KJ3 Literal Translation
2 Chronicles 11
Rehoboam raises an army to subdue Israel and is forbidden by Shemaiah. The priests and Levites strengthen the kingdom of Judah. The wives and children of Rehoboam.
1And Rehoboam came to Jerusalem and called up the house of Judah and Benjamin, a hundred and eighty thousand chosen doers of battle, to fight with Israel, to bring back the kingdom to Rehoboam.
2And the Word of Jehovah came to Shemaiah, a man of God, saying,
3Speak to Rehoboam the son of Solomon the king of Judah, and to all Israel in Judah and Benjamin, saying,
4So says Jehovah, You shall not go up, and not fight with your brothers. Each man return to his house, for this thing has come from Me. And they heard the words of Jehovah, and turned back from going against Jeroboam.
5And Rehoboam lived in Jerusalem, and built cities for defense in Judah.
6And he built Beth-lehem, and Etam, and Tekoa,
7and Beth-zur, and Shoco, and Adullam,
8and Gath, and Mareshah, and Ziph,
9and Adoraim, and Lachish, and Azekah,
10and Zorah, and Aijalon, and Hebron. These were in Judah and in Benjamin as fortied cities.
11And he made stronger the fortified cities, and put commanders in them, and treasures of food and oil and wine.
12And he put in every city bucklers and spears, and made them strong, very much. And Judah and Benjamin were his.
13And the priests and the Levites in all Israel stationed themselves by him, out of all their territory.
14For the Levites had abandoned their pasture land and their property. And they came to Judah and to Jerusalem; for Jeroboam and his sons had cast them out from acting as priests to Jehovah.
15And Jereboam made stand priests for himself for the high places, and for he-goats, and for the calves that he made.
16And after them, out of all the tribes of Israel, those who gave their heart to seek Jehovah the God of Israel, came to Jerusalem to sacrifice to Jehovah, the God of their fathers.
17And they made the kingdom of Judah strong, and strengthened Rehoboam the son of Solomon for three years, because they walked in the way of David and Solomon for three years.
18And Rehoboam took a wife for himself, Mahalath, the daughter of Jerimoth, the son of David, and Abihail the daughter of Eliab, the son of Jesse.
19And she bore to him sons: Jeush, and Shamariah, and Zaham.
20And after her, he took Maachah the daughter of Absalom, and she bore to him Abijah, and Attai, and Ziza, and Shelomith.
21And Rehoboam loved Maachah the daughter of Absalom above all his wives and his concubines (for he had taken eighteen wives, and sixty concubines; and he fathered twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters).
22And Rehoboam appointed Abijah the son of Maachah the head, as ruler among his brothers, in order to cause him to reign.
23And he had understanding, and spread out all his sons to all the lands of Judah and Benjamin, to all the fortified cities, and gave them provision in abundance. And he demanded a multitude of wives.
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