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¹At the end of twenty years during which Solomon had built the LORD’s temple and his own palace —

²Solomon had rebuilt the cities Hiram gave him and settled Israelites there —

³Solomon went to Hamath-zobah and seized it.

⁴He built Tadmor in the wilderness along with all the storage cities that he built in Hamath.

⁵He built Upper Beth-horon and Lower Beth-horon  — fortified cities with walls, gates, and bars  —

⁶Baalath, all the storage cities that belonged to Solomon, all the chariot cities, the cavalry cities, and everything Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem, Lebanon, or anywhere else in the land of his dominion.

⁷As for all the peoples who remained of the Hethites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites, who were not from Israel  —

⁸their descendants who remained in the land after them, those the Israelites had not completely destroyed — Solomon imposed forced labor on them; it is this way today.

⁹But Solomon did not consign the Israelites to be slaves for his work; they were soldiers, commanders of his captains, and commanders of his chariots and his cavalry.

¹⁰These were King Solomon’s deputies: 250 who supervised the people.

¹¹Solomon brought the daughter of Pharaoh from the city of David to the house he had built for her, for he said, “My wife must not live in the house of King David of Israel because the places the ark of the LORD has come into are holy.”

¹²At that time Solomon offered burnt offerings to the LORD on the LORD’s altar he had made in front of the portico.

¹³He followed the daily requirement for offerings according to the commandment of Moses for Sabbaths, New Moons, and the three annual appointed festivals: the Festival of Unleavened Bread, the Festival of Weeks, and the Festival of Shelters.

¹⁴According to the ordinances of his father David, he appointed the divisions of the priests over their service, of the Levites over their responsibilities to offer praise and to minister before the priests following the daily requirement, and of the gatekeepers by their divisions with respect to each temple gate, for this had been the command of David, the man of God.

¹⁵They did not turn aside from the king’s command regarding the priests and the Levites concerning any matter or concerning the treasuries.

¹⁶All of Solomon’s work was carried out from the day the foundation was laid for the LORD’s temple until it was finished. So the LORD’s temple was completed.

¹⁷At that time Solomon went to Ezion-geber and to Eloth on the seashore in the land of Edom.

¹⁸So Hiram sent ships to him by his servants along with crews of experienced seamen. They went with Solomon’s servants to Ophir, took from there seventeen tons of gold, and delivered it to King Solomon.

¹The queen of Sheba heard of Solomon’s fame, so she came to test Solomon with difficult questions at Jerusalem with a very large entourage, with camels bearing spices, gold in abundance, and precious stones. She came to Solomon and spoke with him about everything that was on her mind.

²So Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was too difficult for Solomon to explain to her.

³When the queen of Sheba observed Solomon’s wisdom, the palace he had built,

⁴the food at his table, his servants’ residence, his attendants’ service and their attire, his cupbearers and their attire, and the burnt offerings he offered at the LORD’s temple, it took her breath away.

⁵She said to the king, “The report I heard in my own country about your words and about your wisdom is true.

⁶But I didn’t believe their reports until I came and saw with my own eyes. Indeed, I was not even told half of your great wisdom! You far exceed the report I heard.

⁷How happy are your men. How happy are these servants of yours, who always stand in your presence hearing your wisdom.

⁸Blessed be the LORD your God! He delighted in you and put you on his throne as king for the LORD your God. Because your God loved Israel enough to establish them forever, he has set you over them as king to carry out justice and righteousness.”

⁹Then she gave the king four and a half tons of gold, a great quantity of spices, and precious stones. There never were such spices as those the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.

¹⁰In addition, Hiram’s servants and Solomon’s servants who brought gold from Ophir also brought algum wood and precious stones.

¹¹The king made the algum wood into walkways for the LORD’s temple and for the king’s palace and into lyres and harps for the singers. Never before had anything like them been seen in the land of Judah.

¹²King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba her every desire, whatever she asked — far more than she had brought the king. Then she, along with her servants, returned to her own country.

¹³The weight of gold that came to Solomon annually was twenty-five tons,

¹⁴besides what was brought by the merchants and traders. All the Arabian kings and governors of the land also brought gold and silver to Solomon.

¹⁵King Solomon made two hundred large shields of hammered gold; 15 pounds of hammered gold went into each shield.

¹⁶He made three hundred small shields of hammered gold; 7½ pounds of gold went into each shield. The king put them in the House of the Forest of Lebanon.

¹⁷The king also made a large ivory throne and overlaid it with pure gold.

¹⁸The throne had six steps; there was a footstool covered in gold for the throne, armrests on either side of the seat, and two lions standing beside the armrests.

¹⁹Twelve lions were standing there on the six steps, one at each end. Nothing like it had ever been made in any other kingdom.

²⁰All of King Solomon’s drinking cups were gold, and all the utensils of the House of the Forest of Lebanon were pure gold. There was no silver, since it was considered as nothing in Solomon’s time,

²¹for the king’s ships kept going to Tarshish with Hiram’s servants, and once every three years the ships of Tarshish would arrive bearing gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks.

²²King Solomon surpassed all the kings of the world in riches and wisdom.

²³All the kings of the world wanted an audience with Solomon to hear the wisdom God had put in his heart.

²⁴Each of them would bring his own gift — items of silver and gold, clothing, weapons, spices, and horses and mules — as an annual tribute.

²⁵Solomon had four thousand stalls for horses and chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen. He stationed them in the chariot cities and with the king in Jerusalem.

²⁶He ruled over all the kings from the Euphrates River to the land of the Philistines and as far as the border of Egypt.

²⁷The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and he made cedar as abundant as sycamore in the Judean foothills.

²⁸They were bringing horses for Solomon from Egypt and from all the countries.

²⁹The remaining events of Solomon’s reign, from beginning to end, are written in the Events of the Prophet Nathan, the Prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite, and the Visions of the Seer Iddo concerning Jeroboam son of Nebat.

³⁰Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel for forty years.

³¹Solomon rested with his fathers and was buried in the city of his father David. His son Rehoboam became king in his place.

¹Then Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had gone to Shechem to make him king.

²When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard about it — for he was in Egypt where he had fled from King Solomon’s presence — Jeroboam returned from Egypt.

³So they summoned him. Then Jeroboam and all Israel came and spoke to Rehoboam:

⁴“Your father made our yoke harsh. Therefore, lighten your father’s harsh service and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you.”

⁵Rehoboam replied, “Return to me in three days.” So the people left.

⁶Then King Rehoboam consulted with the elders who had attended his father Solomon when he was alive, asking, “How do you advise me to respond to this people?”

⁷They replied, “If you will be kind to this people and please them by speaking kind words to them, they will be your servants forever.”

⁸But he rejected the advice of the elders who had advised him, and he consulted with the young men who had grown up with him, the ones attending him.

⁹He asked them, “What message do you advise we send back to this people who said to me, ‘Lighten the yoke your father put on us’?”

¹⁰Then the young men who had grown up with him told him, “This is what you should say to the people who said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you, make it lighter on us! ’ This is what you should say to them: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist!

¹¹Now therefore, my father burdened you with a heavy yoke, but I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I, with barbed whips.’”

¹²So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day, just as the king had ordered, saying, “Return to me on the third day.”

¹³Then the king answered them harshly. King Rehoboam rejected the elders’ advice

¹⁴and spoke to them according to the young men’s advice, saying, “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to it; my father disciplined you with whips, but I, with barbed whips.”

¹⁵The king did not listen to the people because the turn of events came from God, in order that the LORD might carry out his word that he had spoken through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam son of Nebat.

¹⁶When all Israel saw that the king had not listened to them, the people answered the king: What portion do we have in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. Israel, each to your tent; David, look after your own house now! So all Israel went to their tents.

¹⁷But as for the Israelites living in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them.

¹⁸Then King Rehoboam sent Hadoram, who was in charge of the forced labor, but the Israelites stoned him to death. However, King Rehoboam managed to get into his chariot to flee to Jerusalem.

¹⁹Israel is in rebellion against the house of David until today.

¹When Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he mobilized the house of Judah and Benjamin — one hundred eighty thousand fit young soldiers — to fight against Israel to restore the reign to Rehoboam.

²But the word of the LORD came to Shemaiah, the man of God:

³“Say to Rehoboam son of Solomon, king of Judah, to all Israel in Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people:

⁴‘This is what the LORD says: You are not to march up and fight against your brothers. Each of you return home, for this incident has come from me.’” So they listened to what the LORD said and turned back from going against Jeroboam.

⁵Rehoboam stayed in Jerusalem, and he fortified cities in Judah.

⁶He built up Bethlehem, Etam, Tekoa,

⁷Beth-zur, Soco, Adullam,

⁸Gath, Mareshah, Ziph,

⁹Adoraim, Lachish, Azekah,

¹⁰Zorah, Aijalon, and Hebron, which are fortified cities in Judah and in Benjamin.

¹¹He strengthened their fortifications and put leaders in them with supplies of food, oil, and wine.

¹²He also put large shields and spears in each and every city to make them very strong. So Judah and Benjamin were his.

¹³The priests and Levites from all their regions throughout Israel took their stand with Rehoboam,

¹⁴for the Levites left their pasturelands and their possessions and went to Judah and Jerusalem, because Jeroboam and his sons refused to let them serve as priests of the LORD.

¹⁵Jeroboam appointed his own priests for the high places, the goat-demons, and the golden calves he had made.

¹⁶Those from every tribe of Israel who had determined in their hearts to seek the LORD their God followed the Levites to Jerusalem to sacrifice to the LORD, the God of their ancestors.

¹⁷So they strengthened the kingdom of Judah and supported Rehoboam son of Solomon for three years, because they walked in the ways of David and Solomon for three years.

¹⁸Rehoboam married Mahalath, daughter of David’s son Jerimoth and of Abihail daughter of Jesse’s son Eliab.

¹⁹She bore sons to him: Jeush, Shemariah, and Zaham.

²⁰After her, he married Maacah daughter of Absalom. She bore Abijah, Attai, Ziza, and Shelomith to him.

²¹Rehoboam loved Maacah daughter of Absalom more than all his wives and concubines. He acquired eighteen wives and sixty concubines and was the father of twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters.

²²Rehoboam appointed Abijah son of Maacah as chief, leader among his brothers, intending to make him king.

²³Rehoboam also showed discernment by dispersing some of his sons to all the regions of Judah and Benjamin and to all the fortified cities. He gave them plenty of provisions and sought many wives for them.