Rehoboam Fortifies Judah
1When Rehoboam reached Jerusalem he mustered the house of Judah and Benjamin — a hundred and eighty thousand picked fighting men — to make war on Israel and win the kingdom back for Rehoboam. 2Then this word of Yahweh came to Shemaiah the man of God: 3“Say this to Rehoboam son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to every Israelite in Judah and Benjamin: 4This is what Yahweh says: You are not to march out and fight your own kinsmen. Go home, every one of you, for this is my doing.” They obeyed the words of Yahweh and turned back from marching against Jeroboam. 5Rehoboam took up residence in Jerusalem, and in Judah he built towns for defence. 6He built Bethlehem, Etam, Tekoa, 7Beth-zur, Soco, Adullam, 8Gath, Mareshah, Ziph, 9Adoraim, Lachish, Azekah, 10Zorah, Aijalon and Hebron — fortified towns, in Judah and in Benjamin. 11He reinforced the strongholds, put commanders in them, and stores of food, oil and wine, 12and shields and spears in every single town. He made them exceedingly strong. So Judah and Benjamin were his. 13The priests and the Levites throughout Israel took their stand with him, coming from every district where they lived; 14for the Levites left their pasture lands and their holdings and went to Judah and Jerusalem, because Jeroboam and his sons had barred them from serving as priests to Yahweh. 15He had appointed his own priests for the high places, for the goat-demons and for the calves he had made. 16And after them, from all the tribes of Israel, those who set their hearts on seeking Yahweh, the God of Israel, came to Jerusalem to sacrifice to Yahweh, the God of their ancestors. 17For three years they gave strength to the kingdom of Judah and backing to Rehoboam son of Solomon, since for those three years they followed the road of David and Solomon. 18For his wife Rehoboam took Mahalath — her father Jerimoth, a son of David; her mother Abihail, daughter of Eliab son of Jesse. 19She bore him sons: Jeush, Shemariah and Zaham. 20After her he took Maacah daughter of Absalom, and she bore him Abijah, Attai, Ziza and Shelomith. 21Rehoboam loved Maacah daughter of Absalom more than all his wives and concubines; he had taken eighteen wives and sixty concubines, and fathered twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters. 22Rehoboam set Abijah son of Maacah at the head, as chief among his brothers, since he meant to make him king. 23He acted shrewdly, scattering some of his sons through all the districts of Judah and Benjamin, through every fortified town; he supplied them lavishly and sought many wives for them.
