May 19, 2024
2 Chronicles 10-12 (NRSV)
2 Crónicas 10-12 (RVR1960)
The Revolt against Rehoboam
10Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king.2When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard of it (for he was in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon), then Jeroboam returned from Egypt.3They sent and called him, and Jeroboam and all Israel came and said to Rehoboam,4“Your father made our yoke heavy. Now, therefore, lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke that he placed on us, and we will serve you.”5He said to them, “Come to me again in three days.” So the people went away.
6Then King Rehoboam took counsel with the older men who had attended his father Solomon while he was still alive, saying, “How do you advise me to answer this people?”7They answered him, “If you will be kind to this people and please them and speak good words to them, then they will be your servants forever.”8But he rejected the advice that the older men gave him and consulted the young men who had grown up with him and now attended him.9He said to them, “What do you advise that we answer this people who have said to me, ‘Lighten the yoke that your father put on us’?”10The young men who had grown up with him said to him, “Thus should you speak to the people who said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you must lighten it for us’; tell them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins.11Now, whereas my father laid on you a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.’ ”
12So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam the third day, as the king had said, “Come to me again the third day.”13The king answered them harshly. King Rehoboam rejected the advice of the older men;14he spoke to them in accordance with the advice of the young men, “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to it; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.”15So the king did not listen to the people because it was a turn of affairs brought about by God so that theLordmight fulfill his word that he had spoken by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam son of Nebat.
16When all Israel saw that the king would not listen to them, the people answered the king,
“What share do we have in David?
We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse.
Each of you to your tents, O Israel!
Look now to your own house, O David.”
So all Israel departed to their tents.17But Rehoboam reigned over the people of Israel who were living in the cities of Judah.18When King Rehoboam sent Hadoram, who was taskmaster over the forced labor, the people of Israel stoned him to death. King Rehoboam hurriedly mounted his chariot to flee to Jerusalem.19So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day.
Judah and Benjamin Fortified
11When Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, he assembled one hundred eighty thousand chosen troops of the house of Judah and Benjamin to fight against Israel, to restore the kingdom to Rehoboam.2But the word of theLordcame to Shemaiah the man of God:3“Say to King Rehoboam of Judah, son of Solomon, and to all Israel in Judah and Benjamin:4Thus says theLord: You shall not go up or fight against your kindred. Let everyone return home, for this thing is from me.” So they heeded the word of theLordand turned back from the expedition against Jeroboam.
5Rehoboam resided in Jerusalem, and he built cities for defense in Judah.6He built up Bethlehem, Etam, Tekoa,7Beth-zur, Soco, Adullam,8Gath, Mareshah, Ziph,9Adoraim, Lachish, Azekah,10Zorah, Aijalon, and Hebron, fortified cities that are in Judah and in Benjamin.11He made the fortresses strong and put commanders in them and stores of food, oil, and wine.12He also put large shields and spears in all the cities and made them very strong. So he held Judah and Benjamin.
Priests and Levites Support Rehoboam
13The priests and the Levites who were in all Israel presented themselves to him from all their territories.14The Levites had left their pasturelands and possessions and had come to Judah and Jerusalem because Jeroboam and his sons had prevented them from serving as priests of theLord15and had appointed his own priests for the high places and for the goat-demons and for the calves that he had made.16Those who had set their hearts to seek theLordGod of Israel came after them from all the tribes of Israel to Jerusalem to sacrifice to theLord, the God of their ancestors.17They strengthened the kingdom of Judah, and for three years they made Rehoboam son of Solomon secure, for they walked for three years in the way of David and Solomon.
Rehoboam’s Marriages
18Rehoboam took as his wife Mahalath daughter of Jerimoth son of David and of Abihail daughter of Eliab son of Jesse.19She bore him sons: Jeush, Shemariah, and Zaham.20After her he took Maacah daughter of Absalom, who bore him Abijah, Attai, Ziza, and Shelomith.21Rehoboam loved Maacah daughter of Absalom more than all his other wives and concubines (he took eighteen wives and sixty concubines and became the father of twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters).22Rehoboam appointed Abijah son of Maacah as chief prince among his brothers, for he intended to make him king.23He dealt wisely and distributed some of his sons through all the districts of Judah and Benjamin, in all the fortified cities; he gave them abundant provisions and found many wives for them.
Egypt Attacks Judah
12When the rule of Rehoboam was established and he grew strong, he abandoned the law of theLord, he and all Israel with him.2In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, because they had been unfaithful to theLord, King Shishak of Egypt came up against Jerusalem3with twelve hundred chariots and sixty thousand cavalry. A countless army came with him from Egypt: Libyans, Sukkiim, and Cush*tes.4He took the fortified cities of Judah and came as far as Jerusalem.5Then the prophet Shemaiah came to Rehoboam and to the officers of Judah who had gathered at Jerusalem because of Shishak and said to them, “Thus says theLord: You abandoned me, so I have abandoned you to the hand of Shishak.”6Then the officers of Israel and the king humbled themselves and said, “TheLordis in the right.”7When theLordsaw that they had humbled themselves, the word of theLordcame to Shemaiah, saying, “They have humbled themselves; I will not destroy them, but I will grant them some deliverance, and my wrath shall not be poured out on Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak.8Nevertheless, they shall be his servants, so that they may know the difference between serving me and serving the kingdoms of other lands.”
9So King Shishak of Egypt came up against Jerusalem; he took away the treasures of the house of theLordand the treasures of the king’s house; he took everything. He also took away the shields of gold that Solomon had made,10but King Rehoboam made in place of them shields of bronze and committed them to the hands of the officers of the guard who kept the door of the king’s house.11Whenever the king went into the house of theLord, the guard would come along bearing them and would then bring them back to the guardroom.12Because he humbled himself, the wrath of theLordturned from him, so as not to destroy them completely; moreover, conditions were good in Judah.
Death of Rehoboam
13So King Rehoboam strengthened himself in Jerusalem and reigned. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he began to reign; he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city that theLordhad chosen out of all the tribes of Israel to put his name there. His mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonite.14He did evil, for he did not set his heart to seek theLord.
15Now the acts of Rehoboam, from first to last, are they not written in the records of the prophet Shemaiah and of the seer Iddo, recorded by genealogy? There were continual wars between Rehoboam and Jeroboam.16Rehoboam slept with his ancestors and was buried in the city of David, and his son Abijah succeeded him.
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