2 Chronicles 11:5–23 (NIV)✞: Rehoboam Fortifies Judah, Rehoboam’s Family
Passage
Rehoboam was introduced in the last passage, and we now explore a bit more of his kingship.
First, in verses 5–12✞, we see him taking into account that Judah is now a separate country: he fortifies its border towns and strengthens its defenses. I have to assume that this is, at least in part, due to the fact that he now has a new border with a frenemy: the nation of Israel. We’ll see that, despite their shared origins, the nations of Judah and Israel are going to have a fraught relationship; sometimes active enemies, sometimes uneasy allies. It’s smart for Rehoboam to start preparing himself against a new, potentially hostile nation! (Or, if you just go by who got to keep the name “Israel,” I guess Judah is the new nation and Israel is the “established” one…)
But then in verses 13–17✞ he also fortifies Judah’s spiritual strength:
13 The priests and Levites from all their districts throughout Israel sided with him. 14 The Levites even abandoned their pasturelands and property and came to Judah and Jerusalem, because Jeroboam and his sons had rejected them as priests of the LORD 15 when he appointed his own priests for the high places and for the goat and calf idols he had made. 16 Those from every tribe of Israel who set their hearts on seeking the LORD, the God of Israel, followed the Levites to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices to the LORD, the God of their ancestors. 17 They strengthened the kingdom of Judah and supported Rehoboam son of Solomon three years, following the ways of David and Solomon during this time.
Once again, Chronicles is assuming the readers already have knowledge from the book of Kings (or other sources, I suppose), about Jeroboam setting up idols in Israel and pulling the nation away from God. It only needs to be referred to, not explained.
Finally, in verses 18–23✞, we get some information about Rehoboam’s family and his rule over Judah, and I’ll just point out the last two verses:
22 Rehoboam appointed Abijah son of Maakah as crown prince among his brothers, in order to make him king. 23 He acted wisely, dispersing some of his sons throughout the districts of Judah and Benjamin, and to all the fortified cities. He gave them abundant provisions and took many wives for them.
I assume we’ll get to Adijah’s rule soon enough, though the author(s) are kind of skipping ahead a bit by mentioning him becoming king because they’re not done talking about Rehoboam yet.
Thoughts
The one thing I’ll say about this passage is that the author(s) are doing their best to resist a simplistic view of Rehoboam. If we judge him solely on his foolish action in the last passage we’ll miss some complexity.
Note especially verse 23✞ quoted above, and Rehoboam acting wisely. Whether he grew more wise over time, or whether he was always wise—he was Solomon’s son, after all—and the “I’m going to treat you even more harshly than my father did” incident was just a fluke, either way, the author(s) of Chronicles don’t want us to be too simplistic in how we look at Rehoboam. He wasn’t an unwise man, overall, even if he did an unwise thing. Or… maybe he was an overall unwise man who was also able to act wisely in some cases!
Part of the reason I make this point is that I’m still resisting the idea that Israel and Judah split because of Rehoboam’s foolishness in the last passage; I’m not denying that it was foolish, but as I pointed out, God had already planned to split the nation before his foolishness, so it would be overly simplistic to call his action the main issue.
I’m also resisting the idea that Chronicles glosses over the messy bits of the history of God’s people – that this book shows a rosy picture of how good things were, while the books of Samuel and Kings show the unvarnished truth. It’s true that Chronicles has a different focus from Samuel/Kings, but not because the author(s) are trying to hide anything, it’s simply a different focus.
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