answered the king: “What portion do we have in David, and what inheritance in the son of Jesse? To your tents, O Israel! Look now to your own house, O David!” So the Israelites went home,

¹⁷ but Rehoboam still reigned over the Israelites living in the cities of Judah.

¹⁸ Then King Rehoboam sent out Adoram, who was in charge of the forced labor, but all Israel stoned him to death. And King Rehoboam mounted his chariot in haste and escaped to Jerusalem.

²¹ And when Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he mobilized the whole house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin—180,000 chosen warriors—to fight against the house of Israel and restore the kingdom to Rehoboam son of Solomon.

²² But the word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God:

²³ “Tell Rehoboam son of Solomon king of Judah, all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and the rest of the people

If these people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, their hearts will return to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah; then they will kill me and return to Rehoboam king of Judah.”

Meanwhile, Rehoboam son of Solomon reigned in Judah. He was forty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city the LORD had chosen from all the tribes of Israel in which to put His Name. His mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonite.

²⁵ In the fifth year of Rehoboam’s reign, Shishak king of Egypt came up and attacked Jerusalem.

²⁶ He seized the treasures of the house of the LORD and of the royal palace. He took everything, including all the gold shields that Solomon had made.

²⁷ Then King Rehoboam made bronze shields in their place and committed them to the care of the captains of the guard on duty at the entrance to the royal palace.

²⁸ And whenever the king entered the house of the LORD, the guards would bear the shields, and later they would return them to the guardroom.

²⁹ As for the rest of the acts of Rehoboam, along with all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

³⁰ There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam throughout their days.