2 Chronicles 11

1Rehoboam came to Jerusalem and assembled from the house of Judah and Benjamin a hundred and eighty thousand chosen warriors to fight against Israel and restore the kingdom to Rehoboam.

2But Yahweh's word came to Shemaiah the man of God, saying,

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

4Thus says Yahweh: "Do not go up, nor fight against your brothers. Return, every man, to his house, for this matter has come from me." They heeded Yahweh's words and turned back from marching against Jeroboam.

5Rehoboam resided in Jerusalem and built cities for defense in Judah.

6He built Bethlehem, Etam, and Tekoa.

7Beth-zur, Shochoh, and Adullam

8and Gath, Mareshah, and Ziph

9and Adoraim, and Lachish, and Azekah

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

11He strengthened the fortified cities and put captains in them, with stores of food, oil, and wine.

12He put shields and spears in every city and strengthened them greatly. Judah and Benjamin were his.

13The priests and the Levites who were throughout Israel presented themselves to him from all their borders.

14The Levites abandoned their pasturelands and their property and went to Judah and Jerusalem, for Jeroboam and his sons had rejected them from serving as priests to Yahweh.

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

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

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

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

19She bore him sons, Jeush, Shemariah, and Zaham.

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

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

22Rehoboam appointed Abijah, Maachah's son, as chief and ruler among his brothers, because he purposed to make him king.

23He acted shrewdly and scattered all his sons throughout all the lands of Judah and Benjamin, to every fortified city; he gave them abundant provisions and sought many wives for them.