Second Book of Chronicles 11

¹ Rehoboam went to Jerusalem and mustered the House of Judah with Benjamin, a hundred and eighty thousand picked warriors, to fight the House of Israel and win back the kingdom of Rehoboam.

² But the word of Yahweh came to Shemaiah the man of God,

³ ‘Say this to Rehoboam son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all the Israelites in Judah and Benjamin,

⁴ “Yahweh says this: Do not set out to fight against your brothers; let everyone go home, for what has happened is my doing”‘. They obeyed Yahweh’s command and went back instead of marching against Jeroboam.

⁵ Rehoboam lived in Jerusalem and built fortified towns in Judah.

⁶ He rebuilt Bethlehem, Etam, Tekoa,

⁷ Beth-zur, Soco, Adullam,

⁸ Gath, Mareshah, Ziph,

⁹ Adoraim, Lachish, Azekah,

¹⁰ Zorah, Aijalon, Hebron; these were fortified towns in Judah and Benjamin.

¹¹ He fortified them strongly and put commanders in them with stores of food, oil and wine.

¹² In each of these towns were shields and spears. He made them very strong to keep Judah and Benjamin under control.

¹³ The priests and the Levites throughout Israel left their districts to take up residence near him.

¹⁴ The Levites, indeed, abandoned their pasture lands and their holdings, and came to Judah and Jerusalem, since Jeroboam and his sons had excluded them from the priesthood of Yahweh,

¹⁵ and had set up for himself a priesthood of the high places, for the satyrs and the calves he had made.

¹⁶ Members of all the tribes of Israel, men wholeheartedly devoted to the worship of Yahweh the God of Israel, followed them and came to Jerusalem to sacrifice to Yahweh, the God of their ancestors.

¹⁷ These added strength to the kingdom of Judah, and gave their support to Rehoboam son of Solomon for three years, because during three years he followed the example of David and Solomon.

¹⁸ Rehoboam took as wife Mahalath the daughter of Jerimoth son of David, and of Abihail, daughter of Eliab son of Jesse,

¹⁹ and she bore him sons: Jeush, Shemariah and Zaham.

²⁰ After her, he married Maacah daughter of Absalom, who bore him Abijah, Attai, Ziza and Shelomith.

²¹ Rehoboam loved Maacah, daughter of Absalom, more than all his other wives and concubines. He had in fact a total of eighteen wives and sixty concubines and had twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters.

²² Rehoboam appointed Abijah, Maacah’s son, as head of the family, to be prince among his brothers, with a view to making him king.

²³ He built more and demolished more than any of his descendants throughout the territories of Judah and Benjamin and in all the fortified towns, which he equipped with numerous granaries. But he consulted the many gods of his wives,