Rehoboam

Rehoboam, the only named son of Solomon and Naamah of Ammon, became king at the age of forty-one. The northern tribes met him at Shechem and asked him to lighten the heavy yoke Solomon had laid on them. Rehoboam consulted his father's elders, who urged conciliation; he then consulted the young men he had grown up with, who urged severity. He chose severity: 'My little finger is thicker than my father's thighs. And now, whereas my father laid on you a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions' (1 Kings 12:10-11). Ten tribes seceded that day under Jeroboam; only Judah and Benjamin remained loyal. Rehoboam mustered 180,000 warriors to recover the north, but the prophet Shemaiah forbade civil war, declaring the schism was from the LORD (1 Kings 12:24). He fortified fifteen cities of Judah (2 Chronicles 11:5-12), and the priests and Levites from across the north migrated south to him. But in his fifth year, because Judah forsook the law of the LORD, Pharaoh Shishak (Sheshonq I) invaded Jerusalem and stripped the gold of the temple and palace (1 Kings 14:25-26; 2 Chronicles 12:9). Rehoboam replaced the gold shields with bronze. He was succeeded by his son Abijah and is named in Matthew's genealogy of Christ.