2 Chronicles 11: What the Passage Says

The Chapter in a Sentence

Rehoboam gathers 180,000 fighting men from Judah and Benjamin to win back the northern tribes, but the prophet Shemaiah tells him God says not to fight his own relatives, and the army goes home. Rehoboam then fortifies fifteen cities in Judah and Benjamin, stocking them with officers, food, and weapons. Priests and Levites leave the north because Jeroboam has rejected them, and people from every tribe who want to worship the LORD come to Jerusalem, which strengthens Rehoboam's kingdom for three years. The chapter closes with Rehoboam's wives and children and his choice of Abijah as chief among his sons.

Claim by Claim

1. 11:1
   • Rehoboam came to Jerusalem.
   • Rehoboam assembled the house of Judah and Benjamin.
   • The assembled force numbered one hundred eighty thousand chosen men who were trained for war.
   • The purpose of the assembly was to fight against Israel.
   • The purpose of the assembly was to return the kingdom to Rehoboam.
2. 11:2
   • The word of the LORD came to Shemaiah.
   • Shemaiah was a man of God.
3. 11:3
   • The LORD told Shemaiah to speak to Rehoboam the son of Solomon, king of Judah.
   • The LORD told Shemaiah to speak to all Israel in Judah and Benjamin.
4. 11:4
   • The message was introduced as what the LORD says.
   • The LORD said they were not to go up.
   • The LORD said they were not to fight against their brothers.
   • The LORD commanded each man to return to his house.
   • The LORD said this thing had come about from him.
   • They obeyed the words of the LORD.
   • They turned back from going against Jeroboam.
5. 11:5
   • Rehoboam dwelt in Jerusalem.
   • Rehoboam built cities for defense in Judah.
6. 11:6
   • Rehoboam built Bethlehem.
   • Rehoboam built Etam.
   • Rehoboam built Tekoa.
7. 11:7
   • Rehoboam built Beth-zur.
   • Rehoboam built Soco.
   • Rehoboam built Adullam.
8. 11:8
   • Rehoboam built Gath.
   • Rehoboam built Mareshah.
   • Rehoboam built Ziph.
9. 11:9
   • Rehoboam built Adoraim.
   • Rehoboam built Lachish.
   • Rehoboam built Azekah.
10. 11:10
    • Rehoboam built Zorah.
    • Rehoboam built Aijalon.
    • Rehoboam built Hebron.
    • These cities are in Judah and in Benjamin.
    • These cities were fortified cities.
11. 11:11
    • Rehoboam strengthened the fortresses.
    • Rehoboam put commanders in the fortresses.
    • Rehoboam put stores of food in them.
    • Rehoboam put oil and wine in them.
12. 11:12
    • Rehoboam put shields and spears in every city.
    • Rehoboam made the cities exceedingly strong.
    • Judah and Benjamin belonged to Rehoboam.
13. 11:13
    • The priests and the Levites who were in all Israel took their stand with Rehoboam.
    • They came to him out of all their territory.
14. 11:14
    • The Levites left their pasturelands.
    • The Levites left their possession.
    • The Levites went to Judah and Jerusalem.
    • Jeroboam and his sons had rejected the Levites from serving as priests to the LORD.
15. 11:15
    • Jeroboam appointed priests for himself.
    • These priests were for the high places.
    • These priests were for the goat demons.
    • These priests were for the calves.
    • Jeroboam had made the calves.
16. 11:16
    • Those from all the tribes of Israel who set their hearts to seek the LORD the God of Israel followed the Levites.
    • They came to Jerusalem.
    • They came to sacrifice to the LORD the God of their fathers.
17. 11:17
    • They strengthened the kingdom of Judah.
    • They made Rehoboam the son of Solomon strong for three years.
    • For three years they walked in the way of David and Solomon.
18. 11:18
    • Rehoboam took Mahalath as a wife.
    • Mahalath was the child of Jerimoth.
    • Jerimoth was a son of David.
    • Abihail was the daughter of Eliab.
    • Eliab was the son of Jesse.
    • It is unclear whether Abihail was a second wife Rehoboam took or the mother of Mahalath.
19. 11:19
    • She bore sons to Rehoboam.
    • One son was Jeush.
    • One son was Shemariah.
    • One son was Zaham.
20. 11:20
    • After her Rehoboam took Maacah the daughter of Absalom.
    • Maacah bore him Abijah.
    • Maacah bore him Attai.
    • Maacah bore him Ziza.
    • Maacah bore him Shelomith.
21. 11:21
    • Rehoboam loved Maacah the daughter of Absalom more than all his wives and concubines.
    • Rehoboam took eighteen wives.
    • Rehoboam took sixty concubines.
    • Rehoboam fathered twenty-eight sons.
    • Rehoboam fathered sixty daughters.
22. 11:22
    • Rehoboam set Abijah the son of Maacah as head.
    • Rehoboam made Abijah ruler among his brothers.
    • Rehoboam intended to make Abijah king.
23. 11:23
    • Rehoboam acted with understanding.
    • Rehoboam distributed his sons throughout all the districts of Judah and Benjamin.
    • Rehoboam distributed them to all the fortified cities.
    • Rehoboam gave them food in abundance.
    • Rehoboam sought a multitude of wives.
    • It is unclear whether the many wives were sought for Rehoboam himself or for his sons.

Words Worth Explaining

Every language note in this chapter, gathered. These explain what a word meant, never what it means for the reader.

11:1

This follows directly on the split of Solomon's kingdom described in the previous chapter: ten northern tribes rejected Rehoboam and made Jeroboam their king, leaving Rehoboam only Judah and Benjamin in the south. "Israel" in this verse means that breakaway northern kingdom, not the whole nation.

11:2

"Man of God" was a standard title for a prophet, someone who spoke on God's behalf. It carried no sense of a priest or an official of the temple.

11:3

Here "all the people of Israel" means Israelites in the ordinary ethnic sense, the descendants of Jacob. Within a few verses the same word is used two ways: for the northern kingdom (verse 1) and for the people as a whole (this verse). The context has to decide which is meant each time.

11:4

"Your own relatives" is literally "your brothers." The two kingdoms were made up of the same people, tracing descent from the same ancestor, so a war between them counted as a war within one family.

11:5

These are not new settlements. Rehoboam is taking existing towns and giving them walls, gates and garrisons so they can hold out against an attacking army.

11:6

The fifteen towns listed in verses 6-10 lie mostly south and west of Jerusalem. They guard the approaches from Egypt and from the Philistine coastal plain, not the new northern border with Jeroboam's kingdom, consistent with Rehoboam having just been told not to fight the north.

11:8

Gath had been one of the five main Philistine cities, on the western edge of Judah's territory. By this period it appears to have come under Judah's control, which is why Rehoboam can fortify it.

11:10

A "walled city" was not a large place by modern standards, often a few acres, but the wall was the whole point. It let a small garrison hold out against a much larger force and protected the food and weapons stored inside.

11:11

"Victual" is simply food. Grain, olive oil and wine were the three staples that could be stockpiled for a long time, and stockpiling them was how a walled city survived a siege: the attackers cannot get in, so they wait outside until the people inside run out of supplies.

11:13

The Levites were one of the twelve tribes, set apart to staff the sanctuary and assist the priests. Priests specifically were descendants of Aaron, a subset of that tribe. Both groups depended on the sacrificial system for their living, so being shut out of it left them with no income.

11:14

Unlike the other tribes, the Levites were given no block of territory of their own. Instead they held scattered towns with surrounding pastureland for their livestock. Leaving those towns meant giving up essentially everything they owned.

11:15

A "high place" was a local open-air shrine, usually on a hilltop, with an altar and a standing stone or pole. The "goat idols" translate a Hebrew word for hairy or goat-shaped spirits thought to haunt wild country. The calves are the two gold calf images Jeroboam set up at Bethel and Dan to keep his people from traveling to Jerusalem to worship.

11:16

Under the law followed in the south, sacrifice was to be offered only at the temple in Jerusalem. For a northerner, worshiping there meant crossing into a rival kingdom, which is why the writer treats it as a deliberate and costly choice.

11:17

The chronicler is careful to say three years, not simply that things went well. It is a time limit, and chapter 12 tells you what happened when the three years ran out.

11:18

The Hebrew here is ambiguous and translations differ. It can be read as Rehoboam marrying one woman, Mahalath, whose father was Jerimoth and whose mother was Abihail; or as his marrying two women, Mahalath and Abihail. Either way both lines run back into David's family (Jerimoth was a son of David, and Eliab was David's oldest brother), so the marriage kept the royal house tightly related to itself.

11:20

"Daughter of Absalom" probably means granddaughter; Hebrew uses "daughter" for any female descendant. Absalom was the son of David who had earlier rebelled against him. Elsewhere Maacah is called the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah, which fits if Uriel married Absalom's daughter.

11:21

A concubine was a recognized secondary wife with a lower legal standing than a full wife, often without the property settlement or family alliance that a full marriage involved. Her children were legitimate but ranked below those of the principal wives. For a king, a large household of wives was as much a record of political alliances as of anything else.

11:22

The eldest son did not automatically inherit the throne; the reigning king normally named his successor. Making Abijah "leader among his brothers" was that formal designation, announced in advance to settle the question before the king's death.

11:23

Scattering the other sons across the fortified towns, with generous allowances, kept potential rivals away from the capital while giving them a stake in the regime. The last clause is ambiguous in Hebrew: it can mean Rehoboam arranged many marriages for his sons, or that he himself sought many wives.