1 Kings 10-12

GOD’S WORD Translation

The Queen of Sheba Visits Solomon^(A)

10 The queen of Sheba heard about Solomon’s reputation. (He owed his reputation to the name of the Lord.) So she came to test him with riddles. ² She arrived in Jerusalem with a large group of servants, with camels carrying spices, a very large quantity of gold, and precious stones. When she came to Solomon, she talked to him about everything she had on her mind. ³ Solomon answered all her questions. No question was too difficult for the king to answer.

⁴ When the queen of Sheba saw all of Solomon’s wisdom, the palace he built, ⁵ the food on his table, his officers’ seating arrangement, the organization of his officials and the uniforms they wore, his cupbearers,^[a] and the burnt offerings that he sacrificed at the Lord’s temple, she was breathless. ⁶ She told the king, “What I heard in my country about your words and your wisdom is true! ⁷ But I didn’t believe the reports until I came and saw it with my own eyes. I wasn’t even told half of it. Your wisdom and wealth surpass the stories I’ve heard. ⁸ How blessed your men must be! How blessed these servants of yours must be because they are always stationed in front of you, listening to your wisdom! ⁹ Thank the Lord your God, who is pleased with you. He has put you on the throne of Israel. Because of your God’s eternal love for the people of Israel, he has made you king so that you would maintain justice and righteousness.”

¹⁰ She gave the king 9,000 pounds of gold, a very large quantity of spices, and precious stones. Never again was such a large quantity of spices brought ⌞into Israel⌟ as those that the queen of Sheba gave King Solomon.

¹¹ Hiram’s fleet that brought gold from Ophir also brought a large quantity of sandalwood and precious stones from Ophir. ¹² With the sandalwood the king made supports for the Lord’s temple and the royal palace, and lyres and harps for the singers. Never again was sandalwood like this imported ⌞into Israel⌟, nor has any been seen ⌞there⌟ to this day.

¹³ King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba anything she wanted, whatever she asked for, besides what he had given her out of his royal generosity. Then she and her servants went back to her country.

Solomon’s Wealth^(B)

¹⁴ The gold that came to Solomon in one year weighed 49,950 pounds, ¹⁵ not counting ⌞the gold⌟ which came from the merchants, the traders’ profits, all the Arab kings, and the governors of the country.

¹⁶ King Solomon made 200 large shields of hammered gold, using 15 pounds of gold on each shield. ¹⁷ He also made 300 small shields of hammered gold, using four pounds of gold on each shield. The king put them in the hall ⌞which he called⌟ the Forest of Lebanon.

¹⁸ The king also made a large ivory throne and covered it with fine gold. ¹⁹ Six steps led to the throne. Carved into the back of the throne was a calf’s head. There were armrests on both sides of the seat. Two lions stood beside the armrests. ²⁰ Twelve lions stood on six steps, one on each side. Nothing like this had been made for any other kingdom.

²¹ All King Solomon’s cups were gold, and all the utensils for the hall ⌞which he called⌟ the Forest of Lebanon were fine gold. (Nothing was silver, because it wasn’t considered valuable in Solomon’s time.) ²² The king had a fleet headed for Tarshish with Hiram’s fleet. Once every three years the Tarshish fleet would bring gold, silver, ivory, apes, and monkeys.

²³ In wealth and wisdom King Solomon was greater than all the ⌞other⌟ kings of the world. ²⁴ The whole world wanted to listen to the wisdom that God gave Solomon. ²⁵ So everyone who came brought him gifts: articles of silver and gold, clothing, weapons, spices, horses, and mules. This happened year after year.

²⁶ Solomon built up ⌞his army⌟ with chariots and war horses. He had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 war horses. He stationed ⌞some⌟ in chariot cities and ⌞others⌟ with himself in Jerusalem. ²⁷ The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and he made cedars as plentiful as fig trees in the foothills.

²⁸ Solomon’s horses were imported from Egypt and Kue. The king’s traders bought them from Kue for a fixed price. ²⁹ Each chariot was imported from Egypt for 15 pounds of silver and each horse for 6 ounces of silver. For the same price they obtained horses to export to all the Hittite and Aramean kings.

Solomon’s Idolatry

11 King Solomon loved many foreign women in addition to Pharaoh’s daughter. He loved Hittite women and women from Moab, Ammon, Edom, and Sidon. ² They came from the nations about which the Lord had said to the people of Israel, “Never intermarry with them. They will surely tempt you to follow their gods.” But Solomon was obsessed with their love. ³ He had 700 wives who were princesses and 300 wives who were concubines.^{[b] 4} In his old age, his wives tempted him to follow other gods. He was no longer committed to the Lord his God as his father David had been. ⁵ Solomon followed Astarte (the goddess of the Sidonians) and Milcom (the disgusting idol of the Ammonites). ⁶ So Solomon did what the Lord considered evil. He did not wholeheartedly follow the Lord as his father David had done. ⁷ Then Solomon built an illegal worship site on the hill east of Jerusalem for Chemosh (the disgusting idol of Moab) and for Molech (the disgusting idol of the Ammonites). ⁸ He did these things for each of his foreign wives who burned incense and sacrificed to their gods.

God Pronounces Judgment on Solomon

⁹ So the Lord became angry with Solomon because his heart had turned from the Lord God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice. ¹⁰ God had given him commands about this. ⌞He told him⌟ not to follow other gods. But Solomon did not obey God’s command. ¹¹ The Lord told Solomon, “Because this is your attitude and you have no respect for my promises ^[c] or my laws that I commanded you to keep, I will certainly tear the kingdom away from you. I will give it to one of your servants. ¹² But I will not do it in your lifetime because of your father David. I will tear it away from the hands of your son. ¹³ However, I will not tear the whole kingdom away from you. I will give your son one tribe for my servant David’s sake and for the sake of Jerusalem, ⌞the city⌟ that I chose.”

Rebellions against Solomon

¹⁴ The Lord raised up Hadad the Edomite as a rival to Solomon. Hadad was from the Edomite royal family. ¹⁵ When David had conquered Edom, Joab, the commander of the army, went to bury those killed in battle and killed every male in Edom. ¹⁶ (Joab and all Israel stayed there six months until they had destroyed every male in Edom.) ¹⁷ Hadad was a young boy at the time. He and some of his father’s Edomite servants fled to Egypt. ¹⁸ They left Midian and went to Paran. Taking some men from Paran with them, they went to Pharaoh (the king of Egypt). Pharaoh gave Hadad a home, a food allowance, and land.

¹⁹ Pharaoh approved of Hadad. So he gave Hadad his sister-in-law, the sister of Queen Tahpenes, to be Hadad’s wife. ²⁰ Tahpenes’ sister had a son ⌞named⌟ Genubath. Tahpenes presented the boy to Pharaoh in the palace, and Genubath lived in the palace among Pharaoh’s children.

²¹ When Hadad heard in Egypt that David had lain down in death with his ancestors and that Joab, the commander of the army, had died, he said to Pharaoh, “Let me go to my own country.”

²² Pharaoh asked him, “What don’t you have here that makes you eager to go home?”

“Nothing,” he said. “But let me leave anyway.”

²³ God also raised up Rezon, son of Eliada, as a rival to Solomon. Rezon fled from his master, King Hadadezer of Zobah, ²⁴ after David killed the men of Zobah. Rezon gathered men and became the leader of a troop of warriors. They went to Damascus, settled there, and ruled a kingdom in Damascus. ²⁵ In addition to the trouble that Hadad caused, Rezon was Israel’s rival as long as Solomon lived. He ruled Aram and despised Israel.

²⁶ There was also Jeroboam, who was the son of Nebat and an Ephrathite from Zeredah. His mother Zeruah was a widow. He was one of Solomon’s officers, but he rebelled against the king.

²⁷ This was the situation when he rebelled against the king: Solomon was building the Millo ^[d] and repairing a break in the ⌞wall of⌟ the City of David. ²⁸ Solomon saw that Jeroboam was a very able and hardworking man. So he put Jeroboam in charge of all forced labor from the tribes of Joseph.

²⁹ At that time Jeroboam left Jerusalem. The prophet Ahijah from Shiloh met him on the road. The two of them were alone in the open country, and Ahijah had on new clothes. ³⁰ Ahijah took his new garment and tore it into 12 pieces.

³¹ He told Jeroboam, “Take 10 pieces because this is what the Lord God of Israel says: I am going to tear the kingdom out of Solomon’s hands and give ten tribes to you. ³² He will have one tribe ⌞left⌟ because of my servant David and Jerusalem, the city I have chosen from all the tribes of Israel. ³³ I will do this because he has abandoned me and worshiped Astarte (the goddess of the Sidonians), Chemosh (the god of Moab), and Milcom (the god of Ammon). He has not followed my ways. He did not do what I consider right or keep my laws and decrees as his father David did.

³⁴ “I will not take the whole kingdom from him. Instead, I will allow him to be ruler as long as he lives because of my servant David whom I chose, who obeyed my commands and laws. ³⁵ But I will take the kingdom away from his son and give you ten tribes. ³⁶ I will give his son one tribe so that my servant David will always have a lamp in my presence in Jerusalem, the city where I chose to place my name.

³⁷ “I will choose you so that you can rule everything you desire. You will be king of Israel. ³⁸ If you will do all I command you, follow my ways, and do what I consider right by obeying my laws and commands as my servant David did, then I will be with you. I will build a permanent dynasty for you as I did for David. And I will give you Israel. ³⁹ I will make David’s descendants suffer for this, but not always.”

⁴⁰ Then Solomon tried to kill Jeroboam, but Jeroboam fled to King Shishak of Egypt. He stayed in Egypt until Solomon died.

Solomon’s Death^(C)

⁴¹ Aren’t the rest of Solomon’s acts—everything he did—and his wisdom written in the records of Solomon? ⁴² The length of Solomon’s reign in Jerusalem over all Israel was 40 years. ⁴³ Solomon lay down in death with his ancestors and was buried in the City of David. His son Rehoboam succeeded him as king.

King Rehoboam Foolishly Rejects Israel’s Request^(D)

12 Rehoboam went to Shechem because all Israel had gone to Shechem to make him king. ² Jeroboam (Nebat’s son) was still in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon. When he heard ⌞about Rehoboam⌟, he returned from Egypt.^{[e] 3} ⌞Israel⌟ sent for Jeroboam and invited him back. Jeroboam and the entire assembly of Israel went to speak to Rehoboam. They said, ⁴ “Your father made us carry a heavy burden. Reduce the hard work and lighten the heavy burden he put on us, and we will serve you.”

⁵ He said to them, “Leave and come back the day after tomorrow.” So the people left.

⁶ King Rehoboam sought advice from the older leaders who had served his father Solomon while he was still alive. He asked, “What do you advise? How should I respond to these people?”

⁷ They told him, “If you will serve these people today, humble yourself, and speak gently, then they will always be your servants.”

⁸ But he ignored the advice the older leaders gave him. He sought advice from the young men who had grown up with him and were serving him. ⁹ He asked them, “What is your advice? How should we respond to these people who are asking me to lighten the burden my father put on them?”

¹⁰ The young men who had grown up with him answered, “This is what you should tell them: ‘My little finger is heavier than my father’s whole body. ¹¹ If my father put a heavy burden on you, I will add to it. If my father punished you with whips, I will punish you with scorpions.’ ”

¹² So Jeroboam and all the people came back to Rehoboam two days later, as the king had instructed them. ¹³ The king answered the people harshly. He ignored the advice the older leaders gave him. ¹⁴ He spoke to them as the young men advised. He said, “If my father made your burden heavy, I will add to it. If my father punished you with whips, I will punish you with scorpions.” ¹⁵ The king refused to listen to the people because the Lord was directing these events to carry out the promise he had made to Jeroboam (Nebat’s son) through Ahijah from Shiloh.

¹⁶ When all Israel saw that the king refused to listen to them, the people answered the king,

So Israel went home to their own tents. ¹⁷ But Rehoboam ruled the Israelites who lived in the cities of Judah.

¹⁸ Then King Rehoboam sent Adoram to Israel. He was in charge of forced labor, but they stoned him to death. So King Rehoboam got on his chariot as fast as he could and fled to Jerusalem. ¹⁹ Israel has rebelled against David’s dynasty to this day.

King Jeroboam Establishes Idolatry in Israel^(E)

²⁰ When all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they sent men to invite him to the assembly. They made him king of all Israel. Only the tribe of Judah remained loyal to David’s dynasty.

²¹ When Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, he gathered all the people of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin, 180,000 of the best soldiers, to fight against the people of Israel and return the kingdom to Rehoboam, son of Solomon.

²² But God spoke his word to Shemaiah, the man of God. He said, ²³ “Speak to Judah’s King Rehoboam, son of Solomon, and all the people of Judah and Benjamin, and the rest of the people. ²⁴ This is what the Lord says: Don’t wage war against your relatives from Israel. Everyone, go home. What has happened is my doing.” So they obeyed the Lord’s word. They returned ⌞home⌟, as the Lord told them.

²⁵ Jeroboam rebuilt Shechem in the hills of Ephraim and lived there. Then he left that place and built Penuel. ²⁶ He said to himself, “The kingdom will probably return to David’s dynasty now. ²⁷ King Rehoboam of Judah, the former master of these people, will regain popularity if they go to sacrifice in the Lord’s temple in Jerusalem. Then they will kill me and return to King Rehoboam of Judah.”

²⁸ After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves. He said, “You’ve been worshiping in Jerusalem long enough. Israel, here are your gods who brought you out of Egypt.” ²⁹ He put one in Bethel and the other in Dan. ³⁰ Worshiping them became ⌞Israel’s⌟ sin. The people went as far as Dan to worship the one calf. ³¹ Jeroboam built worship sites on hilltops. He appointed men who were not descended from Levi to be priests.

³² Jeroboam appointed a festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, just like the festival in Judah. He went to the altar in Bethel to sacrifice to the calves he had made. He appointed priests from the illegal worship sites ⌞to serve⌟ in Bethel. ³³ He went to his altar in Bethel to burn an offering on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, ⌞the festival⌟ he had invented for the Israelites.