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Then he died and was buried in the city of David, his father. Then Solomon's son Rehoboam became the next king.

Jeroboam son of Nebat was still in Egypt where he had run away from Solomon. When he heard about Solomon's death, he returned to his city, Zeredah, in the hills of Ephraim. Rehoboam and all the Israelites went to Shechem to make Rehoboam the king. The people said to Rehoboam,

But Rehoboam did not listen to the advice from the older men. He asked the young men who were his friends.

He did what his friends told him to do and said, "My father forced you to work hard, but I will make you work much harder! My father punished you with whips, but I will punish you with whips that have sharp metal tips."

The Israelites saw that the new king refused to listen to them, so they said to him, "We are not part of David's family are we? We don't get any of Jesse's land, do we? So, people of Israel, let's go home and let David's son rule his own people!" So the Israelites went home.

A man named Adoniram was one of the men who directed the workers. King Rehoboam sent Adoniram to talk to the people, but the Israelites threw stones at him until he died. King Rehoboam ran to his chariot and escaped to Jerusalem.

Rehoboam went back to Jerusalem and gathered together an army of 180,000 men from the families of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin. Rehoboam wanted to go fight against the Israelites and take back his kingdom.

Also, he put shields and spears in every city and made the cities very strong. He kept the peoples and cities of Judah and Benjamin under his control.

The Levites left their grasslands and their own fields and came to Judah and Jerusalem. The Levites did this because Jeroboam and his sons refused to let them serve as priests to the Lord .

Jeroboam chose his own priests to serve in the high places, where he set up the goat and calf idols he had made.

Rehoboam loved Maacah more that he loved all his other wives and slave women. Rehoboam had 18 wives and 60 slave women. He was the father of 28 sons and 60 daughters.

Rehoboam chose Abijah to be the leader among his own brothers. He did this because he planned to make Abijah king.

Rehoboam acted wisely and spread all his sons through all the areas of Judah and Benjamin to every strong city. And Rehoboam gave plenty of supplies to his sons. He also looked for wives for them.

Rehoboam became a strong king and made his kingdom strong. Then Rehoboam and the whole tribe of Judah refused to obey the law of the Lord .

Shishak defeated the strong cities of Judah. Then Shishak brought his army to Jerusalem.

King Rehoboam made himself a strong king in Jerusalem. He was 41 years old when he became king of Judah. Rehoboam ruled 17 years in Jerusalem, the city the Lord chose for his own. He chose this city from all the other cities of Israel. Rehoboam's mother was Naamah. She was an Ammonite.

Rehoboam did evil because he didn't decide in his heart to obey the Lord .

All the things Rehoboam did when he was king, from the beginning to the end of his rule, are written in the writings of Shemaiah the prophet and in the writings of Iddo the seer. Those men wrote family histories. And there were wars between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the time both kings ruled.

Rehoboam rested with his ancestors and was buried in the City of David. Then Rehoboam's son Abijah became the next king after him.

Abijah ruled in Jerusalem for three years. His mother's name was Maacah. She was the daughter of Uriel, from the town of Gibeah. And there was war between Abijah and Jeroboam.