2 Chronicles 11

1When Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, he assembled the house of Judah and Benjamin, one hundred eighty thousand chosen warriors, to fight against Israel in order to restore the kingdom to Rehoboam.

2And the word of Yahweh came to Shemaiah the man of God, saying,

3Speak to Rehoboam son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all Israel in Judah and Benjamin, saying,

4Thus says Yahweh: You must not go up or fight against your brothers. Return, each man to his house, for this thing has come from me. So they listened to the words of Yahweh and turned back from going against Jeroboam.

5Rehoboam lived in Jerusalem, and he built fortified cities in Judah.

6And he built Bethlehem, Etam, and Tekoa.

7and Beth-zur, Soco, and Adullam;

8Gath, Mareshah, and Ziph.

9Adoraim, Lachish, and Azekah,

10and Zorah, Aijalon, and Hebron, which are in Judah and in Benjamin, fortified cities.

11He strengthened the fortified places and put commanders in them, along with stores of food, oil, and wine.

12And in every city he put shields and spears, and he strengthened them very greatly; and Judah and Benjamin belonged to him.

13And the priests and the Levites who were in all Israel took their stand with him from all their territories.

14For the Levites left their pasturelands and their possessions and went to Judah and Jerusalem, because Jeroboam and his sons had rejected them from serving as priests to Yahweh.

15And he appointed for himself priests for the high places, for the goat-demons, and for the calves that he had made.

16And after them, from all the tribes of Israel, those who set their hearts to seek Yahweh, the God of Israel, came to Jerusalem to sacrifice to Yahweh, the God of their fathers.

17So they strengthened the kingdom of Judah and strengthened Rehoboam son of Solomon for three years, because for three years they walked in the way of David and Solomon.

18Rehoboam took as wife Mahalath the daughter of Jerimoth son of David, and Abihail the daughter of Eliab son of Jesse.

19And she bore him sons: Jeush, Shemariah, and Zaham.

20After her, he took Maacah the daughter of Absalom, and she bore him Abijah, Attai, Ziza, and Shelomith.

21Rehoboam loved Maacah the daughter of Absalom more than all his wives and his concubines, for he had taken eighteen wives and sixty concubines, and he fathered twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters.

22And Rehoboam appointed Abijah son of Maacah as chief among his brothers, for he intended to make him king.

23And he acted wisely and distributed some of all his sons throughout all the lands of Judah and Benjamin, to all the fortified cities; and he gave them abundant provisions and sought many wives for them.