Israel and Judah become separate kingdoms
16 All the Israelites realized that the king refused to listen to them. So they said to the king,
‘We can no longer serve the family of Jesse's son, David!
Israelites, go back to your homes!
You descendant of David, take care of your own family!’
So the Israelites went to their homes. 17 But Rehoboam continued to rule over the Israelites who lived in the towns of Judah.
10:17Rehoboam was now king over only two Israelite tribes, Judah and Benjamin. This was the kingdom in the south. Jeroboam became king over the other 10 tribes in the north.
18 King Rehoboam sent a man called Adoniram to talk to the Israelite people. Adoniram had authority over the men who had to work for Rehoboam. But the Israelites threw stones at Adoniram and they killed him. So King Rehoboam quickly got into his chariot and he escaped to Jerusalem.
10:18Adoniram was also called Hadoram.
19 Since that time, the tribes in the north of Israel have not accepted the authority of King David's descendants.
2 Chronicles 11
1 Rehoboam arrived back in Jerusalem. He brought together all the men from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin who knew how to fight. There were 180,000 of them. Rehoboam wanted to attack the Israelite tribes so that he could rule them again as king. 2 But the Lord told the prophet Shemaiah, 3 ‘Say this to Solomon's son Rehoboam, the king of Judah. Say it to all the Israelite people who belong to the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. 4 This is what the Lord says: “Do not go and attack your brothers. Do not fight against them. Instead, you must all go home. I, the Lord, have decided that this must happen.” ’
So they obeyed the Lord's message. They did not go to attack Jeroboam.
11:4By this time, Jeroboam had become the king of Israel's 10 northern tribes. See 1 Kings 12:20. 