Rehoboam (; , ; , ; , ) was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the last monarch of the United Kingdom of Israel and the first monarch of the Kingdom of Judah after the former's split. He was a son of and the successor to Solomon and a grandson of David. In the account of I Kings and II Chronicles, Rehoboam was initially a king of the United Monarchy, but later saw his rule limited to only the Kingdom of Judah in the south following a rebellion by the ten northern tribes of Israel in 932/931 BCE, which led to the formation of the independent Kingdom of Israel under the rule of Jeroboam in the north. Biblical background According to the Jewish Encyclopedia, "Solomon's wisdom and power were not sufficient to prevent the rebellion of several of his border cities. Damascus under Rezon secured its independence [from] Solomon; and Jeroboam, a superintendent of works, his ambition stirred by the words of the prophet Ahijah, fled to Egypt. Thus before the death of Solomon, the apparently unified kingdom of David began to disintegrate. With Damascus independent and a powerful man of Ephraim, the most prominent of the Ten Tribes, awaiting his opportunity, the future of Solomon's kingdom became dubious". According to 1 Kings 11:1-13, Solomon had broken the mandate of the Torah by marrying foreign wives and being influenced by them, worshipping and building shrines to the Moabite and Ammonite gods: Rehoboam's mother, Naamah, was an Ammonitess, and thus one of the foreign wives whom Solomon married. In the Revised Version she is referred to as "the Ammonitess". Biblical narrative Conventional biblical chronology dates the start of Rehoboam's reign to the mid-10th century BC. His reign is described in 1 Kings 12 and 1 Kings 14:21-31 and in 2 Chronicles in the Hebrew Bible. Rehoboam was 41 years old (16 in Chapter 12 of Kings III in the Septuagint) when he ascended the throne. The assembly for the coronation of Solomon's successor, Rehoboam, was called at Shechem, the one sacredly historic city within the territory of the Ten Tribes. Before the coronation took place the assembly requested certain reforms in the policy followed by Rehoboam's father, Solomon. The reforms requested would materially reduce the royal exchequer and hence its power to continue the magnificence of Solomon's court. The older men counselled Rehoboam at least to speak to the people in a