2 Chronicles 11:5-17

Rehoboam rules Judah as king

5 Rehoboam lived in Jerusalem. He built these strong cities in Judah to make it safe:

He made all those cities in Judah and Benjamin very strong. 11 He made their buildings stronger. He put important officers in them to rule over them. He stored food, olive oil and wine in them. 12 He supplied every city with shields and spears. He did all these things to make them very strong places. So Rehoboam kept his authority over Judah and Benjamin.

13 The priests and Levites who lived everywhere in Israel agreed to serve Rehoboam. 14 The Levites even left their lands and their houses to come to Judah and Jerusalem. They came because Jeroboam and his sons refused to let them serve the Lord as his priests. 15 Jeroboam chose his own priests to offer sacrifices at the altars that he had built on the hills. They worshipped the idols of goats and young bulls that Jeroboam had made. 16 But some people from every tribe in Israel still wanted to worship the Lord, Israel's God. So they came with the Levites to Jerusalem. They came to offer sacrifices to the Lord, the God of their ancestors. 17 These people helped to make the kingdom of Judah stronger. They were faithful to Solomon's son Rehoboam for three years. During that time, they lived in the way that David and Solomon had taught them to live.