The first king of Judah after the division of the kingdom
Det delade kungariketKingc. 972–913 BC
Rehoboam was the son of King Solomon and the first king of the southern kingdom of Judah after Israel split into two. His harsh leadership and rejection of the people's counsel led directly to the division, where the ten northern tribes broke away under Jeroboam.
When Rehoboam gathered Israel at Shechem to be crowned, the people asked for relief from their burdens. He rejected the advice of the elders and followed the harsh counsel of the young men, which led ten tribes to break away.
6King Rehoboam consulted the elders who had served in the presence of his father Solomon while he was alive. "What do you advise?" he asked. "How shall I answer these people?"
7They said to him, "If today you will be a servant to these people, serve them, answer them, and speak kind words to them, they will be your servants forever."
10The young men who had grown up with him replied, "Tell these people who said to you, 'Your father made our yoke heavy; now lighten it for us'—tell them this: 'My little finger is thicker than my father's waist.'
11Now then, my father loaded you with a heavy yoke; I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips; I will discipline you with scorpions."
14and spoke to them according to the advice of the young men: "My father made your yoke heavy; I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips; I will discipline you with scorpions."
15So the king did not listen to the people, for this turn of events came from the LORD, to fulfill the word the LORD had spoken through 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. To your tents, Israel! Look to your own house now, David!" So Israel went off to their tents.
18Then King Rehoboam sent out Adoram, who was in charge of the forced labor, but all Israel stoned him to death. King Rehoboam managed to get into his chariot and escape to Jerusalem.
When Rehoboam assembled an army of 180,000 men to reconquer the northern kingdom, the prophet Shemaiah spoke God's word and prevented war between the brothers.
21When Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he mustered the whole house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin—a hundred and eighty thousand able young warriors—to fight against the house of Israel and restore the kingdom to Rehoboam son of Solomon.
24This is what the LORD says: Do not march up to fight against your brothers, the Israelites. Every one of you go home, for this thing is from me." So they obeyed the word of the LORD and turned back, as the LORD had commanded.
During Rehoboam's reign, Judah fell into idolatry with high places, sacred pillars, and Asherah poles on every hill, and there was even temple prostitution in the land.
24There were even male cult prostitutes in the land. They committed all the detestable practices of the nations the LORD had driven out before the Israelites.
In Rehoboam's fifth year as king, Pharaoh Shishak of Egypt attacked Jerusalem and took the treasures from the temple and the royal palace, including Solomon's shields of gold.
26He carried off the treasures of the house of the LORD and the treasures of the royal palace. He took everything, including all the gold shields Solomon had made.
27So King Rehoboam made bronze shields to replace them and entrusted them to the commanders of the guard who kept watch at the entrance of the royal palace.
Rehoboam fortified cities in Judah and Benjamin to strengthen the kingdom's defenses, and Levites and devout Israelites from the northern kingdom sought refuge with him.
14for the Levites left their pasturelands and their holdings and came to Judah and Jerusalem, because Jeroboam and his sons had rejected them from serving as priests of the LORD.
16And those from every tribe of Israel who set their hearts on seeking the LORD, the God of Israel, followed the Levites to Jerusalem to sacrifice to the LORD, the God of their fathers.
17So they strengthened the kingdom of Judah and supported Rehoboam son of Solomon for three years, for during those three years they walked in the way of David and Solomon.
31Rehoboam lay down with his fathers and was buried with them in the City of David. His mother's name was Naamah the Ammonite, and his son Abijam succeeded him as king.