Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the Lord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel to put His name there. And his mother’s name was Naamah, an Ammonitess.
And they will answer, ‘Because they forsook the Lord their God, who brought their fathers out of the land of Egypt, and took hold of other gods and have worshipped and served them. That is why the Lord has brought all this disaster upon them.’ ”
So they strengthened the kingdom of Judah and supported Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, for three years, for they walked in the way of David and Solomon for three years.
And he was discerning and spread out all his sons to all the lands of Judah and Benjamin, even among the fortified cities, and he provided for them an abundance of provisions and wives.
So King Rehoboam was strong and reigned in Jerusalem. For Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned for seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city that the Lord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to put His name there. His mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonite.
Then they abandoned the house of the Lord and God of their fathers, and they served the Asherah poles and idols. And divine wrath was on Judah and Jerusalem because of this guilt.
Alas, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a brood of evildoers, children who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger, they are estranged and backward.
O generation, consider the word of the Lord: Have I been a wilderness to Israel? A land of darkness? Why do My people say, “We are free to roam. We will come no more to You”?
You observe the statutes of Omri, and every practice of the house of Ahab, and you walk in their counsels. Therefore I will give you over to destruction, and the inhabitants to derision. You will bear the contempt of My people.
But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked; you grew fat, you grew thick; you are covered with fat. Then he forsook God who made him, and devalued the rock of his salvation.
Whenever they marched out, the hand of the Lord was against them to bring disaster, as the Lord had said and as He had sworn to them. They were in great distress.