1 Kings 12
Easy-to-Read Version
Civil War
12 Jeroboam son of Nebat was still in Egypt where he had run away from Solomon. When he heard about Solomon’s death, he returned to his city, Zeredah, in the hills of Ephraim.[a]
Rehoboam and all the Israelites went to Shechem to make him the king. The people said to Rehoboam, 4 “Your father forced us to work very hard. Now, make it easier for us. Stop the heavy work that your father forced us to do and we will serve you.”
5 Rehoboam answered, “Come back to me in three days, and I will answer you.” So the people left.
6 There were some older men who had helped Solomon make decisions when he was alive. So King Rehoboam asked these men what he should do. He said, “How do you think I should answer the people?”
7 They answered, “If you are like a servant to them today, they will sincerely serve you. If you speak kindly to them, they will always work for you.”
8 But Rehoboam did not listen to the advice from the older men. He asked the young men who were his friends. 9 Rehoboam asked them, “The people said, ‘Give us easier work than your father gave us.’ How do you think I should answer them? What should I tell them?”
10 Then the young men who grew up with him answered, “Those people came to you and said, ‘Your father forced us to work very hard. Now make our work easier.’ So you should tell them, ‘My little finger is stronger than my father’s whole body. 11 My father forced you to work hard, but I will make you work much harder! My father punished you with whips, but I will punish you with whips that have sharp metal tips.’”
12 Three days later, Jeroboam and all the people came back as Rehoboam had said. 13 King Rehoboam did not listen to the advice from the older men, and he was rude to the people. 14 He did what his friends told him to do and said, “My father forced you to work hard, but I will make you work much harder! My father punished you with whips, but I will punish you with whips that have sharp metal tips.” 15 So the king did not do what the people wanted. The Lord caused this to happen. He did this in order to keep the promise he made to Jeroboam son of Nebat when he sent the prophet Ahijah from Shiloh to speak to him.
16 The Israelites saw that the new king refused to listen to them, so they said to him,
“We are not part of David’s family are we?
We don’t get any of Jesse’s land, do we?
So, people of Israel, let’s go home
and let David’s son rule his own people!”
So the Israelites went home. 17 But Rehoboam still ruled over the Israelites who lived in the cities of Judah.
18 A man named Adoniram was one of the men who directed the workers. King Rehoboam sent Adoniram to talk to the people, but the Israelites threw stones at him until he died. King Rehoboam ran to his chariot and escaped to Jerusalem. 19 So Israel rebelled against the family of David, and this is how things are even today.
20 When all the Israelites heard that Jeroboam had come back, they called him to a meeting and made him king over all Israel. The tribe of Judah was the only tribe that continued to follow the family of David.
21 Rehoboam went back to Jerusalem and gathered together an army of 180,000 men from the families of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin. Rehoboam wanted to go fight against the Israelites and take back his kingdom. 22 But God spoke to a prophet named Shemaiah. He said, 23 “Talk to Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to men of Judah and Benjamin. 24 Say to them, ‘The Lord says that you must not go to war against your brothers. Everyone, go home! I made all this happen.’” So all the men in Rehoboam’s army obeyed the Lord. They went home, just as the Lord had commanded.
25 Jeroboam rebuilt the city of Shechem, in the hill country of Ephraim, and lived there. Later he went to the city of Penuel[b] and rebuilt it.
26-27 Jeroboam said to himself, “If the people keep going to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices at the Lord’s Temple, someday they will want to be ruled by their old masters. They will want to be ruled by King Rehoboam of Judah. And then they will kill me.” 28 So the king asked his advisors what to do. They gave him their advice, and King Jeroboam made two golden calves. He said to the people, “You don’t have to go to Jerusalem to worship anymore. Israel, these are the gods that brought you out of Egypt.[c]” 29 King Jeroboam put one golden calf in Bethel and the other one in the city of Dan.[d] 30 What a terrible sin this was, because the Israelites started going to the cities of Dan and Bethel[e] to worship the calves.
31 Jeroboam also built temples at the high places and chose priests from among the different tribes of Israel. (He did not choose priests only from the tribe of Levi.) 32 Then King Jeroboam started a new festival that was like the festival[f] in Judah, but it was on the 15th day of the eighth month. At this time the king offered sacrifices on the altar at Bethel. He and the priests he chose offered the sacrifices to the calves that he had set up at the high places he had made. 33 So King Jeroboam chose his own time for a festival for the Israelites, the 15th day of the eighth month. And during that time he offered sacrifices and burned incense on the altar he had built at Bethel.
Footnotes
- 1 Kings 12:1 to his city … Ephraim This is from the ancient Greek version.
- 1 Kings 12:25 Penuel Or “Peniel.”
- 1 Kings 12:28 Israel … out of Egypt This is exactly the same thing that Aaron said at the time he made the golden calf in the desert. See Ex. 32:4.
- 1 Kings 12:29 Bethel, Dan Bethel was a city in the southern part of Israel, near Judah. Dan was in the northern part of Israel.
- 1 Kings 12:30 and Bethel This is from the ancient Greek version.
- 1 Kings 12:32 the festival Probably the Festival of Shelters. See “Festival of Shelters” in the Word List.
1 Kings 12
Holman Christian Standard Bible
The Kingdom Divided
12 Then Rehoboam(A) went to Shechem,(B) for all Israel(C) had gone to Shechem to make him king.(D) 2 When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard about it, for he was still in Egypt where he had fled from King Solomon’s presence,(E) Jeroboam stayed in Egypt.[a] 3 They summoned him, and Jeroboam and the whole assembly of Israel came and spoke to Rehoboam: 4 “Your father made our yoke difficult.(F) You, therefore, lighten your father’s harsh service and the heavy yoke he put on us,(G) and we will serve you.”
5 Rehoboam replied, “Go home for three days and then return to me.” So the people left. 6 Then King Rehoboam consulted with the elders(H) who had served his father Solomon when he was alive, asking, “How do you advise me to respond to these people?”
7 They replied, “Today if you will be a servant to these people and serve them, and if you respond to them by speaking kind words to them, they will be your servants forever.”(I)
8 But he rejected the advice of the elders who had advised him(J) and consulted with the young men who had grown up with him and served him. 9 He asked them, “What message do you advise that we send back to these people who said to me, ‘Lighten the yoke your father put on us’?”
10 Then the young men who had grown up with him told him, “This is what you should say to these people who said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you, make it lighter on us!’ This is what you should tell them: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins! 11 Although my father burdened you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with barbed whips.’”[b](K)
12 So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day, as the king had ordered: “Return to me on the third day.” 13 Then the king answered the people harshly. He rejected the advice the elders had given him 14 and spoke to them according to the young men’s advice: “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with barbed whips.”[c]
15 The king did not listen to the people, because this turn of events came from the Lord(L) to carry out His word, which the Lord had spoken through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam son of Nebat.(M) 16 When all Israel saw that the king had not listened to them, the people answered him:
What portion do we have in David?
We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse.(N)
Israel, return to your tents;
David, now look after your own house!(O)
So Israel went to their tents, 17 but Rehoboam reigned over the Israelites living in the cities of Judah.(P)
18 Then King Rehoboam sent Adoram,[d](Q) who was in charge of forced labor, but all Israel stoned him to death. King Rehoboam managed to get into the chariot and flee to Jerusalem. 19 Israel is in rebellion against the house of David until today.(R)
Rehoboam in Jerusalem
20 When all Israel heard that Jeroboam had come back,(S) they summoned him to the assembly and made him king over all Israel.(T) No one followed the house of David except the tribe of Judah alone.(U) 21 When Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem,(V) he mobilized 180,000 choice warriors from the entire house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin(W) to fight against the house of Israel to restore the kingdom to Rehoboam son of Solomon. 22 But a revelation from God came to Shemaiah,(X) the man of God: 23 “Say to Rehoboam son of Solomon, king of Judah, to the whole house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people, 24 ‘This is what the Lord says: You are not to march up and fight against your brothers, the Israelites. Each of you must return home, for I have done this.’”(Y)
So they listened to what the Lord said and went back as He had told them.
Jeroboam’s Idolatry
25 Jeroboam built Shechem(Z) in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. From there he went out and built Penuel.(AA) 26 Jeroboam said to himself, “The way things are going now, the kingdom might return to the house of David.(AB) 27 If these people regularly go to offer sacrifices in the Lord’s temple in Jerusalem,(AC) the heart of these people will return to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah. They will murder me and go back to the king of Judah.” 28 So the king sought advice.
Then he made two golden calves, and he said to the people, “Going to Jerusalem is too difficult for you. Israel, here is your God[e] who brought you out of the land of Egypt.”(AD) 29 He set up one in Bethel,(AE) and put the other in Dan.(AF) 30 This led to sin;(AG) the people walked in procession before one of the calves all the way to Dan.[f](AH)
31 Jeroboam also built shrines on the high places(AI) and set up priests from every class of people who were not Levites.(AJ) 32 Jeroboam made a festival in the eighth month on the fifteenth day of the month, like the festival in Judah.(AK) He offered sacrifices on the altar; he made this offering in Bethel to sacrifice to the calves he had set up. He also stationed the priests in Bethel for the high places he had set up.(AL) 33 He offered sacrifices on[g] the altar he had set up in Bethel on the fifteenth day of the eighth month. He chose this month on his own.(AM) He made a festival for the Israelites, offered sacrifices on the altar, and burned incense.(AN)
Footnotes
- 1 Kings 12:2 LXX, Vg read Jeroboam returned from Egypt; 2Ch 10:2
- 1 Kings 12:11 Lit with scorpions
- 1 Kings 12:14 Lit with scorpions
- 1 Kings 12:18 LXX reads Adoniram; 1Kg 4:6; 5:14
- 1 Kings 12:28 Or here are your gods
- 1 Kings 12:30 Some LXX mss read calves to Bethel and the other to Dan
- 1 Kings 12:33 Or He went up to
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