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, he stayed in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon’s presence.^(E) Jeroboam stayed in Egypt.^{[a] 3} But they summoned him, and Jeroboam and the whole assembly of Israel came and spoke to Rehoboam: ⁴ “Your father made our yoke harsh.^(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 away 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 this people?”

⁷ They replied, “Today if you will be a servant to this 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 attended him. ⁹ He asked them, “What message do you advise that we send back to this people who said to me, ‘Lighten the yoke your father put on us’?”

¹⁰ The young men who had grown up with him told him, “This is what you should say to this 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 waist! 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.”

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:

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,^[c](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 still in rebellion against the house of David 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 one hundred eighty thousand fit young soldiers 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 the word of 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 return home, for this situation is from me.’”^(Y)

So they listened to the word of the Lord and went back according to the word of the Lord.

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 kingdom might now 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, King Rehoboam of Judah. They will kill 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 are your gods^[d] who brought you up from 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.^[e](AH)

³¹ Jeroboam also made shrines^[f] on the high places^(AI) and made priests from the ranks of the 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 made. He also stationed the priests in Bethel for the high places he had made.^{(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)

Judgment on Jeroboam

13 A man of God^(AO) came, however, from Judah to Bethel by the word of the Lord while Jeroboam was standing beside the altar to burn incense.^{(AP) 2} The man of God cried out against the altar by the word of the Lord: “Altar, altar, this is what the Lord says, ‘A son will be born to the house of David, named Josiah, and he will sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who are burning incense on you. Human bones will be burned on you.’”^{(AQ) 3} He gave a sign^(AR) that day. He said, “This is the sign that the Lord has spoken: ‘The altar will now be ripped apart, and the ashes that are on it will be poured out.’”^(AS)

⁴ When the king heard the message that the man of God had cried out against the altar at Bethel, Jeroboam stretched out his hand from the altar and said, “Arrest him!” But the hand he stretched out against him withered, and he could not pull it back to himself. ⁵ The altar was ripped apart, and the ashes poured from the altar, according to the sign that the man of God had given by the word of the Lord.

⁶ Then the king responded to the man of God, “Plead for the favor of the Lord your God and pray for me^(AT) so that my hand may be restored to me.” So the man of God pleaded for the favor of the Lord, and the king’s hand was restored to him and became as it had been at first.

⁷ Then the king declared to the man of God, “Come home with me, refresh yourself, and I’ll give you a reward.”^(AU)

⁸ But the man of God replied, “If you were to give me half your house,^(AV) I still wouldn’t go with you, and I wouldn’t eat food or drink water in this place, ⁹ for this is what I was commanded by the word of the Lord:^(AW) ‘You must not eat food or drink water or go back the way you came.’” ¹⁰ So he went another way; he did not go back by the way he had come to Bethel.

The Old Prophet and the Man of God

¹¹ Now a certain old prophet was living in Bethel.^(AX) His son^[h] came and told him all the deeds that the man of God had done that day in Bethel. His sons also told their father the words that he had spoken to the king.^{(AY) 12} Then their father asked them, “Which way did he go?” His sons had seen^[i] the way taken by the man of God who had come from Judah. ¹³ Then he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” So they saddled the donkey for him, and he got on it. ¹⁴ He followed the man of God and found him sitting under an oak tree. He asked him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?”

“I am,” he said.

¹⁵ Then he said to him, “Come home with me and eat some food.”

¹⁶ But he answered, “I cannot go back with you or accompany you; I will not eat food or drink water with you in this place. ¹⁷ For a message came to me by the word of the Lord: ‘You must not eat food or drink water there^(AZ) or go back by the way you came.’”

¹⁸ He said to him, “I am also a prophet^(BA) like you. An angel spoke to me by the word of the Lord: ‘Bring him back with you to your house so that he may eat food and drink water.’” The old prophet deceived him,^{(BB) 19} and the man of God went back with him, ate food in his house, and drank water.

²⁰ While they were sitting at the table, the word of the Lord came to the prophet who had brought him back, ²¹ and the prophet cried out to the man of God who had come from Judah, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Because you rebelled against the Lord’s command and did not keep the command that the Lord your God commanded you— ²² but you went back and ate food and drank water in the place that he said to you, “Do not eat food and do not drink water”^(BC)—your corpse will never reach the grave of your ancestors.’”^(BD)

²³ So after he had eaten food and after he had drunk, the old prophet saddled the donkey for the prophet he had brought back. ²⁴ When he left,^[j] a lion attacked^[k] him along the way and killed him.^(BE) His corpse was thrown on the road, and the donkey was standing beside it; the lion was standing beside the corpse too.

²⁵ There were men passing by who saw the corpse thrown on the road and the lion standing beside it, and they went and spoke about it in the city where the old prophet lived. ²⁶ When the prophet who had brought him back from his way heard about it, he said, “He is the man of God who disobeyed the Lord’s command. The Lord has given him to the lion, and it has mauled and killed him, according to the word of the Lord that he spoke to him.”

²⁷ Then the old prophet instructed his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” They saddled it,^{(BF) 28} and he went and found the corpse thrown on the road with the donkey and the lion standing beside the corpse. The lion had not eaten the corpse or mauled the donkey. ²⁹ So the prophet lifted the corpse of the man of God and laid it on the donkey and brought it back. The old prophet came into the city to mourn and to bury him. ³⁰ Then he laid the corpse in his own grave,^(BG) and they mourned over him, “Oh, my brother!” ^(BH)

³¹ After he had buried him, he said to his sons, “When I die, bury me in the grave where the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones, ³² for the message that he cried out by the word of the Lord against the altar in Bethel^(BI) and against all the shrines of the high places^(BJ) in the cities of Samaria^(BK) is certain to happen.”^(BL)

³³ Even after this,^(BM) Jeroboam did not repent^(BN) of his evil way but again made priests for the high places from the ranks of the people.^(BO) He ordained whoever so desired it, and they became priests of the high places.^{(BP) 34} This was the sin that caused the house of Jeroboam to be cut off and obliterated from the face of the earth.^(BQ)

Disaster on the House of Jeroboam

14 At that time Abijah son of Jeroboam became sick.^{(BR) 2} Jeroboam said to his wife, “Go disguise yourself,^(BS) so they won’t know that you’re Jeroboam’s wife, and go to Shiloh.^(BT) The prophet Ahijah is there; it was he who told about me becoming king over this people.^{(BU) 3} Take with you ten loaves of bread, some cakes, and a jar of honey,^(BV) and go to him. He will tell you what will happen to the boy.”

⁴ Jeroboam’s wife did that: she went to Shiloh and arrived at Ahijah’s house. Ahijah could not see; he was blind^[l] due to his age.^{(BW) 5} But the Lord had said to Ahijah, “Jeroboam’s wife is coming soon to ask you about her son, for he is sick. You are to say such and such to her. When she arrives, she will be disguised.”^(BX)

⁶ When Ahijah heard the sound of her feet entering the door, he said, “Come in, wife of Jeroboam! Why are you disguised?^(BY) I have bad news for you. ⁷ Go tell Jeroboam, ‘This is what the Lord God of Israel says: I raised you up from among the people, appointed you ruler over my people Israel, ⁸ tore the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it to you.^(BZ) But you were not like my servant David, who kept my commands and followed me with all his heart, doing only what is right in my sight. ⁹ You behaved more wickedly than all who were before you.^(CA) In order to anger me, you have proceeded to make for yourself other gods and cast images,^(CB) but you have flung me behind your back.^{(CC) 10} Because of all this, I am about to bring disaster on the house of Jeroboam:

¹² “As for you, get up and go to your house. When your feet enter the city, the boy will die.^{(CF) 13} All Israel will mourn for him and bury him. He alone out of Jeroboam’s house will be given a proper burial because out of the house of Jeroboam something favorable to the Lord God of Israel was found in him.^{(CG) 14} The Lord will raise up for himself a king over Israel, who will wipe out the house of Jeroboam.^(CH) This is the day, yes,^[p] even today! ¹⁵ For the Lord will strike Israel so that they will^[q] shake as a reed shakes in water. He will uproot Israel from this good soil that he gave to their ancestors.^(CI) He will scatter them beyond the Euphrates^(CJ) because they made their Asherah poles, angering the Lord.^{(CK) 16} He will give up Israel because of Jeroboam’s sins that he committed and caused Israel to commit.”^(CL)

¹⁷ Then Jeroboam’s wife got up and left and went to Tirzah.^(CM) As she was crossing the threshold of the house, the boy died. ¹⁸ He was buried, and all Israel mourned for him, according to the word of the Lord he had spoken through his servant the prophet Ahijah.^(CN)

¹⁹ As for the rest of the events of Jeroboam’s reign, how he waged war^(CO) and how he reigned, note that they are written in the Historical Record of Israel’s Kings. ²⁰ The length of Jeroboam’s reign was twenty-two years. He rested with his ancestors, and his son Nadab became king in his place.^(CP)

Judah’s King Rehoboam

²¹ Now Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, reigned in Judah.^(CQ) Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king; he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city where the Lord had chosen from all the tribes of Israel to put his name.^(CR) Rehoboam’s mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonite.^(CS)

²² Judah did what was evil in the Lord’s sight.^(CT) They provoked him to jealous anger^(CU) more than all that their ancestors had done with the sins they committed. ²³ They also built for themselves high places,^(CV) sacred pillars,^(CW) and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree; ²⁴ there were even male cult prostitutes in the land.^(CX) They imitated all the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had dispossessed before the Israelites.^(CY)

²⁵ In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, King Shishak of Egypt^(CZ) went to war against Jerusalem.^{(DA) 26} He seized the treasuries of the Lord’s temple and the treasuries of the royal palace. He took everything. He took all the gold shields that Solomon had made.^{(DB) 27} King Rehoboam made bronze shields to replace them and committed them into the care of the captains of the guards^[r](DC) who protected the entrance to the king’s palace. ²⁸ Whenever the king entered the Lord’s temple, the guards would carry the shields, then they would take them back to the armory.^[s](DD)

²⁹ The rest of the events of Rehoboam’s reign,^(DE) along with all his accomplishments, are written about in the Historical Record of Judah’s Kings. ³⁰ There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam throughout their reigns.^{(DF) 31} Rehoboam rested with his ancestors and was buried with his ancestors in the city of David. His mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonite.^(DG) His son Abijam^[t](DH) became king in his place.

The Kingdom Divided

10 Then Rehoboam went to Shechem,^(A) for all Israel had gone to Shechem to make him king. ² When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard about it—for he was in Egypt where he had fled from King Solomon’s presence—Jeroboam returned from Egypt.^{(B) 3} So they summoned him. Then Jeroboam and all Israel came and spoke to Rehoboam: ⁴ “Your father made our yoke harsh. Therefore, lighten your father’s harsh service and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you.”

⁵ Rehoboam replied, “Return to me in three days.” So the people left.

⁶ Then King Rehoboam consulted with the elders who had attended his father Solomon when he was alive, asking, “How do you advise me to respond to this people?”

⁷ They replied, “If you will be kind to this people and please them by speaking kind words to them, they will be your servants forever.”

⁸ But he rejected the advice of the elders who had advised him, and he consulted with the young men who had grown up with him, the ones attending him. ⁹ He asked them, “What message do you advise we send back to this 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 the people who said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you, make it lighter on us!’ This is what you should say to them: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist! ¹¹ Now therefore, my father burdened you with a heavy yoke, but I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I, with barbed whips.’”^[a]

¹² So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day, just as the king had ordered, saying, “Return to me on the third day.” ¹³ Then the king answered them harshly. King Rehoboam rejected the elders’ advice ¹⁴ and spoke to them according to the young men’s advice, saying, “My father made your yoke heavy,^[b](C) but I will add to it; my father disciplined you with whips, but I, with barbed whips.”

¹⁵ The king did not listen to the people because the turn of events came from God,^(D) in order that the Lord might carry out his word that he had spoken through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam son of Nebat.^(E)

¹⁶ When^(F) all Israel saw^[c](G) that the king had not listened to them, the people answered the king:

So all Israel went to their tents. ¹⁷ But as for the Israelites living in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them.

¹⁸ Then King Rehoboam sent Hadoram,^[d](H) who was in charge of the forced labor, but the Israelites stoned him to death. However, King Rehoboam managed to get into his chariot to flee to Jerusalem. ¹⁹ Israel is in rebellion against the house of David until today.

Rehoboam in Jerusalem

11 When Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem,^(I) he mobilized the house of Judah and Benjamin—one hundred eighty thousand fit young soldiers—to fight against Israel to restore the reign to Rehoboam. ² But the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah,^(J) the man of God: ³ “Say to Rehoboam son of Solomon, king of Judah, to all Israel in Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people, ⁴ ‘This is what the Lord says: You are not to march up and fight against your brothers.^(K) Each of you return home, for this incident has come from me.’”^(L)

So they listened to what the Lord said and turned back from going against Jeroboam.

Judah’s King Rehoboam

⁵ Rehoboam stayed in Jerusalem, and he fortified cities^[e](M) in Judah. ⁶ He built up Bethlehem, Etam, Tekoa, ⁷ Beth-zur, Soco, Adullam, ⁸ Gath, Mareshah, Ziph, ⁹ Adoraim, Lachish, Azekah, ¹⁰ Zorah, Aijalon, and Hebron, which are fortified cities in Judah and in Benjamin. ¹¹ He strengthened their fortifications and put leaders in them with supplies of food, oil, and wine. ¹² He also put large shields and spears in each and every city to make them very strong. So Judah and Benjamin were his.

¹³ The priests and Levites from all their regions throughout Israel took their stand with Rehoboam, ¹⁴ for the Levites left their pasturelands and their possessions^(N) and went to Judah and Jerusalem, because Jeroboam and his sons refused to let them serve as priests of the Lord.^{(O) 15} Jeroboam appointed his own priests for the high places,^(P) the goat-demons,^(Q) and the golden calves he had made.^{(R) 16} Those from every tribe of Israel who had determined in their hearts to seek the Lord their God followed the Levites to Jerusalem to sacrifice to the Lord, the God of their ancestors. ¹⁷ So they strengthened the kingdom of Judah and supported Rehoboam son of Solomon for three years,^(S) because they walked in the ways of David and Solomon for three years.

¹⁸ Rehoboam married Mahalath, daughter of David’s son Jerimoth and of Abihail daughter of Jesse’s son Eliab.^{(T) 19} She bore sons to him: Jeush, Shemariah, and Zaham. ²⁰ After her, he married Maacah daughter^[f](U) of Absalom. She bore Abijah, Attai, Ziza, and Shelomith to him. ²¹ Rehoboam loved Maacah daughter of Absalom more than all his wives and concubines. He acquired eighteen wives^(V) and sixty concubines and was the father of twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters.

²² Rehoboam appointed Abijah son of Maacah as chief, leader among his brothers, intending to make him king.^{(W) 23} Rehoboam also showed discernment by dispersing some of his sons to all the regions of Judah and Benjamin and to all the fortified cities. He gave them plenty of provisions and sought many wives for them.

Shishak’s Invasion

12 When Rehoboam had established his sovereignty and royal power,^(X) he abandoned the law of the Lord—he and all Israel with him. ² Because they were unfaithful to the Lord, in the fifth year of King Rehoboam, King Shishak^(Y) of Egypt went to war against Jerusalem^{(Z) 3} with 1,200 chariots, 60,000 cavalrymen, and countless people who came with him from Egypt—Libyans,^(AA) Sukkiim, and Cushites. ⁴ He captured the fortified cities^(AB) of Judah and came as far as Jerusalem.

⁵ Then the prophet Shemaiah^(AC) went to Rehoboam and the leaders of Judah who were gathered at Jerusalem because of Shishak. He said to them, “This is what the Lord says: You have abandoned me; therefore, I have abandoned you to Shishak.”^(AD)

⁶ So the leaders of Israel and the king humbled themselves and said, “The Lord is righteous.”^(AE)

⁷ When the Lord saw that they had humbled themselves, the Lord’s message came to Shemaiah: “They have humbled themselves; I will not destroy them but will grant them a little deliverance.^(AF) My wrath will not be poured out on Jerusalem through Shishak.^{(AG) 8} However, they will become his servants so that they may recognize the difference between serving me and serving the kingdoms of other lands.”^(AH)

⁹ So King Shishak of Egypt went to war^(AI) against Jerusalem.^(AJ) He seized the treasuries of the Lord’s temple and the treasuries of the royal palace. He took everything. He took the gold shields that Solomon had made.^{(AK) 10} King Rehoboam made bronze shields to replace them and committed them into the care of the captains of the guards^[g] who protected the entrance to the king’s palace. ¹¹ Whenever the king entered the Lord’s temple, the guards would carry the shields and take them back to the armory.^{[h] 12} When Rehoboam humbled himself, the Lord’s anger turned away from him, and he did not destroy him completely.^(AL) Besides that, conditions were good in Judah.^(AM)

Rehoboam’s Last Days

¹³ King Rehoboam^(AN) established his royal power in Jerusalem. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city the Lord had chosen from all the tribes of Israel to put his name.^(AO) Rehoboam’s mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonite. ¹⁴ Rehoboam did what was evil, because he did not determine in his heart to seek the Lord.^(AP)

¹⁵ The events^(AQ) of Rehoboam’s reign, from beginning to end, are written in the Events of the Prophet Shemaiah^(AR) and of the Seer Iddo concerning genealogies.^(AS) There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam throughout their reigns. ¹⁶ Rehoboam rested with his ancestors and was buried in the city of David. His son Abijah^[i](AT) became king in his place.