³³ A nation whom you have not known shall eat ^(A)the fruit of your land and the produce of your labor, and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually.

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. ³³ So he made offerings on the altar which he had made at Bethel on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, in the month which he had ^(J)devised in his own heart. And he ^[c]ordained a feast for the children of Israel, and offered sacrifices on the altar and ^(K)burned incense.

²⁹ In the days of Pekah king of Israel, ^[a]Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria ^(A)came and took ^(B)Ijon, Abel Beth Maachah, Janoah, Kedesh, Hazor, Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali; and he ^(C)carried them captive to Assyria.

¹⁶ Then from Tirzah, Menahem attacked ^(A)Tiphsah, all who were there, and its territory. Because they did not surrender, therefore he attacked it. All ^(B)the women there who were with child he ripped open.

Menahem Reigns in Israel

¹⁷ In the thirty-ninth year of Azariah king of Judah, Menahem the son of Gadi became king over Israel, and reigned ten years in Samaria. ¹⁸ And he did evil in the sight of the Lord; he did not depart all his days from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who had made Israel sin. ^19 (C)Pul^[a] king of Assyria came against the land; and Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver, that his ^[b]hand might be with him to ^(D)strengthen the kingdom under his control. ²⁰ And Menahem ^(E)exacted^[c] the money from Israel, from all the very wealthy, from each man fifty shekels of silver, to give to the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria turned back, and did not stay there in the land.