Beginning

King Rehoboam

12 Rehoboam went to Shechem, because all the Israelites had gone there to make him king. ² At this time, Nebat's son Jeroboam was still in Egypt. He had been living there since he ran away from King Solomon. When he heard the news about Rehoboam, he returned home. ³ The Israelites sent a message to Jeroboam to meet with them. Then Jeroboam and the whole group of Israelites went to speak to Rehoboam. They said to him, ⁴ ‘Your father caused us to work too hard. Please make the work easier for us. If you do that, we will serve you as our king.’ ⁵ Rehoboam answered them, ‘Go away for three days. Then come back to me.’ So the people went away.

⁶ Then King Rehoboam went to talk to the older advisors who had served his father Solomon. He asked them, ‘What answer should I give to these people?’ ⁷ The old men said to him, ‘If you agree to help these people today, they will always serve you as their king. So do what they are asking you to do.’

⁸ But Rehoboam did not agree with their advice. Instead he talked to some younger men. They had been his friends since they were young and now they were his advisors. ⁹ He asked them, ‘What do you think that I should say to these people? They want me to make their work easier.’

¹⁰ Rehoboam's young advisors said, ‘Those people said to you, “Your father made us work too hard. Please make our work easier.” You should tell them, “Even my little finger is thicker than my father's whole body! ¹¹ My father made you work hard. I will make you work even harder! My father punished you with little whips. I will punish you with whips that bite your skin!” ’

¹² Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam after three days. That was because the king had said, ‘Return to me in three days.’

¹³ King Rehoboam spoke cruel words to the people. He did not agree to say what the older men had told him to say. ¹⁴ Instead, he did what the young men had suggested. He said to the people, ‘My father gave you work that was too hard for you. I will make it even worse! My father punished you with little whips. I will punish you with whips that bite!’

¹⁵ So the king did not agree to do what the people wanted him to do. It was the Lord who caused this to happen. He had already given his message about this to Nebat's son Jeroboam. The prophet Ahijah who came from Shiloh had spoken the Lord's message to Jeroboam.

¹⁶ All the Israelites realized that the king refused to listen to them. So they said to the king,

So the Israelites went to their homes.

¹⁷ But Rehoboam continued to rule over the Israelites who lived in the towns of Judah.^[a]

¹⁸ King Rehoboam sent a man called Adoniram to talk to the Israelite people. Adoniram had authority over the men who had to work for Rehoboam. But the Israelites threw stones at Adoniram and they killed him. So King Rehoboam quickly got into his chariot and he escaped to Jerusalem. ¹⁹ Since that time, the tribes in the north of Israel have not accepted the authority of King David's descendants.

²⁰ All the Israelites heard that Jeroboam had returned from Egypt. So they asked him to come to a meeting of the people. They decided to make him king over all Israel. Only the tribe of Judah still served David's descendant as their king.

²¹ Rehoboam arrived back in Jerusalem. He brought together all the men from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin who knew how to fight. There were 180,000 of them. Solomon's son Rehoboam wanted to attack the Israelite tribes so that he could rule them again as king. ²² But God told the prophet Shemaiah, ²³ ‘Say this to Solomon's son Rehoboam, the king of Judah. Say it to all the people of Judah and Benjamin, and to all the other people. ²⁴ This is what the Lord says: “Do not attack your brothers, the Israelites. Do not fight against them. Instead, you must all go home. I, the Lord, have decided that this must happen.” ’

So they obeyed the Lord's message. They went back to their homes, as the Lord had commanded them to do.

King Jeroboam

²⁵ Jeroboam made Shechem into a strong city. He lived there, in the hill country of Ephraim. He also went to make Penuel a strong city.

²⁶ Jeroboam thought, ‘I do not want the people of my kingdom to accept David's descendants as king again. ²⁷ The people that I rule will go to the Lord's temple in Jerusalem to offer sacrifices there. Then they may decide to serve Rehoboam, king of Judah, who was their master before. They might kill me and then go back to serve King Rehoboam.’

²⁸ So King Jeroboam talked to his advisors. He used gold to make images of two young cows. He said to the people, ‘It is too difficult for you to go to Jerusalem to worship the Lord, as you have done before. So I have made these gold cows for you instead. Look at them, Israelite people! These are your gods that rescued you and brought you out from Egypt.’

²⁹ Jeroboam put one gold cow in Bethel. He put the other gold cow in Dan.^{[b] 30} But that caused the Israelite people to do a very bad thing. They went to Bethel and to Dan to worship the gold cows.

³¹ Jeroboam also built places on hills for people to worship. He chose men who were not from Levi's tribe to be priests. ³² He decided to have a festival on the 15th day of the eighth month each year. He wanted it to be like the festival that they had in Judah.^[c] He offered sacrifices on the altar in Bethel to the gold cows that he had made. He also chose priests to serve at the places that he built for people to worship.

³³ On the 15th day of the eighth month, Jeroboam offered sacrifices on the altar that he had made at Bethel. That was the special day that he himself had decided to choose as a festival for the Israelites. On that day, he burned incense on the altar.

A servant of God visits Jeroboam^[d]

13 King Jeroboam was standing in front of the altar at Bethel. He was ready to make an offering. At that time, the Lord told one of his servants to go from Judah to Bethel. ² When he arrived at Bethel, he shouted the message that the Lord had given to him. He said, ‘Altar! Altar! This is what the Lord says to you: “Listen! One day, a son will be born in David's family. His name will be Josiah. On this altar, he will burn as sacrifices the priests who offer sacrifices on the hills. He will burn the bones of dead people on you!” ’

³ The same day, God's servant spoke another message to warn Jeroboam. He said, ‘This is the sign to show that the Lord has decided to do this: You will see the altar break into two pieces. The ashes of the sacrifices that are on it will fall to the ground.’

⁴ King Jeroboam heard the message that God's servant shouted against the altar at Bethel. As he stood there at the altar, the king pointed his hand at God's servant. He said, ‘Take hold of that man!’ But when he pointed with his hand, it suddenly became useless and he could not pull it back. ⁵ Then the altar broke into two pieces and the ashes fell to the ground. That is what God's servant had said would happen, to show that he spoke with the Lord's authority.

⁶ The king said to God's servant, ‘Please pray to the Lord your God that he will be kind to me. Pray that my hand will become strong again.’ So God's servant prayed to the Lord. And the king's hand became strong again, as it was before.

⁷ Then the king said to God's servant, ‘Come home with me. Have some food to eat. I would also like to give you a gift.’ ⁸ But God's servant said to the king, ‘I could never go with you, even if you gave me half of your riches. I could not eat or drink anything while I am here. ⁹ The Lord commanded me, “You must not eat or drink anything there. You must not return home on the same road that you came on.” ’ ¹⁰ So God's servant started to travel home on a different road. He did not go on the same road that he came to Bethel.

An old prophet in Bethel

¹¹ An old prophet lived in Bethel. His sons came home. They told him about everything that God's servant had done in Bethel that day. They told their father what God's servant had said to the king. ¹² Their father asked them, ‘Which road did he go home on?’ So his sons showed him the road that God's servant from Judah was on.

¹³ Then the old prophet said to his sons, ‘Prepare my donkey for me to ride.’ When they had prepared the donkey, the old prophet got onto it. ¹⁴ Then he rode along the road to find God's servant. He found him as he was sitting under an oak tree. The old prophet asked him, ‘Are you the servant of God from Judah?’ He answered, ‘I am.’ ¹⁵ The old prophet said to him, ‘Come to my home with me and eat some food.’ ¹⁶ God's servant said, ‘I cannot go back with you. I cannot eat or drink anything with you in this place. ¹⁷ The Lord commanded me, “You must not eat or drink anything there. You must not return home on the same road that you came on.” ’ ¹⁸ The old prophet then said, ‘I am also a prophet, as you are. An angel gave me a message from the Lord. He said, “Bring the man back with you to your house. There, he can eat some food and drink some water.” ’ But what the old prophet said was a lie. ¹⁹ So God's servant went back with him and he ate and drank in his house.

²⁰ While they were sitting together to eat, the Lord gave a message to the old prophet. ²¹ He spoke this message to the servant of God who had come from Judah:

‘This is what the Lord says: You have not obeyed the Lord. You have not done what the Lord your God commanded you to do. ²² He had told you, “You must not eat or drink anything in that place.” But you came back here to eat and to drink. As a result, they will not bury your body in the same place as your ancestors' grave.’

²³ God's servant from Judah finished his meal. Then the old prophet prepared his donkey for him to ride. ²⁴ But as God's servant from Judah was travelling along the road, a lion attacked him. The lion killed him and it left his body on the road. The donkey and the lion stood beside the dead body. ²⁵ When some people came along the road, they saw the dead body as it lay there. The lion was standing beside the body. The people went back to Bethel, the city where the old prophet lived. They reported what they had seen on the road.

²⁶ The old prophet who had brought God's servant back to his house heard the news. He said, ‘That dead man is God's servant who did not obey the Lord. So the Lord has given him to the lion, to tear him to pieces and to kill him. The Lord had warned him that this would happen.’

²⁷ The old prophet said to his sons, ‘Prepare my donkey for me to ride.’ So they did that. ²⁸ Then the old prophet went along the road and he found the body. It was lying on the road. The donkey and the lion were standing beside it. The lion had not eaten the body. It had not attacked the donkey. ²⁹ So the old prophet picked up the body of God's servant. He put it on the donkey. He brought it back to Bethel. He showed that he was very sad that the man had died and then he buried him. ³⁰ He put the body in the grave that he had prepared for himself. He and his sons were very upset, and they said, ‘Oh! My brother!’

³¹ When they had buried the man, the old prophet said to his sons, ‘When I die, bury me in the same grave where we buried the servant of God. Put my bones there, beside his bones. ³² The Lord's message that he spoke will certainly become true. He spoke against the altar in Bethel and against all the altars on the hills of Samaria's towns.’^[e]

³³ Even after this happened, Jeroboam did not stop doing evil things. He chose ordinary people to be priests for the altars on the hills. If somebody wanted to become a priest, Jeroboam agreed to make him a priest.^{[f] 34} This sin caused Jeroboam's family to disappear from the earth. He would no longer have descendants to rule the kingdom.

The prophet Ahijah and King Jeroboam

14 At that time, Jeroboam's son Abijah became ill. ² So Jeroboam said to his wife, ‘Change what you look like so that people will not recognize you as my wife. Then go to Shiloh. The prophet Ahijah lives there.^[g] He told me that I would rule the nation of Israel. ³ Take ten loaves of bread with you. Also take some cakes and a pot of honey. When you visit Ahijah, he will tell you what will happen to our son.’

⁴ Jeroboam's wife did what he told her to do. She went to Ahijah's house in Shiloh. Ahijah could not see because he was very old. ⁵ But the Lord had said to Ahijah, ‘Jeroboam's wife will come to visit you. Her son is ill and she will ask you what will happen to him. I will tell you what to say to her. When she comes, she will pretend that she is not the king's wife.’

⁶ Then Ahijah heard her as she walked through the door of his house. He said, ‘Come in, Jeroboam's wife! I know who you are, so do not pretend to be somebody else. The Lord has given me bad news to tell you. ⁷ Go and say to Jeroboam, “This is what the Lord, Israel's God, says to you: I chose you from among my people, the Israelites, and I made you their ruler. ⁸ I took Israel's kingdom away from David's family and I gave it to you. But you have not served me faithfully as my servant David did. He obeyed my commands. He was faithful to me and he always did the things that I say are right. ⁹ But you have done more evil things than any of the kings who lived before you. You have made me very angry. You have used metal to make images of other gods that you could worship. You have turned away from me. ¹⁰ Because of this, I will bring great trouble to Jeroboam's family. I will kill every male among his descendants in Israel, whoever they are. I will completely destroy Jeroboam's family, like someone burns a heap of rubbish! ¹¹ If they die in the city, dogs will eat their bodies. If they die in the country, vultures will eat them. This is what the Lord has said will happen!”

¹² But you, Jeroboam's wife, should go back home now. As soon as you arrive back in the city, the boy will die. ¹³ All Israel will cry because of his death and they will bury him. He is the only person from Jeroboam's family that they will bury properly. He is the only one among Jeroboam's descendants who has pleased the Lord, Israel's God. ¹⁴ The Lord himself will choose another king to rule Israel. That king will destroy Jeroboam's family. This will happen very soon, even today! ¹⁵ The Lord will attack the nation of Israel. He will shake it, as the wind shakes a reed that is growing in a stream. The Lord will remove the Israelites from this good land that he gave to their ancestors. He will take them to places beyond the Euphrates river. They made Asherah poles to worship, so the Lord became very angry with them. ¹⁶ He will put Israel under the power of its enemies because of Jeroboam's sins. Jeroboam also caused Israel's people to do bad things.’

¹⁷ Then Jeroboam's wife left Ahijah's house. She went back to Tirzah. When she walked through the door of her house, the boy died. ¹⁸ They buried him and all the Israelites cried because of his death. The Lord had told his servant the prophet Ahijah what would happen. And that is what happened.

King Jeroboam dies

¹⁹ The other things that happened while Jeroboam was king are written in a book. The book is called ‘The history of Israel's kings’. It tells about the battles that Jeroboam fought and how he ruled as king. ²⁰ Jeroboam ruled as king for 22 years. Then he died and they buried him beside his ancestors. His son Nadab became king after him.

King Rehoboam dies

²¹ King Solomon's son, Rehoboam, ruled Judah as king. He was 41 years old when he became king. He ruled for 17 years in Jerusalem. That was the city that the Lord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel. He chose it as the place where people would give honour to his name. Rehoboam's mother was an Ammonite woman. Her name was Naamah.

²² The people of Judah did things that the Lord said were evil. Their sins caused the Lord to be very angry. They did worse things than their ancestors had done. ²³ They built altars on the hills for themselves. They put up stone pillars and Asherah poles to worship. They did this on every high hill and under every big tree. ²⁴ In Judah there were even temples which had male prostitutes. The people of Judah did the same evil things as the Canaanite nations did. The Lord had chased those people out of the land so that the Israelites could live there.

²⁵ In the fifth year that Rehoboam was king, King Shishak of Egypt attacked Jerusalem. ²⁶ He took away the valuable things that were in the Lord's temple and in the king's palace. He took everything for himself. That included the gold shields that King Solomon had made. ²⁷ So Rehoboam used bronze to make other shields instead. He gave them to the officers of his own soldiers. These soldiers stood as guards at the entrance of the king's palace. ²⁸ Every time that the king went to the Lord's temple, the guards carried the shields. After that, they took them back to the guards' room where they stored them.

²⁹ The other things that happened while Rehoboam was king are written in a book. The book is called ‘The history of Judah's kings’. It tells about everything that King Rehoboam did. ³⁰ There was always a war between the armies of Rehoboam and Jeroboam. ³¹ Rehoboam died and they buried him beside his ancestors in the City of David. Rehoboam's mother was an Ammonite woman. Her name was Naamah. Rehoboam's son Abijah became king after him.