2 Chronicles 11 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.
Time Period
~930-925 BC, the first years of Rehoboam's reign over the southern kingdom
Location
Jerusalem and a ring of fortified towns across Judah and Benjamin, including Bethlehem, Lachish, and Hebron
Audience
Returned exiles in a small province ringed by unfriendly neighbours, familiar with life without walls
Situation
Rehoboam musters an army to retake the north but stands down when the prophet Shemaiah tells him the division is from God. He instead fortifies fifteen cities, and receives priests and Levites who leave the north because Jeroboam has barred them from serving, along with others who come south to worship in Jerusalem.
Key Background
The fortified towns Rehoboam names guard the western approaches from the coastal plain and the southern desert routes, the two directions an invading army would realistically come from, and archaeology has found substantial Iron Age fortification at several of them. Jeroboam set up rival shrines with golden calves at Bethel and Dan so his subjects would not travel to Jerusalem for festivals, which put the existing priesthood out of work and pushed them south. Chronicles counts Rehoboam's wives and sons and notes how he distributed them among the fortified cities, a normal royal strategy for tying provincial towns to the throne through family.
When Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he assembled the fighting men of Judah and — a hundred and eighty thousand — to go to war against Israel and win the kingdom back.
But a message from came to Shemaiah, a of
"Tell Rehoboam son of Solomon, king of Judah, and tell all of Israel in Judah and Benjamin:
'This is what Yahweh says: Don't march out to fight against own Everyone go home, because I'm the who this They listened to Yahweh's message and turned back from going after Jeroboam.
Rehoboam stayed in Jerusalem and built up throughout Judah.
He built up Etam, Tekoa,
Beth Zur, Soco, Adullam,
Gath, Mareshah, Ziph,
Adoraim, Azekah,
Zorah, Aijalon, and — all of them fortified cities in Judah and Benjamin.
He strengthened the fortifications, put commanders in them, and stocked them with food, olive oil, and wine.
In every city he placed shields and spears, making them extremely strong. So Judah and Benjamin remained under his control.
The and from all across Israel came and joined Rehoboam from all their territories,
because the Levites left their and their property behind and came to Judah and Jerusalem. Jeroboam and his sons had rejected them from serving as priests to Yahweh.
Jeroboam had appointed his own priests for the for the and for the he had made.
Following the Levites' lead, people from every tribe of Israel who had their on Yahweh, the God of Israel, came to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices to Yahweh, the God of their ancestors.
They strengthened the kingdom of Judah and supported Rehoboam son of for three years, because for three years they followed the of and
Rehoboam married Mahalath, the daughter of of and of Abihail daughter of Eliab of Jesse.
She bore him sons: Jeush, Shemariah, and Zaham.
After her, he married of She bore him Abijah, Attai, Ziza, and Shelomith.
Rehoboam loved Maacah daughter of Absalom more than any of his other wives and He had married eighteen wives and sixty and fathered twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters.
Rehoboam appointed Abijah son of Maacah as the — the designated heir to the throne.
He by distributing some of his sons throughout all the regions of Judah and Benjamin, stationing them in the various fortified cities. He gave them generous provisions and secured many wives for them.