^19 (A)But you have today rejected your God, who Himself saved you from all your adversities and your tribulations; and you have said to Him, ‘No, set a king over us!’ Now therefore, present yourselves before the Lord by your tribes and by your ^[a]clans.”

Hoshea Reigns in Israel

17 In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, ^(A)Hoshea the son of Elah became king of Israel in Samaria, and he reigned nine years. ² And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, but not as the kings of Israel who were before him. ^3 (B)Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against him; and Hoshea ^(C)became his vassal, and paid him tribute money. ⁴ And the king of Assyria uncovered a conspiracy by Hoshea; for he had sent messengers to So, king of Egypt, and brought no tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year. Therefore the king of Assyria shut him up, and bound him in prison.

⁷ Go, tell Jeroboam, ‘Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ^(A)“Because I exalted you from among the people, and made you ruler over My people Israel, ⁸ and ^(B)tore the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it to you; and yet you have not been as My servant David, ^(C)who kept My commandments and who followed Me with all his heart, to do only what was right in My eyes; ⁹ but you have done more evil than all who were before you, ^(D)for you have gone and made for yourself other gods and molded images to provoke Me to anger, and ^(E)have cast Me behind your back— ¹⁰ therefore behold! ^(F)I will bring disaster on the house of Jeroboam, and ^(G)will cut off from Jeroboam every male in Israel, ^(H)bond and free; I will take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam, as one takes away refuse until it is all gone. ¹¹ The dogs shall eat ^(I)whoever belongs to Jeroboam and dies in the city, and the birds of the air shall eat whoever dies in the field; for the Lord has spoken!” ’ ¹² Arise therefore, go to your own house. ^(J)When your feet enter the city, the child shall die. ¹³ And all Israel shall mourn for him and bury him, for he is the only one of Jeroboam who shall ^[a]come to the grave, because in him ^(K)there is found something good toward the Lord God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam.

^14 (L)“Moreover the Lord will raise up for Himself a king over Israel who shall cut off the house of Jeroboam; ^[b]this is the day. What? Even now! ¹⁵ For the Lord will strike Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water. He will ^(M)uproot Israel from this ^(N)good land which He gave to their fathers, and will scatter them ^(O)beyond ^[c]the River, ^(P)because they have made their ^[d]wooden images, provoking the Lord to anger. ¹⁶ And He will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, ^(Q)who sinned and who made Israel sin.”

²⁶ And Jeroboam said in his heart, “Now the kingdom may return to the house of David: ²⁷ If these people ^(A)go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will turn back to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah, and they will kill me and go back to Rehoboam king of Judah.”

²⁸ Therefore the king asked advice, ^(B)made two calves of gold, and said to the people, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. ^(C)Here are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt!” ²⁹ And he set up one in ^(D)Bethel, and the other he put in ^(E)Dan. ³⁰ Now this thing became ^(F)a sin, for the people went to worship before the one as far as Dan. ³¹ He made ^[a]shrines on the high places, ^(G)and made priests from every class of people, who were not of the sons of Levi.

³² Jeroboam ^[b]ordained a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like ^(H)the feast that was in Judah, and offered sacrifices on the altar. So he did at Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he had made. ^(I)And at Bethel he installed the priests of the high places which he had made.

¹⁵ So the king did not listen to the people; for ^(A)the turn of events was from the Lord, that He might fulfill His word, which the Lord had ^(B)spoken by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.

¹⁶ Now when all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king, saying:

So Israel departed to their tents.