The One Year Bible for Men - Flipbook - Page 77
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any of his other wives and concubines. In all,
he had eighteen wives and sixty concubines,
and they gave birth to t wenty-eight sons and
sixty daughters.
22 Rehoboam appointed Maacah’s son Abijah
as leader among the princes, making it clear
that he would be the next king. 23 Rehoboam
also wisely gave responsibilities to his other
sons and stationed some of them in the forti
fied towns throughout the land of Judah and
Benjamin. He provided them with generous
provisions, and he found many wives for them.
12:1 But
when Rehoboam was firmly estab
lished and strong, he abandoned the Law of
the Lord, and all Israel followed him in this
sin. 2 Because they were unfaithful to the Lord,
King Shishak of Egypt came up and attacked
Jerusalem in the fifth year of King Rehoboam’s
reign. 3 He came with 1,200 chariots, 60,000
horses,* and a countless army of foot soldiers,
including Libyans, Sukkites, and Ethiopians.*
4 Shishak conquered Judah’s fortified towns
and then advanced to attack Jerusalem.
5 The prophet
She
maiah then met with
Rehoboam and Judah’s leaders, who had all
fled to Jerusalem because of Shishak. Shemaiah
told them, “This is what the Lord says: You
have abandoned me, so I am abandoning you
to Shishak.”
6 Then the leaders of Is
rael and the king
humbled themselves and said, “The Lord is
right in doing this to us!”
7 When the Lord saw their change of heart,
he gave this message to S hemaiah: “Since the
people have humbled themselves, I will not
completely destroy them and will soon give
them some relief. I will not use Shishak to
pour out my anger on Jerusalem. 8 But they
will become his subjects, so they will know
the difference between serving me and serv
ing earthly rulers.”
9 So King Shishak of Egypt came up and at
tacked Jerusalem. He ransacked the treasuries
of the Lord’s Temple and the royal palace; he
stole everything, including all the gold shields
Solomon had made. 10 King Rehoboam later
replaced them with bronze shields as substi
tutes, and he entrusted them to the care of the
commanders of the guard who protected
the entrance to the royal palace. 11 Whenever
the king went to the Temple of the Lord, the
guards would also take the shields and then
return them to the guardroom. 12 Because
Rehoboam humbled himself, the Lord’s anger
was turned away, and he did not destroy him
completely. There were still some good things
in the land of Judah.
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July 24
13 King R
ehoboam firmly established himself
in Jerusalem and continued to rule. He was
forty-one years old when he became king, and
he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the
city the Lord had chosen from among all the
tribes of Israel as the place to honor his name.
Rehoboam’s mother was Naam
ah, a woman
from Ammon. 14 But he was an evil king, for he
did not seek the Lord with all his heart.
15 The rest of the events of Re
hoboam’s
reign, from beginning to end, are recorded
in The Record of Shemaiah the Prophet and
The Record of Iddo the Seer, which are part
of the genealogical record. Rehoboam and
Jeroboam were continually at war with each
other. 16 When Rehoboam died, he was buried
in the City of David. Then his son Abijah be
came the next king.
13:1 Abi
jah
began to rule over Judah in the
eighteenth year of Jeroboam’s reign in Israel.
2 He reigned in Je
rusalem three years. His
mother was Maacah,* the daughter of Uriel
from Gibeah.
Then war broke out between Abijah and
Jeroboam. 3 Judah, led by King Abijah, fielded
400,000 select warriors, while Jeroboam
mustered 800,000 select troops from Israel.
4 When the army of Judah arrived in the hill
country of Ephraim, Abijah stood on Mount
Zemaraim and shouted to Jeroboam and all
Israel: “Listen to me! 5 Don’t you realize that
the Lord, the God of Israel, made a lasting
covenant* with David, giving him and his de
scendants the throne of Israel forever? 6 Yet
Jeroboam son of Nebat, a mere servant of Da
vid’s son Solomon, rebelled against his master.
7 Then a whole gang of scoundrels joined him,
defying Solomon’s son Rehoboam when he
was young and inexperienced and could not
stand up to them.
8 “Do you really think you can stand against
the kingdom of the Lord that is led by the de
scendants of David? You may have a vast army,
and you have those gold calves that Jeroboam
made as your gods. 9 But you have chased
away the priests of the Lord (the descendants
of Aaron) and the Levites, and you have ap
pointed your own priests, just like the pagan
nations. You let anyone become a priest these
days! Whoever comes to be dedicated with
a young bull and seven rams can become a
priest of these s o-called gods of yours!
10 “But as for us, the Lord is our God, and we
have not abandoned him. Only the descen
dants of Aaron serve the Lord as priests, and
the Levites alone may help them in their work.
11 They present burnt offerings and fragrant
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