CHAPTER 11
When Rehoboam
arrived
in Jerusalem,
he mobilized
the house
of Judah
and Benjamin—
180,000
choice
warriors—
to fight
against
Israel
and restore
the kingdom
to Rehoboam.
that this is what
the LORD
says:
‘You are not
to go up
and fight
against
your brothers.
Each
of you must return
home,
for
this
word
is
from Me.’”
So they listened
to the words
of the LORD
and turned back
from going
against
Jeroboam.
He also put shields
and spears
in all
the cities
and strengthened
them greatly.
So Judah
and Benjamin
belonged to him.
Moreover, the priests
and Levites
from
all
their districts
throughout
Israel
stood
with Rehoboam.
For
the Levites
left
their pasturelands
and their possessions
and went
to Judah
and Jerusalem,
because
Jeroboam
and his sons
had rejected them
as priests
of the LORD.
And Jeroboam appointed
his own
priests
for the high places
and for the goat-demons
and calf idols
he had made.
Those from every
tribe
of Israel
who had set
their hearts
to seek
the LORD
their
God
followed the Levites
to Jerusalem
to sacrifice
to the LORD,
the God
of their fathers.
So they strengthened
the kingdom
of Judah
and supported
Rehoboam
son
of Solomon
for three
years,
because
they walked
for three
years
in the way
of David
and Solomon.
And Rehoboam
married
Mahalath,
who was the daughter
of David’s
son
Jerimoth
and of Abihail,
the daughter
of Jesse’s
son
Eliab.
After her,
he married
Maacah
daughter
of Absalom,
and she bore
to him
Abijah,
Attai,
Ziza,
and Shelomith.
Rehoboam
loved
Maacah
daughter
of Absalom
more than all
his wives
and concubines.
In all, he had
eighteen
wives
and sixty
concubines,
and he was the father
of twenty-eight
sons
and sixty
daughters.
Rehoboam
appointed
Abijah
son
of Maacah
as chief
prince
among his brothers,
intending to make him king.
Rehoboam also acted wisely
by dispersing
some of his sons
throughout
the districts
of Judah
and Benjamin,
and to all
the fortified
cities.
He gave
them
abundant
provisions
and sought
many
wives for them.