2 Chronicles 10; 2 Chronicles 11; 2 Chronicles 12; John 11:30-57

1 Rehoboam went to Shechem because all Israel had gone to Shechem to make him king.

2 Jeroboam (Nebat's son) was still in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon. When he heard [about Rehoboam], he returned from Egypt.

3 [Israel] sent for Jeroboam and invited him back. Jeroboam and all Israel went to speak to Rehoboam. They said,

4 "Your father made us carry a heavy burden. Reduce the hard work and lighten the heavy burden he put on us, and we will serve you."

5 He said to them, "Come back the day after tomorrow." So the people left.

6 King Rehoboam sought advice from the older leaders who had served his father Solomon while he was still alive. He asked, "What do you advise? How should I respond to these people?"

7 They told him, "If you are good to these people and try to please them by speaking gently to them, then they will always be your servants."

8 But he ignored the advice the older leaders gave him. He sought advice from the young men who had grown up with him and were serving him.

9 He asked them, "What is your advice? How should we respond to these people who are asking me to lighten the burden my father put on them?"

10 The young men who had grown up with him answered, "This is what you should tell them: 'My little finger is heavier than my father's whole body.

11 If my father put a heavy burden on you, I will add to it. If my father punished you with whips, I will punish you with scorpions.'"

12 So Jeroboam and all the people came back to Rehoboam two days later, as the king had instructed them.

13 The king answered them harshly. He ignored the older leaders' advice.

14 He spoke to them as the young men advised. He said, "If my father made your burden heavy, I will add to it. If my father punished you with whips, I will use scorpions."

15 The king refused to listen to the people because the LORD was directing these events to carry out the promise he had made to Jeroboam (Nebat's son) through Ahijah from Shiloh.

16 When all Israel saw that the king refused to listen to them, the people answered the king, "What share do we have in David's kingdom? We won't receive an inheritance from Jesse's son. Everyone to his own tent, Israel! Now look after your own house, David!" So all Israel went home to their own tents.

17 But Rehoboam ruled the Israelites who lived in the cities of Judah.

18 Then King Rehoboam sent Hadoram to the Israelites. He was in charge of forced labor, but they stoned him to death. So King Rehoboam got on his chariot as fast as he could and fled to Jerusalem.

19 Israel has rebelled against David's dynasty to this day.

1 When Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, he gathered the people of Judah and Benjamin, 180,000 of the best soldiers, to fight against Israel and return the kingdom to Rehoboam.

2 But God spoke his word to Shemaiah, the man of God. He said,

3 "Speak to Judah's King Rehoboam, son of Solomon, and all Israel in Judah and Benjamin.

4 This is what the LORD says: Don't wage war against your relatives. Everyone, go home. What has happened is my doing." So they obeyed the word of the LORD. They turned back from their attack on Jeroboam.

5 Rehoboam lived in Jerusalem and built fortified cities in Judah.

6 He rebuilt Bethlehem, Etam, Tekoa,

7 Beth Zur, Soco, Adullam,

8 Gath, Mareshah, Ziph,

9 Adoraim, Lachish, Azekah,

10 Zorah, Aijalon, and Hebron. These were fortified cities in Judah and Benjamin.

11 He strengthened them and put army officers with reserves of food, olive oil, and wine in them.

12 In each city he stored shields and spears. He made the cities very secure. So Rehoboam held on to Judah and Benjamin.

13 The priests and Levites in every region of Israel sided with Rehoboam.

14 The priests abandoned their land and property and went to Judah and Jerusalem because Jeroboam and his descendants rejected them as the LORD's priests.

15 Instead, Jeroboam appointed [his own] priests for the illegal worship sites and the goat and calf statues he had made as idols.

16 People from every tribe of Israel who were determined to seek the LORD God of Israel followed the Levitical priests to Jerusalem to sacrifice to the LORD God of their ancestors.

17 So they strengthened the kingdom of Judah by supporting Rehoboam, son of Solomon, for three years. During [those] three years they lived the way David and Solomon had lived.

18 Rehoboam married Mahalath, daughter of Jerimoth. (Jerimoth was the son of David and Abihail. Abihail was the daughter of Eliab, son of Jesse.)

19 Mahalath gave birth to the following sons: Jeush, Shemariah, and Zaham.

20 After marrying Mahalath, he married Maacah, Absalom's granddaughter. She gave birth to Abijah, Attai, Ziza, and Shelomith.

21 Rehoboam loved Maacah, Absalom's granddaughter, more than all his other wives and concubines. (He had 18 wives and 60 concubines. He fathered 28 sons and 60 daughters.)

22 Rehoboam appointed Abijah, son of Maacah, as family head and prince among his brothers. By doing this, Rehoboam could make him king.

23 He wisely placed his sons in every region of Judah and Benjamin, in every fortified city. He gave them allowances and obtained many wives for them.

1 When Rehoboam had established his kingdom and made himself strong, he and all Israel abandoned the LORD's teachings.

2 In the fifth year of Rehoboam's reign, King Shishak of Egypt attacked Jerusalem. This happened because all Israel was not loyal to the LORD.

3 Shishak had 1,200 chariots, 60,000 horses, and an army of countless Libyans, Sukkites, and Sudanese from Egypt.

4 He captured the fortified cities in Judah and then came to Jerusalem.

5 The prophet Shemaiah came to Rehoboam and the leaders of Judah who had gathered in Jerusalem because of Shishak. Shemaiah said to them, "This is what the LORD says: You have abandoned me, so I will abandon you. I will hand you over to Shishak."

6 Then the commanders of Israel and the king humbled themselves. "The LORD is right!" they said.

7 When the LORD saw that they had humbled themselves, he spoke his word to Shemaiah: "They have humbled themselves. I will not destroy them. In a little while I will give them an escape. I will not use Shishak to pour my anger on Jerusalem.

8 But they will become his servants so that they can learn the difference between serving me and serving foreign kings."

9 King Shishak of Egypt attacked Jerusalem and took the treasures from the LORD's temple and the royal palace. He took them all. He took the gold shields Solomon had made.

10 So King Rehoboam made bronze shields to replace them and put them by the entrance to the royal palace, where the captains of the guards were stationed.

11 Whenever the king went into the LORD's temple, guards carried the shields and then returned them to the guardroom.

12 After Rehoboam humbled himself, the LORD was no longer angry with him and didn't completely destroy him. So things went well in Judah.

13 King Rehoboam strengthened his position in Jerusalem and ruled. He was 41 years old when he began to rule. He ruled for 17 years in Jerusalem, the city that the LORD chose from all the tribes of Israel, the city where the LORD put his name. (Rehoboam's mother was an Ammonite woman named Naamah.)

14 He did evil things because he was not serious about dedicating himself to serving the LORD.

15 Aren't the events concerning Rehoboam from first to last written in the records of the prophet Shemaiah and the records of the seer Iddo in the genealogies? There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam as long as they lived.

16 Rehoboam lay down in death with his ancestors and was buried in the City of David. His son Abijah succeeded him as king.

30 (Jesus had not yet come into the village but was still where Martha had met him.)

31 The Jews who were comforting Mary in the house saw her get up quickly and leave. So they followed her. They thought that she was going to the tomb to cry.

32 When Mary arrived where Jesus was and saw him, she knelt at his feet and said, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died."

33 When Jesus saw her crying, and the Jews who were crying with her, he was deeply moved and troubled.

34 So Jesus asked, "Where did you put Lazarus?" They answered him, "Lord, come and see."

35 Jesus cried.

36 The Jews said, "See how much Jesus loved him."

37 But some of the Jews asked, "Couldn't this man who gave a blind man sight keep Lazarus from dying?"

38 Deeply moved again, Jesus went to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone covering the entrance.

39 Jesus said, "Take the stone away." Martha, the dead man's sister, told Jesus, "Lord, there must already be a stench. He's been dead for four days."

40 Jesus said to her, "Didn't I tell you that if you believe, you would see God's glory?"

41 So the stone was moved away from the entrance of the tomb. Jesus looked up and said, "Father, I thank you for hearing me.

42 I've known that you always hear me. However, I've said this so that the crowd standing around me will believe that you sent me."

43 After Jesus had said this, he shouted as loudly as he could, "Lazarus, come out!"

44 The dead man came out. Strips of cloth were wound around his feet and hands, and his face was wrapped with a handkerchief. Jesus told them, "Free Lazarus, and let him go."

45 Many Jews who had visited Mary and had seen what Jesus had done believed in him.

46 But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them what Jesus had done.

47 So the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the council. They asked, "What are we doing? This man is performing a lot of miracles.

48 If we let him continue what he's doing, everyone will believe in him. Then the Romans will take away our position and our nation."

49 One of them, Caiaphas, who was chief priest that year, told them, "You people don't know anything.

50 You haven't even considered this: It is better for one man to die for the people than for the whole nation to be destroyed."

51 Caiaphas didn't say this on his own. As chief priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation.

52 He prophesied that Jesus wouldn't die merely for this nation, but that Jesus would die to bring God's scattered children together and make them one.

53 From that day on, the Jewish council planned to kill Jesus.

54 So Jesus no longer walked openly among the Jews. Instead, he left Bethany and went to the countryside near the desert, to a city called Ephraim, where he stayed with his disciples.

55 The Jewish Passover was near. Many people came from the countryside to Jerusalem to purify themselves before the Passover.

56 As they stood in the temple courtyard, they looked for Jesus and asked each other, "Do you think that he'll avoid coming to the festival?"

57 (The chief priests and the Pharisees had given orders that whoever knew where Jesus was should tell them so that they could arrest him.)