of the central worship of Jehovah at Jerusalem. Thus national union and religious purity were bound up

together, and helped to preserve each other.

But to return. On the elevation of Jeroboam to the new throne of Israel, Rehoboam made one more attempt to

recover the lost parts of David's kingdom. He assembled an army of 180,000 men188 from Judah and

Benjamin - the latter tribe having apparently become almost unified with Judah since the establishment of

the political and religious capital in Jerusalem, through which ran the boundary -line between Judah and

Benjamin. But the expedition was at its outset arrested by Divine direction through the prophet Shemaiah.189

This abandonment of an expedition and dispersion of a host simply upon the word of a prophet, are quite as

remarkable as the courage of that prophet in facing an army in such circumstances, and his boldness in so

fully declaring as a message from Jehovah what must have been a most unwelcome announcement alike to

king and people. Both these considerations are very important in forming an estimate, not only of the

religious and political state of the time, and their mutual inter-relations, but of the character of, "Prophetism"

in Israel. The expedition once abandoned was not again renewed, although throughout the reign of

Rehoboam there were constant incursions and border-raids - probably chiefly of a predatory character - on

the part of Judah and of Israel (1 Kings 14:30). The remaining notices of Rehoboam's reign concern the

internal and external relations of Judah, as well as the sad religious change which passed over the country

after the first three years of his rule. They are recorded, either solely or with much fuller details, in the Book

of Chronicles (2 Chronicles 11:4 to 12:16). The first measure referred to is the building of fifteen fortresses, of

which thirteen were in the land of Judah - Hebron forming, as it were, the center of theme and only two

(Zorah and Aijalon) within the later possession of Benjamin.190

They served as a continuous chain of forts south of Jerusalem, and to defend the western approaches into

the country. The northern boundary was left wholly unprotected. From this it would appear that Rehoboam

chiefly dreaded an incursion from Egypt, though it does not by any means follow that these fortresses were

only built after the campaign of Shishak, which took place five years after the accession of Solomon's son.

The next notice concerns the family relations of Rehoboam. It appears that he had eighteen wives and sixty

concubines (thirty, according to Josephus, Ant. 8. 10, 11), following in this respect the evil example of

Solomon. Of his wives only two  191 are named, his cousin Mahalath, the daughter of Jerimoth, a son of David

(either the same as Ithream, 1 Chronicles 3:3, or the son of one of David's concubines, 1 Chronicles 3:9), and

of Abihail, the daughter of Eliab, David's eldest brother; and Maachah, the daughter, or rather, evidently,

the granddaughter of Absalom,  192 through his only child, Tamar (2 Samuel 14:27; 18:18; comp. Jos. Ant. 8.

10, 11), who had married Uriel of Gibeah (2 Chronicles 13:2).

Maachah, named after her paternal great-grandmother (the mother of Absalom, 1 Chronicles 3:2), was the

favorite of the king, and her eldest son, Abijah, made "chief among his brethren," with succession to the

throne. As already noticed, Rehoboam took care to locate his other sons in the different districts of his

territory, giving them ample means for sustaining their rank, and forming numerous and influential alliances

for them.193 Altogether Rehoboam had twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters.

From these general notices, which must be regarded as referring not to any single period, but to the whole

reign of Rehoboam, we pass to what, as regards the Scripture narrative, is the most important event in this

history. The fact itself is told in fullest detail in the Book of Kings (1 Kings 14:22- 24); its punishment at the

hand of God in the Book of Chronicles (2 Chronicles 12:2, 12).

After the first three years of Rehoboam's reign a great change seems to have come over the religious aspect

of the country. Rehoboam and Judah did not, indeed, openly renounce the worship of Jehovah. On the

contrary, we find that the king continued to attend the house of the LORD in royal state, and that aft er the

incursion of Shishak there was even a partial religious revival194 (2 Chronicles 12:11, 12).