Study Desk

So the king didn't listen to the people; for it was brought about of God, that the LORD might establish his word, which he spoke by Achiyah the Shiloni to Yarov`am the son of Nevat.

But as for the children of Yisra'el who lived in the cities of Yehudah, Rechav`am reigned over them.

Then king Rechav`am sent Hadoram, who was over the men subject to forced labor; and the children of Yisra'el stoned him to death with stones. King Rechav`am made speed to get him up to his chariot, to flee to Yerushalayim.

When Rechav`am was come to Yerushalayim, he assembled the house of Yehudah and Binyamin, one hundred eighty thousand chosen men, who were warriors, to fight against Yisra'el, to bring the kingdom again to Rechav`am.

Speak to Rechav`am the son of Shlomo, king of Yehudah, and to all Yisra'el in Yehudah and Binyamin, saying,

Thus says the LORD, You shall not go up, nor fight against your brothers: return every man to his house; for this thing is of me. So they listened to the words of the LORD, and returned from going against Yarov`am.

Rechav`am lived in Yerushalayim, and built cities for defense in Yehudah.

For the Levites left their suburbs and their possession, and came to Yehudah and Yerushalayim: for Yarov`am and his sons cast them off, that they should not execute the Kohen's office to the LORD;

So they strengthened the kingdom of Yehudah, and made Rechav`am the son of Shlomo strong, three years; for they walked three years in the way of David and Shlomo.

Rechav`am took him a wife, Machalat the daughter of Yerimot the son of David, [and of] Avichayil the daughter of Eli'av the son of Yishai;

Rechav`am loved Ma`akhah the daughter of Avshalom above all his wives and his concubines: (for he took eighteen wives, and sixty concubines, and became the father of twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters.)

Rechav`am appointed Aviyah the son of Ma`akhah to be chief, [even] the prince among his brothers; for [he was minded] to make him king.

It happened, when the kingdom of Rechav`am was established, and he was strong, that he forsook the law of the LORD, and all Yisra'el with him.

It happened in the fifth year of king Rechav`am, that Shishak king of Mitzrayim came up against Yerushalayim, because they had trespassed against the LORD,

Now Shemayah the prophet came to Rechav`am, and to the princes of Yehudah, who were gathered together to Yerushalayim because of Shishak, and said to them, Thus says the LORD, You have forsaken me, therefore have I also left you in the hand of Shishak.

King Rechav`am made in their place shields of brass, and committed them to the hands of the captains of the guard, who kept the door of the king's house.

So king Rechav`am strengthened himself in Yerushalayim, and reigned: for Rechav`am was forty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Yerushalayim, the city which the LORD had chosen out of all the tribes of Yisra'el, to put his name there: and his mother's name was Na`amah the `Ammonite.

Now the acts of Rechav`am, first and last, aren't they written in the histories of Shemayah the prophet and of `Iddo the seer, after the manner of genealogies? There were wars between Rechav`am and Yarov`am continually.

Rechav`am slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David: and Aviyah his son reigned in his place.

In the eighteenth year of king Yarov`am began Aviyah to reign over Yehudah.