OET-RV 2 CHR Chapter 11

11 When Rehav’am (Rehoboam) arrived in Yerushalem (Jerusalem), he assembled Yehudah’s (Judah’s) and Benyamin’s warriors: 180,000 chosen to fight against Yisrael (Israel) to bring the kingdom back to Rehav’am. 2 But Yahweh spoke to the prophet Shemayah, saying, 3 “Go and tell this to Shelomoh’s (Solomon’s) son King Rehav’am of Yehudah, and to all the Israeli people from the Yehudah and Benyamin tribes: 4 Yahweh says that you mustn’t go and fight with your relatives. Everyone should just go home again, because everything that’s happened came from me.” So they listened to the message from Yahweh, and called off the planned attack against Yarov’am (Jeroboam).

5 So Rehav’am (Rehoboam) lived in Yerushalem (Jerusalem) and fortified the cities throughout Yehudah (Judah): 6 Beyt-Lehem (Bethlehem), Eytam, Tekoa, 7 Beyt-Tsur, Sokoh, Adulam, 8 Gat, Mareshah, Zif, 9 Adorayim, Lakish, Azekah, 10 Tsor’ah, Ayalon, and Hevron (all in Yehudah and Benyamin). 11 He strengthened the fortifications in those cities and towns, appointed an army commander, and stocked their storehouses with food and oil and wine. 12 He also equipped each of them with shields and spears, and made sure they were well-protected. So Yehudah and Benyamin were under his control.

13 The priests and Levites throughout all of Yisrael (Israel) supported Rehav’am (Rehoboam) from every part of the country. 14 The Levites abandoned their property and their pastureland and moved to Yerushalem (Jerusalem) and across the rest of Yehudah (Judah), because Yarov’am (Jeroboam) and his sons stopped them from serving as Yahweh’s priests. 15 Instead Yarov’am established his own priests for his hilltop shrines and for the goat and calf idols that he’d made.[ref] 16 As well as the priests and Levites, people from all the Israeli tribes who wanted to serve Yisrael’s god Yahweh came to Yerushalem to sacrifice to Yahweh, their ancestors’ god. 17 So they strengthened the kingdom of Yehudah, and as the people followed David’s and Shelomoh’s (Solomon’s) examples, they strengthened Rehav’am’s rule for three years.

18 Rehav’am (Rehoboam) married Mahalat. She was the daughter of David’s son Yerimot, and her mother was Avihayil, the daughter of Eliav and granddaughter of Yishay (Jesse). 19 They had three sons: Ye’ush, Shemaryah, and Zaham. 20 After her, he married Avshalom’s (Absalom’s) daughter Ma’akah, and they had four sons: Aviyah, Atay, Ziza, and Shelomit. 21 Rehav’am loved Ma’akah the most out of his eighteen wives and sixty slave-wives. He fathered twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters, 22 but he appointed Ma’akah’s son Aviyah to be the leader of his older and younger brothers, because that would mark him as the future king. 23 He wisely sent his other sons to fortified cities across all the regions in Yehudah (Judah) and Benyamin, where he set them up generously and asked the local people to give them wives.