2 Chronicles 11:14

14 The Levites even abandoned their pasturelands and property and moved to Judah and Jerusalem, because Jeroboam and his sons would not allow them to serve the LORD as priests.

2 Chronicles 11:14 Meaning and Commentary

2 Chronicles 11:14

For the Levites left their suburbs and their possession
The cities and the fields adjacent to them, which were given them in the several tribes, and were in all forty eight; see ( Joshua 21:1-41 ) and came to Judah and Jerusalem; to the cities of Judah, which belonged to the Levites; and to Jerusalem, where they exercised their functions:

for Jeroboam and his sons had cast them off from exercising the
priest's office unto the Lord;
neither suffering them to go to Jerusalem in their courses, as they used to do by turns, nor to perform their office in their own dwellings, according to the law of God, in teaching and instructing the people.

2 Chronicles 11:14 In-Context

12 He also put shields and spears in these towns as a further safety measure. So only Judah and Benjamin remained under his control.

13 But all the priests and Levites living among the northern tribes of Israel sided with Rehoboam.

14 The Levites even abandoned their pasturelands and property and moved to Judah and Jerusalem, because Jeroboam and his sons would not allow them to serve the LORD as priests.

15 Jeroboam appointed his own priests to serve at the pagan shrines, where they worshiped the goat and calf idols he had made.

16 From all the tribes of Israel, those who sincerely wanted to worship the LORD, the God of Israel, followed the Levites to Jerusalem, where they could offer sacrifices to the LORD, the God of their ancestors.