Study Desk

Shlomo also had 4,000 stalls of horses for his chariots and his 12,000 horsemen; he assigned them to the chariot cities and to the king in Yerushalayim.

Then Shlomo slept with his ancestors and was buried in the City of David his father, and Rechav‘am his son became king in his place.

"Your father laid a harsh yoke on us. But if you will lighten the harsh service we had to render your father and ease his heavy yoke that he put on us, we will serve you."

King Rechav‘am consulted the older men who had been in attendance on Shlomo his father during his lifetime and asked, "What advice would you give me as to how to answer these people?"

But he didn't take the advice the older men gave him; instead he consulted the young men he had grown up with, who were now his attendants.

So the king didn't listen to the people; and that was something God brought about, so that Adonai could fulfill his word, which he had spoken through Achiyah from Shiloh to Yarov‘am the son of N'vat.

King Rechav‘am then sent Hadoram, who was in charge of forced labor; but the people of Isra'el stoned him to death. King Rechav‘am managed to mount his chariot and flee to Yerushalayim.

The L'vi'im left their pasture lands and property and came to Y'hudah and Yerushalayim; since Yarov‘am and his sons had thrown them out, not allowing them to function as cohanim for Adonai ,

and she became the mother of his sons Ye‘ush, Sh'maryah and Zaham.

Rechav‘am loved Ma‘akhah more than all his other wives and concubines — for he had eighteen wives and sixty concubines and was the father of twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters.

Rechav‘am appointed Aviyah the son of Ma‘akhah chief, the leader of his brothers, because he intended to make him king.

He was wise in his treatment of his sons, sending all of them throughout the territory of Y'hudah and Binyamin, to every fortified city, providing them with plenty of supplies and seeking for them many wives.

But in time, after Rechav‘am had consolidated his rulership and had become strong, he, and with him all Isra'el, abandoned the Torah of Adonai .

However, they will become his slaves, so that they will come to appreciate the difference between serving me and serving earthly kingdoms."

So King Rechav‘am consolidated his rule in Yerushalayim. Rechav‘am was forty-one years old when he began his reign; and he ruled seventeen years in Yerushalayim, the city Adonai had chosen from all the tribes of Isra'el to bear his name; his mother's name was Na‘amah the ‘Amonit.

He did what was evil, because he had not set his heart on seeking Adonai .

Rechav‘am slept with his ancestors and was buried in the City of David. Then Aviyah his son became king in his place.

It was in the eighteenth year of King Yarov‘am that Aviyah began his reign over Y'hudah.

He ruled three years in Yerushalayim; his mother's name was Mikhayahu the daughter of Uri'el from Giv‘ah. There was war between Aviyah and Yarov‘am.

Don't you know that Adonai , the God of Isra'el, gave rulership over Isra'el to David forever, to him and his descendants, by a covenant of salt [which is unbreakable]?