Later he gathered together a group of worthless scoundrels, and they forced their will on Rehoboam son of Solomon, who was too young and inexperienced to resist them.

Solomon's son Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the LORD had chosen from all the territory of Israel as the place where he was to be worshiped. Rehoboam's mother was Naamah from Ammon.

But now I have chosen Jerusalem as the place where I will be worshiped, and you, David, to rule my people.' "

The LORD is great and is to be highly praised in the city of our God, on his sacred hill.

God has shown that there is safety with him inside the fortresses of the city.

Instead he chose the tribe of Judah and Mount Zion, which he dearly loves.

There he built his Temple like his home in heaven; he made it firm like the earth itself, secure for all time.

Make an altar of earth for me, and on it sacrifice your sheep and your cattle as offerings to be completely burned and as fellowship offerings. In every place that I set aside for you to worship me, I will come to you and bless you.

Out of the territory of all your tribes the LORD will choose the one place where the people are to come into his presence and worship him.

The LORD will choose a single place where he is to be worshiped, and there you must bring to him everything that I have commanded: your sacrifices that are to be burned and your other sacrifices, your tithes and your offerings, and those special gifts that you have promised to the LORD.

The total length of the wall on all four sides of the city is 10,080 yards. The name of the city from now on will be "The- LORD -Is-Here!"

"No Ammonite or Moabite---or any of their descendants, even in the tenth generation---may be included among the LORD's people.

Solomon loved many foreign women. Besides the daughter of the king of Egypt he married Hittite women and women from Moab, Ammon, Edom, and Sidon.

When the Law of Moses was being read aloud to the people, they came to the passage that said that no Ammonite or Moabite was ever to be permitted to join God's people.

I told them, "It was foreign women that made King Solomon sin. Here was a man who was greater than any of the kings of other nations. God loved him and made him king over all of Israel, and yet he fell into this sin.