Rehoboam: The King Who Answered Roughly

Who Rehoboam Was

Rehoboam (Hebrew רְחַבְעָם) was a king of Judah, son of Solomon and of Naamah, and his life straddles the seam between the united monarchy and the divided kingdom. According to Ussher, Annals of the World (1650), he reigned 975 BC to 958 BC. His name stands in the royal line recorded at 1 Chronicles 3:10, and his story is told twice, in 1 Kings and in 2 Chronicles, with a final mention in the New Testament at Matthew 1:7. The record of his accession begins at 1 Kings 11:43 and 2 Chronicles 9:31.

The Assembly and the Rough Answer

The decisive scene is a consultation that went wrong. The people gathered and the king took counsel (1 Kings 12:1; 1 Kings 12:3; 1 Kings 12:6; 2 Chronicles 10:1; 2 Chronicles 10:3; 2 Chronicles 10:6). Chronicles records the outcome without softening it: "So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam the third day, as the king asked, saying, 'Come to me again the third day.' The king answered them roughly; and king Rehoboam abandoned the counsel of the old men" (2 Chronicles 10:12-13; see also 1 Kings 12:12).

What followed was immediate and violent. "But as for the children of Israel who lived in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them. Then king Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was over the men subject to forced labor; and all Israel stoned him to death with stones. King Rehoboam hurried to get himself up to his chariot, to flee to Jerusalem" (1 Kings 12:17-18). Chronicles tells the same scene and names the official Hadoram (2 Chronicles 10:17-18). The king who had spoken roughly now ran. Whatever else may be said of Rehoboam, Scripture shows him losing the greater part of the kingdom in a single exchange of words and then fleeing the consequences by chariot.

Afterwards there is military mobilization and a word that reaches him (1 Kings 12:21; 1 Kings 12:23; 2 Chronicles 11:1; 2 Chronicles 11:3), and building work in Judah (2 Chronicles 11:5). Jeroboam's calculation about him is recorded at 1 Kings 12:27.

Three Strong Years, Then Unfaithfulness

Chronicles marks a brief good season: "So they strengthened the kingdom of Judah, and made Rehoboam the son of Solomon strong for three years; for they walked three years in the way of David and Solomon. Rehoboam took a wife for himself, Mahalath the daughter of Jerimoth the son of David and of Abihail the daughter of Eliab the son of Jesse" (2 Chronicles 11:17-18). Three years, and no more than three, are credited to that walk.

His household is described plainly: "Rehoboam loved Maacah the daughter of Absalom above all his wives and his concubines; for he took eighteen wives and sixty concubines, and became the father of twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters. Rehoboam appointed Abijah the son of Maacah to be chief, the prince among his brothers; for he intended to make him king" (2 Chronicles 11:21-22). Alongside Abijah, the dossier's family record names the sons Jeush, Shemariah, Zaham, Attai and Ziza, and Shelomith, from 2 Chronicles 11:19-20, and it names Taphath and Basemath among his siblings (1 Kings 4:11; 1 Kings 4:15).

Then comes the turn recorded at 2 Chronicles 12:1-2, the prophetic word of 2 Chronicles 12:5, the invasion year noted at 1 Kings 14:25, the replacement of what was taken at 1 Kings 14:27 and 2 Chronicles 12:10, and the summaries at 1 Kings 14:21, 2 Chronicles 12:13 and 2 Chronicles 12:15-16. A later verdict on him is spoken at 2 Chronicles 13:7, and continuing hostility is noted at 1 Kings 15:6.

The Failures Named

The text does not protect him. He abandoned the counsel of the old men and answered the people roughly (2 Chronicles 10:13). He sent the man over forced labor into a crowd that stoned him to death, and saved himself (1 Kings 12:18; 2 Chronicles 10:18). He took eighteen wives and sixty concubines (2 Chronicles 11:21). The years of walking in the way of David and Solomon are counted at three (2 Chronicles 11:17), and what came after is summarized at 2 Chronicles 12:1-2. And this: "There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam continually" (1 Kings 14:30).

What We Are Not Told

The dossier records no stated unknowns, yet much of Rehoboam's story here stands only as references without quoted text, and this article will not fill those verses in from elsewhere. Of the sons and the daughter named in his family record, nothing further is carried here. His end is reported in the barest terms: "Now the rest of the acts of Rehoboam, and all that he did, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?... Rehoboam slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in David's city. His mother's name was Naamah the Ammonitess. Abijam his son reigned in his place" (1 Kings 14:29-31). Even his son's name comes to us in two forms, Abijam in 1 Kings 14:31 and Abijah in 2 Chronicles 11:22.

The Line to Christ

One New Testament verse carries his name: Matthew 1:7. The king who split a kingdom with a rough answer, who fled to Jerusalem in his chariot, who walked rightly for three years, is not erased from the genealogy of Jesus Christ. Grace does not depend on the record being clean; here it runs straight through a man whose record is not.