¹Then when Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he convened the house of Judah and Benjamin – one hundred and eighty thousand young men – who were about to wage war, so as to fight against Israel, so as to restore the kingdom to Rehoboam. ²And the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah, a man of God, and it said, ³“Speak to Rehoboam the son of Solomon, the king of Judah, and to the whole of Israel in Judah and Benjamin, and say, ⁴‘This is what the Lord says: «Do not go up, and do not fight against your brothers. Go back, each one to his house, because this matter has been brought about by me.» ’ ” And they heeded the words of the Lord and turned back from going against Jeroboam. ⁵And Rehoboam lived in Jerusalem, and he built cities as fortification in Judah. ⁶And he built up Bethlehem and Etam and Tekoa, ⁷and Beth-Zur and Sochoh and Adullam, ⁸and Gath and Mareshah and Ziph, ⁹and Adoraim and Lachish and Azekah, ¹⁰and Zorah and Aijalon and Hebron, which are in Judah and Benjamin – cities with fortifications. ¹¹And he strengthened the fortifications, and he put overseers in them, and storehouses for food and oil and wine. ¹²And in every individual city he put shields and spears, and he strengthened them to a very great extent. So Judah and Benjamin belonged to him. ¹³And the priests and the Levites who were in all Israel stationed themselves beside him, coming from all their territories. ¹⁴For the Levites left their pasture lands and their estates, and they went to Judah and to Jerusalem, because Jeroboam had rejected them, as had his sons, stopping them from officiating as priests to the Lord, ¹⁵and he had appointed himself priests for the idolatrous raised sites and for the satyrs and the calves which he had made. ¹⁶Then after them there came from all the tribes of Israel those who gave their hearts to seeking the Lord God of Israel, to Jerusalem to sacrifice to the Lord God of their fathers. ¹⁷And they strengthened the kingdom of Judah, and they gave strength to Rehoboam the son of Solomon, for three years, for they walked in the way of David and Solomon for three years. ¹⁸And Rehoboam took a wife – Mahalath the daughter of Jerimoth the son of David, and Abihail, the daughter of Eliab, the son of Jesse. ¹⁹And she bore him sons: Jeush and Shemariah and Zaham. ²⁰And after her he took Maachah, Absalom's daughter, and she bore him Abijah and Attai and Ziza and Shelomith. ²¹And Rehoboam loved Maachah the daughter of Absalom the most of all his wives and concubines, for he took eighteen wives and sixty concubines, and he begot twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters. ²²And Rehoboam appointed Abijah the son of Maachah as head – as leader among his brothers – for it was to make him king. ²³And he was astute, and he dispersed all his sons to all the districts of Judah and Benjamin, to all the cities with fortifications, and he gave them food in abundance. And he asked for many wives.