1 Kings 12
Young's Literal Translation
12 And Rehoboam goeth to Shechem, for to Shechem hath all Israel come to make him king.
2 And it cometh to pass, at Jeroboam son of Nebat's hearing (and he [is] yet in Egypt where he hath fled from the presence of Solomon the king, and Jeroboam dwelleth in Egypt),
3 that they send and call for him; and they come -- Jeroboam and all the assembly of Israel -- and speak unto Rehoboam, saying,
4 `Thy father made hard our yoke, and thou, now, make light [some] of the hard service of thy father, and his heavy yoke that he put upon us, and we serve thee.'
5 And he saith unto them, `Go -- yet three days, and come back unto me;' and the people go.
6 And king Rehoboam consulteth with the elders who have been standing in the presence of Solomon his father, in his being alive, saying, `How are ye counselling to answer this people?'
7 And they speak unto him, saying, `If, to-day, thou art servant to this people, and hast served them, and answered them, and spoken unto them good words, then they have been to thee servants all the days.'
8 And he forsaketh the counsel of the elders which they counselled him, and consulteth with the lads who have grown up with him, who are standing before him;
9 and he saith unto them, `What are ye counselling, and we answer this people, who have spoken unto me, saying, Lighten [somewhat] of the yoke that thy father put upon us?'
10 And they speak unto him -- the lads who had grown up with him -- saying, `Thus dost thou say to this people who have spoken unto thee, saying, Thy father made our yoke heavy, and thou, make [it] light upon us; thus dost thou speak unto them, My little [finger] is thicker than the loins of my father;
11 and now, my father laid on you a heavy yoke, and I add to your yoke; my father chastised you with whips, and I -- I chastise you with scorpions.'
12 And they come -- Jeroboam and all the people -- unto Rehoboam, on the third day, as the king had spoken, saying, `Come back unto me on the third day.'
13 And the king answereth the people sharply, and forsaketh the counsel of the elders which they counselled him,
14 and speaketh unto them, according to the counsel of the lads, saying, `My father made your yoke heavy, and I add to your yoke; my father chastised you with whips, and I -- I chastise you with scorpions;'
15 and the king hearkened not unto the people, for the revolution was from Jehovah, in order to establish His word that Jehovah spake by the hand of Ahijah the Shilonite unto Jeroboam son of Nebat.
16 And all Israel see that the king hath not hearkened unto them, and the people send the king back word, saying, `What portion have we in David? yea, there is no inheritance in the son of Jesse; to thy tents, O Israel; now see thy house, O David!' and Israel goeth to its tents.
17 As to the sons of Israel, those dwelling in the cities of Judah -- over them reign doth Rehoboam.
18 And king Rehoboam sendeth Adoram who [is] over the tribute, and all Israel cast at him stones, and he dieth; and king Rehoboam hath strengthened himself to go up into a chariot to flee to Jerusalem;
19 and Israel transgresseth against the house of David unto this day.
20 And it cometh to pass, at all Israel's hearing that Jeroboam hath returned, that they send and call him unto the company, and cause him to reign over all Israel; none hath been after the house of David save the tribe of Judah alone.
21 And Rehoboam cometh to Jerusalem, and assembleth all the house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin, a hundred and eighty thousand chosen warriors, to fight with the house of Israel, to bring back the kingdom to Rehoboam son of Solomon.
22 And the word of God is unto Shemaiah a man of God, saying,
23 `Speak unto Rehoboam son of Solomon, king of Judah, and unto all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and the rest of the people, saying,
24 Thus said Jehovah, Ye do not go up nor fight with your brethren the sons of Israel; turn back each to his house, for from Me hath this thing been;' and they hear the word of Jehovah, and turn back to go according to the word of Jehovah.
25 And Jeroboam buildeth Shechem in the hill-country of Ephraim, and dwelleth in it, and goeth out thence, and buildeth Penuel;
26 and Jeroboam saith in his heart, `Now doth the kingdom turn back to the house of David --
27 if this people go up to make sacrifices in the house of Jehovah in Jerusalem, then hath the heart of this people turned back unto their lord, unto Rehoboam king of Judah, and they have slain me, and turned back unto Rehoboam king of Judah.'
28 And the king taketh counsel, and maketh two calves of gold, and saith unto them, `Enough to you of going up to Jerusalem; lo, thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.'
29 And he setteth the one in Beth-El, and the other he hath put in Dan,
30 and this thing becometh a sin, and the people go before the one -- unto Dan.
31 And he maketh the house of high places, and maketh priests of the extremities of the people, who were not of the sons of Levi;
32 and Jeroboam maketh a festival in the eighth month, in the fifteenth day of the month, like the festival that [is] in Judah, and he offereth on the altar -- so did he in Beth-El -- to sacrifice to the calves which he made, and he hath appointed in Beth-El the priests of the high places that he made.
33 And he offereth up on the altar that he made in Beth-El, on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, in the month that he devised of his own heart, and he maketh a festival to the sons of Israel, and offereth on the altar -- to make perfume.
1 Kings 12
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
II. The Reign of Jeroboam[a]
Chapter 12
Political Disunity.[b] 1 Rehoboam went to Shechem,[c] where all Israel had come to make him king. 2 When Jeroboam, son of Nebat, heard about it, he was still in Egypt. He had fled from King Solomon and remained in Egypt, 3 and they sent for him.
Then Jeroboam and the whole assembly of Israel came and they said to Rehoboam, 4 “Your father put a heavy yoke on us. If you now lighten the harsh servitude and the heavy yoke your father imposed on us, we will be your servants.” 5 He answered them, “Come back to me in three days,” and the people went away.
6 King Rehoboam asked advice of the elders who had been in his father Solomon’s service while he was alive, and asked, “How do you advise me to answer this people?” 7 They replied, “If today you become the servant of this people and serve them, and give them a favorable answer, they will be your servants forever.” 8 But he ignored the advice the elders had given him, and asked advice of the young men who had grown up with him and were in his service. 9 He said to them, “What answer do you advise that we should give this people, who have told me, ‘Lighten the yoke your father imposed on us’?” 10 The young men who had grown up with him replied, “This is what you must say to this people who have told you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy; you lighten it for us.’ You must say, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins. 11 My father put a heavy yoke on you, but I will make it heavier. My father beat you with whips, but I will beat you with scorpions.’” 12 Jeroboam and the whole people came back to King Rehoboam on the third day, as the king had instructed them: “Come back to me in three days.” 13 Ignoring the advice the elders had given him, the king gave the people a harsh answer. 14 He spoke to them as the young men had advised: “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will make it heavier. My father beat you with whips, but I will beat you with scorpions.” 15 (A)The king did not listen to the people, for this turn of events was from the Lord: he fulfilled the word the Lord had spoken through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam, son of Nebat. 16 (B)When all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king:
“What share have we in David?[d]
We have no heritage in the son of Jesse.
To your tents, Israel!
Now look to your own house, David.”
So Israel went off to their tents. 17 But Rehoboam continued to reign over the Israelites who lived in the cities of Judah.
18 King Rehoboam then sent out Adoram,[e] who was in charge of the forced labor, but all Israel stoned him to death. King Rehoboam then managed to mount his chariot and flee to Jerusalem. 19 And so Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day. 20 When all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they summoned him to an assembly and made him king over all Israel. None remained loyal to the house of David except the tribe of Judah alone.
Divine Approval.[f] 21 On his arrival in Jerusalem, Rehoboam assembled all the house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin—one hundred and eighty thousand elite warriors—to wage war against the house of Israel, to restore the kingdom to Rehoboam, son of Solomon. 22 However, the word of God came to Shemaiah, a man of God: 23 Say to Rehoboam, son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all the house of Judah and to Benjamin, and to the rest of the people: 24 Thus says the Lord: You must not go out to war against your fellow Israelites. Return home, each of you, for it is I who have brought this about. They obeyed the word of the Lord and turned back, according to the word of the Lord.
25 Jeroboam built up Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. Then he left it and built up Penuel.
Jeroboam’s Cultic Innovations.[g] 26 Jeroboam thought to himself: “Now the kingdom will return to the house of David. 27 If this people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, the hearts of this people will return to their master, Rehoboam, king of Judah, and they will kill me and return to Rehoboam, king of Judah.” 28 (C)The king took counsel, made two calves of gold, and said to the people: “You have been going up to Jerusalem long enough. Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.” 29 (D)And he put one in Bethel, the other in Dan.[h] 30 This led to sin, because the people frequented these calves in Bethel and in Dan. 31 He also built temples on the high places and made priests from among the common people who were not Levites.
Divine Disapproval.[i] 32 Jeroboam established a feast in the eighth month on the fifteenth day of the month like the pilgrimage feast in Judah, and he went up to the altar. He did this in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves he had made. He stationed in Bethel the priests of the high places he had built. 33 Jeroboam went up to the altar he built in Bethel on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, the month he arbitrarily chose. He established a feast for the Israelites, and he went up to the altar to burn incense.
Footnotes
- 12:1–14:20 Like the story of the reign of Solomon, the story of the reign of Jeroboam is concentrically organized. Ahijah’s oracle of promise to Jeroboam (11:26–43) belongs to both stories, ending that of Solomon (see note on 1:1–11:43) and beginning that of Jeroboam; it corresponds to Ahijah’s oracle of condemnation in 14:1–20. Within those literary boundaries are accounts of political (12:1–20) and religious (13:11–34) disunity between Israel and Judah. The center of the story is the account of Jeroboam’s heterodox cultic innovations (12:26–31).
- 12:1–20 The first major unit of the Jeroboam story was Ahijah’s oracle (11:26–40), followed by the notice of Solomon’s death (11:41–43). This is the second major unit. It tells how Jeroboam came to the throne of Israel after the intransigence of Solomon’s son Rehoboam provoked the northern tribes to secede from Jerusalem. The political disunity of the two kingdoms fulfills the word spoken by Ahijah. Compare 13:11–32, where Jeroboam’s improper cultic innovations produce religious disunity as well. The scene is concentrically arranged: narrative introduction, first interview, first consultation, second consultation, second interview, narrative conclusion. Chronicles has a parallel version of this story in 2 Chr 10:1–19.
- 12:1 Shechem: chief city of the northern tribes, where a covenant had previously been made between the Lord and his people and a stone of witness had been erected in memory of the event (Jos 24:25–27). All Israel: see note on 4:7–19.
- 12:16 What share have we in David?: even in David’s time the northern tribes seemed ready to withdraw from the union with Judah (2 Sm 20:1). The unreasonable attitude of Rehoboam toward them intensified the discontent caused by the oppression of Solomon (v. 4) and thus precipitated the political separation of the two kingdoms. In the view of the Deuteronomistic historian (1 Kgs 11:35–36; 12:24), this was by the Lord’s decree.
- 12:18 Adoram: the name is a shortened form of “Adoniram” (see 4:6; 5:28). If this is the same Adoram who held the position in David’s day (2 Sm 20:24), he would have been a very old man.
- 12:21–25 The center of this unit is a divine oracle delivered by a man of God of the Southern Kingdom in which the Lord affirms his approval of the secession of the northern tribes. Compare 13:1–10, where another man of God from Judah proclaims the Lord’s condemnation of Jeroboam’s religious separatism. Chronicles has a very similar version of Shemaiah’s oracle in 2 Chr 11:1–4.
- 12:26–31 At the center of the story of Jeroboam the narrator describes how the king went beyond the political separation of Israel from Judah to create a separatist religious system as well. Jeroboam feared that continued worship in the single Temple in Jerusalem would threaten the political independence of his kingdom. To prevent this he established sanctuaries with non-levitical clergy in his own territory. At two of the sanctuaries he set up golden calves, which the narrator depicts as idols. Thus begins what will later be called “the sin of Jeroboam” (13:34), a theme that will be echoed throughout 1–2 Kings in the condemnations of almost every king of the Northern Kingdom. Historically, Jeroboam’s innovations were not as heterodox as our narrative portrays them. Bethel was an ancient and traditional site for worship of the Lord; and the calves were probably intended to be a dais for the deity invisibly enthroned upon them, rather like the cherubim atop the ark of the covenant.
- 12:29 Bethel…Dan: at the southern and northern boundaries of the separate kingdom of Israel, where sanctuaries had existed in the past (Gn 12:8; 13:3–4; 28:10–22; 35:1–15; Jgs 18:1–31).
- 12:32–13:10 This unit of the Jeroboam story corresponds to 12:21–25. Before Jeroboam’s cultic innovations, a man of God from Judah proclaimed the Lord’s approval of the political separation of the kingdoms. After Jeroboam’s cultic innovations, a man of God from Judah proclaims the Lord’s disapproval of Israel’s religious separatism. The unit begins with a long, detailed introduction about the dedication festival Jeroboam holds at Bethel (12:32–33); then follows the scene of the ceremony disrupted by the oracle of the man of God (13:1–10).
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