1 Kings 14:21-31

Rehoboam’s Reign over Judah

14:21 Now Rehoboam son of Solomon ruled in Judah. He ¹  was forty-one years old when he became king and he ruled for seventeen years in Jerusalem, ²  the city the Lord chose from all the tribes of Israel to be his home. ³  His mother was an Ammonite woman ⁴  named Naamah.

14:22 Judah did evil in the sight of ⁵  the Lord. They made him more jealous by their sins than their ancestors had done. ⁶  14:23 They even built for themselves high places, sacred pillars, and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree. 14:24 There were also male cultic prostitutes ⁷  in the land. They committed the same horrible sins as the nations ⁸  that the Lord had driven out from before the Israelites.

14:25 In King Rehoboam’s fifth year, King Shishak of Egypt attacked Jerusalem. 14:26 He took away the treasures of the Lord’s temple and of the royal palace; he took everything, including all the golden shields that Solomon had made. 14:27 King Rehoboam made bronze shields to replace them and assigned them to the officers of the royal guard ⁹  who protected the entrance to the royal palace. 14:28 Whenever the king visited the Lord’s temple, the royal guard carried them and then brought them back to the guardroom.

14:29 The rest of the events of Rehoboam’s reign, including his accomplishments, are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the

Kings of Judah. ¹⁰  14:30 Rehoboam and Jeroboam were continually at war with each other. 14:31 Rehoboam passed away ¹¹  and was buried with his ancestors in the city of David. His mother was an Ammonite named Naamah. His son Abijah ¹²  replaced him as king.

[14:21]  ¹ tn Heb “Rehoboam.” The proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.

[14:21]  ² map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[14:21]  ³ tn Heb “the city where the Lord chose to place his name from all the tribes of Israel.”

[14:21]  ⁴ tn Heb “an Ammonite”; the word “woman” is implied.

[14:22]  ⁵ tn Heb “in the eyes of.”

[14:22]  ⁶ tn Heb “and they made him jealous more than all which their fathers had done by their sins which they sinned.”

[14:24]  ⁷ tc The Old Greek translation has “a conspiracy” rather than “male cultic prostitutes.”

[14:24]  ⁸ tn Heb “they did according to all the abominable acts of the nations.”

[14:27]  ⁹ tn Heb “runners.”

[14:29]  ¹⁰ tn Heb “As for the rest of the events of Rehoboam, and all which he did, are they not written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Judah?”

[14:31]  ¹¹ tn Heb “lay down with his fathers.”

[14:31]  ¹² tn In the Hebrew text the name is spelled “Abijam” here and in 1 Kgs 15:1-8.