Son of Shlomo; became king at Shlomo's death
Rejected the elders' counsel and answered the northern tribes harshly — 'my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions' (1 Kings 12:11, 14)
Ten northern tribes revolted under Yarov'am ben Nevat, splitting the kingdom into Israel (north) and Yehudah (south) — Rechavam retained only Yehudah and Binyamin
Reigned 17 years in Yerushalayim
Under his reign, Egypt's King Shishak (Shoshenq I) invaded and plundered the Temple treasures (1 Kings 14:25–26)
Named in Matthew 1:7 in the line to Yeshua
“My father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions — the king under whom the kingdom split”
Traditional note: The division of the kingdom under Rechavam (1 Kings 12) marks the beginning of the 'Divided-Kingdom' era for this dataset — from this point, the Messianic spine follows only the southern kingdom of Yehudah (the line of David), while the northern kingdom of Israel (Yarov'am I onward) is out of scope except where Batch 5 figures (e.g. Eliyahu, Elisha, Achav, Izevel, Yehu) intersect with it as prophetic narrative, per the illustration-priorities document.
