| [an error occurred while processing this directive] | Berean Study Bible |
| 1[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 1When Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he mobilized the house of Judah and Benjamin—180,000 chosen warriors—to fight against Israel and restore the kingdom to Rehoboam. |
| 2[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 2But the word of the LORD came to Shemaiah the man of God: |
| 3[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 3“Tell Rehoboam son of Solomon king of Judah and all the Israelites in Judah and Benjamin |
| 4[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 4that 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. |
| 5[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 5Rehoboam continued to live in Jerusalem, and he built up cities for defense in Judah. |
| 6[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 6He built up Bethlehem, Etam, Tekoa, |
| 7[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 7Beth-zur, Soco, Adullam, |
| 8[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 8Gath, Mareshah, Ziph, |
| 9[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 9Adoraim, Lachish, Azekah, |
| 10[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 10Zorah, Aijalon, and Hebron, the fortified cities in Judah and Benjamin. |
| 11[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 11He strengthened their fortresses and put officers in them, with supplies of food, oil, and wine. |
| 12[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 12He also put shields and spears in all the cities and strengthened them greatly. So Judah and Benjamin belonged to him. |
| 13[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 13Moreover, the priests and Levites from all their districts throughout Israel stood with Rehoboam. |
| 14[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 14For 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. |
| 15[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 15And Jeroboam appointed his own priests for the high places and for the goat demons and calf idols he had made. |
| 16[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 16Those 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. |
| 17[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 17So 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. |
| 18[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 18And Rehoboam married Mahalath, who was the daughter of David’s son Jerimoth and of Abihail, the daughter of Jesse’s son Eliab. |
| 19[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 19She bore sons to him: Jeush, Shemariah, and Zaham. |
| 20[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 20After her, he married Maacah daughter of Absalom, and she bore to him Abijah, Attai, Ziza, and Shelomith. |
| 21[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 21Rehoboam 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. |
| 22[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 22Rehoboam appointed Abijah son of Maacah as chief prince among his brothers, intending to make him king. |
| 23[an error occurred while processing this directive] | 23Rehoboam 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. |
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