Study Desk

And the young men who were brought up with him in the streets spoke to him, saying, Thus shall you say to the people who have spoken to you, saying, Your father made our yoke heavy, but you make it somewhat lighter for us; thus shall you say to them, My little finger is thicker than my fathers thumb.

So the king did not listen to the people; for the decree had been made by God, that the LORD might perform the word of Ahijah the prophet the Shilonite concerning Jeroboam the son of Nebat.

But as for the children of Israel who dwelt in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them.

Thus says the LORD: YOU shall not go up, nor fight; return every man to his house, for this thing is done of me. And they obeyed the word of the LORD, and returned, to go every man to his house.

Therefore the king took counsel and made two calves of gold, and said to the people, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem, why should you go up to Jerusalem and come down? Then he said, These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.

And this thing became a sin; for the people went to worship before the calf, even to Dan. And this thing became a sin to all the house of Jeroboam, to be uprooted and destroyed from the earth.

And the LORD said to Ahijah, Behold, the wife of Jeroboam is coming to ask a thing of you concerning her son; for he is sick; thus and thus shall you say to her; for it shall be, when she comes in, that she will disguise herself.

And it came to pass, when Ahijah heard the sound of her feet as she came in at the door, he said to her, Come in, wife of Jeroboam; why have you disguised yourself? For I am sent to tell you harsh words.

But you have done evil above all kings who were before you; for you have gone and made for yourself idols of the nations, and images to blaspheme before me, and have cast my worship behind your back.

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-eight sons, and sixty daughters).

And Rehoboam made Abijah the son of Maachah the crown prince, 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 forty-one 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 mothers name was Naamah an Ammonitess.

And he did evil before the LORD, for he did not prepare his heart to worship the LORD and to seek him with all his heart.

Perhaps you 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 pertaining to the kingship.

And even now what can you say? You went away and renounced the kingdom of the house of David and went and served dead gods. And I reign over a single tribe, but you over many tribes, and there are with you golden calves which Jeroboam the son of Nebat made for you.

And you have cast out the priests the sons of Aaron and the Levites, and have made priests for yourselves of the people of the land. And whosoever comes to offer an offering, you take from him a young bullock and seven rams, and he becomes a priest of them that are not gods.

But as for us, we have not forsaken the LORD our God, and the priests, who minister to the LORD, are the sons of Aaron, and the Levites serve as they should;

So Abijah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David; and Asa his son reigned in his stead. In his days the land was quiet for ten years.

For he demolished the altars of the strange gods and the shrines, and broke down the images and cut down the groves;

And he built fenced cities in Judah; for the land had rest, and there was no one who made war against him in those years, because the LORD had given him rest.