³³ A nation that you have not known shall eat up the fruit of your ground and of all your labors, and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually,

²⁶ And Jeroboam said in his heart, “Now the kingdom will turn back to the house of David. ²⁷ If this people ^(A)go up to offer sacrifices in the temple of the Lord at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will turn again to their lord, to Rehoboam king of Judah, and they will kill me and return to Rehoboam king of Judah.” ²⁸ So the king took counsel and ^(B)made two calves of gold. And he said to the people, “You have gone up to Jerusalem long enough. ^(C)Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” ²⁹ And he set one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. ³⁰ Then ^(D)this thing became a sin, for the people went as far as Dan to be before one.^{[a] 31} He also made ^(E)temples on high places and ^(F)appointed priests from among all the people, who were not of the Levites. ³² And Jeroboam appointed a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month like ^(G)the feast that was in Judah, and he offered sacrifices on the altar. So he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he made. And he placed in Bethel ^(H)the priests of the high places that he had made. ³³ He went up to the altar that he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day in the eighth month, in the month that he had devised from his own heart. And he instituted a feast for the people of Israel and went up to the altar ^(I)to make offerings.

²⁹ In the days of Pekah king of Israel, ^(A)Tiglath-pileser king of Assyria came and captured ^(B)Ijon, ^(C)Abel-beth-maacah, Janoah, ^(D)Kedesh, ^(E)Hazor, Gilead, and ^(F)Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and he carried the people captive to Assyria.

¹⁶ At that time Menahem sacked Tiphsah and all who were in it and its territory from Tirzah on, because they did not open it to him. Therefore he sacked it, ^(A)and he ripped open all the women in it who were pregnant.

Menahem Reigns in Israel

¹⁷ In the thirty-ninth year of Azariah king of Judah, Menahem the son of Gadi began to reign over Israel, and he reigned ten years in Samaria. ¹⁸ And he did what was evil in the sight of the Lord. He did not depart all his days from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, which he made Israel to sin. ^19 (B)Pul^[a] the king of Assyria came against the land, and Menahem gave ^(C)Pul a thousand talents^[b] of silver, that he might help him ^(D)to confirm his hold on the royal power. ²⁰ Menahem exacted the money from Israel, that is, from all the wealthy men, fifty shekels^[c] of silver from every man, to give to the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria turned back and did not stay there in the land.