Early morning over a walled hill town of Judah's lowland: a broad mound with a thick new wall of stone and mud brick, a plain gate between two square gate rooms, storehouse roofs inside, olive and barley terraces below and a thread of cooking smoke, under a calm, pale, empty sky.

The Book of

2 Chronicles 11

The kingdom is split. Rehoboam builds walls, and the priests and Levites leave everything to come south.

23 verses≈ 3 min5 peopleBSB

Images are artistic interpretations.

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In this chapter

Where we are

1SolomonWisdom asked at Gibeon
2–5The templeBuilt on Mount Moriah
6–7DedicationIf My people humble themselves
8–9Solomon's gloryThe queen of Sheba
10–16DivisionRehoboam to AsaChapter 11
17–20JehoshaphatThe battle is God's
21–24Dark yearsJehoram to Joash
25–28Proud kingsAmaziah to Ahaz
29–32HezekiahDoors opened, Passover kept
33–35Manasseh to JosiahMercy and the Book found
36Exile and returnMay he go up

Shemaiah’s Prophecy

Morning outside Jerusalem's plain stone gate, seen from a rise: long ranks of men with spears and round shields assembling in the low sun and dust, plain cloth standards, the city on its ridge behind.

When Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he mobilized the house of Judah and Benjamin—180,000 chosen warriors—to fight against Israel and restore the kingdom to Rehoboam.

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But the word of the LORD came to Shemaiah the man of God: “Tell Rehoboam son of Solomon king of Judah and all the Israelites in Judah and Benjamin that this is what the LORD says: ‘You are not to go up and fight against your brothers. Each of you must return home, for this is My doing.’” So they listened to the words of the LORD and turned back from going against Jeroboam.

Late afternoon in a Judean village: a soldier home from the muster, in a knee-length wool tunic, hangs his round leather-faced shield and spear on a peg by his doorway while his wife and small son watch from the courtyard, relieved; other men walk up the lane with spears on their shoulders.

Rehoboam Fortifies Judah

Stylised map · locations approximate

On the map

Rehoboam’s fortified cities

Rehoboam ringed the hill country of Judah with fifteen fortified cities, guarding the roads up from the coastal plain and the Negev, the ways an army from Philistia or Egypt would come. None of them faces north toward Israel. Which Gath is meant here is debated.

Rehoboam lived in Jerusalem, and he built up cities for defense in Judah. He built up Bethlehem, Etam, Tekoa, Beth-zur, Soco, Adullam, Gath, Mareshah, Ziph, Adoraim, Lachish, Azekah, Zorah, Aijalon, and Hebron, the fortified cities in Judah and Benjamin.

Reflect

Walls and hearts

Rehoboam built walls, stored food, oil and wine, and put shields and spears in every city. “So Judah and Benjamin belonged to him.” Within a few years an enemy would take those cities. What are you building to feel safe? Ask what it would mean to seek the LORD first, and write down one thing you can hand to Him this week.

Jeroboam Forsakes the Priests and Levites

Dawn on a pastureland of the northern hills: a Levite family loads its last bundles onto two donkeys outside a small stone farmhouse, the father in a plain undyed linen tunic looking back once at his fields and flock, the road south winding away over the hills.

Moreover, the priests and Levites from all their districts throughout Israel stood with Rehoboam. For the Levites left their pasturelands and their possessions and went to Judah and Jerusalem, because Jeroboam and his sons had rejected them as priests of the LORD.

0:15

Narrated by Bob Souer · BSB audio, public domain

And Jeroboam appointed his own priests for the high places and for the goat demons and calf idols he had made.

2 Chronicles 11:16

So they strengthened the kingdom of Judah and supported Rehoboam son of Solomon for three years, because they walked for three years in the way of David and Solomon.

Question

Quick question

The priests and Levites of the north had homes and land to lose.

Why did the Levites leave their pasturelands and go to Judah?

Rehoboam’s Family

Two kingdoms

Whiteboard

Jeroboam set up calf idols and goat demons with priests of his own, and the priests and Levites left everything to come to Jerusalem. Behind them came those from every tribe who had set their hearts to seek the LORD. For three years Judah was strong, because it walked in the way of David and Solomon.

Family line

Rehoboam’s family

- Jeush
- Shemariah
- Zaham
David’s family twice
And Rehoboam married Mahalath, who was the daughter of David’s son Jerimoth and of Abihail, the daughter of Jesse’s son Eliab. She bore sons to him: Jeush, Shemariah, and Zaham.
- Abijah
- Attai
- Ziza
- Shelomith
Daughter of Absalom
After her, he married Maacah daughter of Absalom, and she bore to him Abijah, Attai, Ziza, and Shelomith. Rehoboam loved Maacah daughter of Absalom more than all his wives and concubines.
twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters
In all, he had eighteen wives and sixty concubines, and he was the father of twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters.

Rehoboam appointed Abijah son of Maacah as chief prince among his brothers, intending to make him king.

Rehoboam also acted wisely by dispersing some of his sons throughout the districts of Judah and Benjamin, and to all the fortified cities. He gave them abundant provisions and sought many wives for them.

Pray

Near His house

Thank God for those who left lands and homes to stay near the LORD’s house, and for all who “set their hearts to seek the LORD” at a cost. Ask Him to make you one of them, seeking Him above comfort and safety. Pray for families, that no rivalry or favoritism would divide them. And ask that your sense of safety would rest on Him, not on your walls.

You’ve experienced

2 Chronicles 11

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A verse to carry with you

Those from every tribe of Israel who had set their hearts to seek the LORD their God followed the Levites to Jerusalem to sacrifice to the LORD, the God of their fathers.

2 Chronicles 11:16

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