Study Desk

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

And Rehoboam took to himself Mahalath the daughter of Jerimoth the son of David for a wife, [and] Abihail the daughter of Eliab the son of Jesse;

And Rehoboam loved Maachah the daughter of Absalom above all his wives and his concubines: (for he took eighteen wives, and sixty concubines; and begat twenty and eight sons, and sixty daughters.)

And Rehoboam made Abijah the son of Maachah the chief, [to be] ruler among his brethren: for [he thought] to make him king.

So king Rehoboam strengthened himself in Jerusalem, and reigned: for Rehoboam [was] one and forty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the LORD had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there. And his mother's name [was] Naamah an Ammonitess.

Ought ye not to know that the LORD God of Israel gave the kingdom over Israel to David for ever, [even] to him and to his sons by a covenant of salt?

And now ye think to withstand the kingdom of the LORD in the hand of the sons of David; and ye [are] a great multitude, and [there are] with you golden calves, which Jeroboam made you for gods.

Have ye not cast out the priests of the LORD, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites, and have made for you priests after the manner of the nations of [other] lands? so that whoever cometh to consecrate himself with a young bullock and seven rams, [the same] may be a priest of [them that are] no gods.

But as for us, the LORD [is] our God, and we have not forsaken him; and the priests, who minister to the LORD, [are] the sons of Aaron, and the Levites [wait] upon [their] business:

And they burn to the LORD every morning and every evening burnt-sacrifices and sweet incense: the show-bread also [they set in order] upon the pure table; and the candlestick of gold with its lamps to burn every evening: for we keep the charge of the LORD our God; but ye have forsaken him.

And behold, God himself [is] with us for [our] captain, and his priests with sounding trumpets to cry alarm against you. O children of Israel, fight ye not against the LORD God of your fathers; for ye will not prosper.

For he took away the altars of the strange [gods], and the high places, and broke down the images, and cut down the groves:

And he built fortified cities in Judah: for the land had rest, and he had no war in those years; because the LORD had given him rest.

And Asa cried to the LORD his God, and said, LORD, [it is] nothing with thee to help, whether with many, or with them that have no power: help us, O LORD our God; for we rest on thee, and in thy name we go against this multitude. O LORD, thou [art] our God; let not man prevail against thee.

And Asa and the people that [were] with him pursued them to Gerar: and the Cushites were overthrown, that they could not recover themselves; for they were destroyed before the LORD, and before his host; and they carried away very much spoil.

And they smote all the cities about Gerar; for the fear of the LORD came upon them: and they plundered all the cities; for there was exceeding much spoil in them.

Now for a long season Israel [hath been] without the true God, and without a teaching priest, and without law.

And nation was destroyed by nation, and city by city: for God troubled them with all adversity.

Be ye strong therefore, and let not your hands be weak; for your work shall be rewarded.

And he gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and the strangers with them out of Ephraim and Manasseh, and out of Simeon: for they resorted to him out of Israel in multitudes, when they saw that the LORD his God [was] with him.