15. having appointed his own priests for the shrines and the goat and calf idols he had made.
16. People from every tribe of Israel who had made up their minds to seek the Lord, Israel’s God, came to Jerusalem to sacrifice to the Lord, the God of their ancestors.
17. They strengthened the kingdom of Judah and supported Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, for three years by following the way of David and Solomon those three years.
18. Rehoboam married Mahalath daughter of Jerimoth, David’s son, and Abihail daughter of Eliab, Jesse’s son.
19. The sons she bore him were Jeush, Shemariah, and Zaham.
20. Later he married Maacah, Absalom’s daughter, who bore him Abijah, Attai, Ziza, and Shelomith.
21. Rehoboam loved Absalom’s daughter Maacah more than all his wives and secondary wives. In all, he had eighteen wives and sixty secondary wives, twenty-eight sons, and sixty daughters.
22. Rehoboam named Abijah, Maacah’s son, as his successor in order to make him king.
23. He wisely placed some of his sons in every region of Judah and Benjamin, in every fortified city, and gave them plenty of food and sought many wives for them.