21 Meanwhile, Shelomoh’s son Rehavam reigned in Yehudah. He was forty-one when he started reigning, and he reigned for seventeen years from Yerushalem—the city that Yahweh had chosen to associate his name with out of all the tribes of Yisrael. Rehavam’s mother was Naamah the Ammonite.

22 The people of Yehudah did what Yahweh had decided was evil—in fact they made him more jealous (by worshipping other gods) than their ancestors ever had. 23 They even built hilltop temples and sacred pillars and poles on every high hill and under every large evergreen tree.[ref] 24 There were also male prostitutes associated with them, and the Israelis did the same abhorrent things as the nations that Yahweh had removed ahead of their entering the land.[ref]

25 In the fifth year of King Rehavam’s reign, Egypt’s King Shishak attacked Yerushalem[ref] 26 and took away the valuables from Yahweh’s temple, and the king’s palace. He took everything of value, including all the gold shields that Shelomoh had made.[ref] 27 To replace them, King Rehavam made some bronze shields and assigned them to the officers who protect the entrance to the palace. 28 Whenever the king would enter the temple, the guards would quickly take the shields there, and when he left, they’d run them back to the palace.

29 Everything else that Rehavam did is written in the book of the events of the kings of Yehudah. 30 Rehavam and Yarave’am were in a continual state of war during their reigns. 31 Then Rehavam (his mother was Naamah the Ammonite) died and was buried with his ancestors in the City of David, and his son Abiyyam replaced him as king.

5 So Rehaveam lived in Yerushalem and fortified the cities throughout Yehudah: 6 Beyt-Lehem, Eytam, Tekoa, 7 Beyt-Tsur, Sokoh, Adullam, 8 Gat, Mareshah, Zif, 9 Adorayim, Lakish, Azekah, 10 Zorah, Ayyalon, 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 them well-protected. So Yehudah and Benyamin were under his control.

13 The priests and Levites throughout all Yisrael supported Rehaveam from every part of the country. 14 The Levites abandoned their property and their pastureland and moved to Yerushalem and across the rest of Yehudah, because Yaraveam and his sons rejected them from serving as priests to Yahweh. 15 Instead Yaraveam 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, the god of their ancestors. 17 So they strengthened the kingdom of Yehudah, and as the people followed the ways of David and Shelomoh, they strengthened Rehaveam’s rule for three years.

18 Rehaveam 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: Yeush, Shemaryah, and Zaham. 20 After her, he married Avishalom’s daughter Maakah, and they had four sons: Aviyah, Attai, Ziza, and Shelomit. 21 Rehaveam loved Maakah the most out of his eighteen wives and sixty slave-wives. He fathered twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters, 22 but he appointed Maakah’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 and Benyamin, where he set them up generously and asked the local people to give them wives.

12 However, after Rehaveam (Rehoboam) had become established and in firm control of his kingdom, he and all the people abandoned Yahweh’s instructions. 2 Because they were unfaithful to Yahweh, King Shishak from Egypt (Heb. Mitsrayim) came to attack Yerushalem in the fifth year of Rehaveam’s reign 3 with 1,200 chariots and sixty thousand horsemen, along with a huge number of troops including Egyptians, Libyans, Sukkites, and Kushites. 4 He captured Yehudah’s fortified cities, then moved towards Yerushalem.

5 Then the prophet Shemayah and the leaders of Yehudah who had fled to Yerushalem because of Shishak’s attacks came to Rehaveam. Shemayah told them, “Yahweh says that it was all of you who abandoned me, so then I’ve also abandoned you all to be defeated by Shishak.”

6 Then the king and the Israeli leaders humbled themselves and said, “Yahweh always does what is right and fair.”

7 When Yahweh saw that they’d humbled themselves, he gave this message to Shemayah, “They’ve humbled themselves so I won’t destroy them—my rage won’t pour out on Yerushalem using Shishak’s attack, and I’ll give them a way to recover in the future. 8 Nevertheless, they’ll become his servants, and they’ll learn the difference between serving me versus serving the kings of other nations.

9 When Egypt’s King Shishak invaded Yerushalem, he took the treasures from Yahweh’s temple and the king’s palace. He took everything valuable, including the gold shields that Shelomoh had made.[ref] 10 King Rehaveam replaced them with bronze shields, and distributed them to the leaders of those who guarded the entrance to the king’s palace. 11 After that, whenever the king went to Yahweh’s temple, the guards went with him carrying those bronze shields. Then when the king left again, they’d return them to the guardroom. 12 Because Rehaveam humbled himself, Yahweh stopped being angry with him and didn’t eliminate him, so things were reasonably good in Yehudah.

13 King Rehaveam consolidated his rule in Yerushalem. He reigned for a total of forty-one years—seventeen of which were from Yerushalem city where Yahweh had chosen from all the tribes in Yisrael to establish his reputation. (Rehaveam’s mother was the Ammonitess, Naamah.) 14 Rehaveam did evil things because he didn’t make it his priority to get direction from Yahweh.

15 The account of everything that Rehaveam did while he was king, including genealogical records, was recorded in the scrolls written by the prophets Shemayah and Iddo. Rehaveam and Yaraveam were at war with each other for his entire reign.