Study Desk

Your father made our yoke grievous; now therefore lighten somewhat the harsh rule of your father and his heavy yoke that he put upon us, and we will serve you.

And King Rehoboam took counsel with the old men who had served Solomon his father while he was yet alive, saying, What counsel do you give me to return an answer to this people?

And when all Israel saw that the king would not listen to them, the people answered the king, saying. We have no portion in David, nor an inheritance in the son of Jesse; return every man to his house, O Israel; and now, David, see to your own house. So Israel went to their houses.

Then King Rehoboam sent Adoniram, who was in charge of tribute; and the children of Israel stoned him with stones, that he died. But King Rehoboam hastily got up into his chariot to flee to Jerusalem.

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.

And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David;

At that time Abijah the son of Jeroboam fell sick; and Jeroboam said to his wife, Arise and disguise yourself, and be as a simple woman, that you may not be known to be the wife of Jeroboam; and go to Shiloh; behold, there is Ahijah the prophet, who told me that I should be king over this people.

And took the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it to you; and yet you have not been like my servant David, who kept my commandments and who walked in my statutes with all his heart to do that which was right in my presence;

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.

And he dealt wisely, and dispersed all of his children throughout all the countries of Judah and Benjamin unto every fortified city; and he gave them food in abundance. And he desired many wives.

Nevertheless they shall be his servants, that they may know my service, and the service of the kingdoms of the countries.

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.

And Rehoboam slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David; and Abijah his son reigned in his stead.

He reigned three years in Jerusalem. His mothers name was Maachah the daughter of Uriel of Ramtha.

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.

Yet Jeroboam the son of Nebat, the servant of Solomon the son of David, rose up and rebelled against his lord.

And he gathered to him certain wicked men, the children of iniquity, and he prevailed against Rehoboam the son of Solomon, when Rehoboam was young and not advanced in years and did not know what to say, and did not comfort the people concerning the heavy yoke which Solomon his father had laid upon them.

And the rest of the acts of Abijah and his ways, behold, are written in the poems of the prophet Iddo.