The Words of Lemuel

In Praise of a Wife of Noble Character

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)