Beginning

Israel Turns Against Rehoboam

12 Rehoboam went to Shechem because all the Israelites had gone there to make him king. ² Jeroboam son of Nebat was still in Egypt. He had gone there to escape from Solomon. When Jeroboam heard about Rehoboam being made king, Jeroboam returned from Egypt. ³ So the people sent for him. Then he and the people went to Rehoboam. They said to Rehoboam, ⁴ “Your father forced us to work very hard. Now, make it easier for us. Don’t make us work as hard as your father did. Then we will serve you.”

⁵ Rehoboam answered, “Come back to me in three days. Then I will answer you.” So the people left.

⁶ Some of the elders had helped Solomon make decisions during his lifetime. So King Rehoboam asked them what he should do. He said, “How do you think I should answer these people?”

⁷ They answered, “You should be like a servant to them today. Serve them, and give them a kind answer. If you do, they will serve you always.”

⁸ But Rehoboam did not listen to this advice. He asked the young men who had grown up with him. They advised him in making decisions. ⁹ Rehoboam said, “The people said, ‘Don’t make us work as hard as your father did.’ How do you think I should answer them? What is your advice?”

¹⁰ The young men answered, “Those people came to you and said, ‘Your father forced us to work very hard. Now make our work easier.’ So you should tell them, ‘My little finger is bigger than my father’s whole body. ¹¹ My father forced you to work hard. But I will make you work even harder! My father beat you with whips. But I will beat you with whips that have sharp points.’”

¹² Rehoboam had told the people, “Come back to me in three days.” So after three days all the people returned to Rehoboam. ¹³ At that time King Rehoboam spoke cruel words to them. He did not listen to the advice that the elders had given him. ¹⁴ He did what the young men had told him to do. Rehoboam said, “My father forced you to work hard. So I will give you even more work. My father beat you with whips. But I will beat you with whips that have sharp points.” ¹⁵ So the king did not do what the people wanted. The Lord caused this to happen. He did this to keep the promise he had made to Jeroboam son of Nebat. He had made this promise through Ahijah, the prophet from Shiloh.

¹⁶ All the people of Israel saw that the new king refused to listen to them. So they said to the king,

So the Israelites went home. ¹⁷ But Rehoboam still ruled over the Israelites who lived in the towns of Judah.

¹⁸ Adoniram was in charge of the people who were forced to work. King Rehoboam sent him to the people. But they threw stones at him until he died. But King Rehoboam ran to his chariot and escaped to Jerusalem. ¹⁹ Since then, Israel has been against the family of David.

²⁰ All the Israelites heard that Jeroboam had returned. So they called him to a meeting. And they made him king over all Israel. But the tribe of Judah continued to follow the family of David.

²¹ When Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he gathered the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. This was an army of 180,000 men. Rehoboam wanted to fight against the people of Israel. He wanted to take back his kingdom.

²² But God spoke his word to Shemaiah, a man of God. The Lord said, ²³ “Talk to Solomon’s son Rehoboam, the king of Judah. Talk also to all the people of Judah and Benjamin and to the rest of the people. ²⁴ Say to them, ‘The Lord says you must not go to war against your brothers, the Israelites. Every one of you should go home. I made all these things happen!’” So the men in Rehoboam’s army obeyed the Lord’s command. They all went home as the Lord had commanded.

²⁵ Then Jeroboam made Shechem a very strong city. It is in the mountains of Ephraim. And Jeroboam lived there. He also went to the city of Peniel and made it stronger.

Jeroboam Builds Golden Calves

²⁶ Jeroboam said to himself, “The kingdom will probably go back to David’s family. ²⁷ The people will continue going to the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem. If they do, they will want to be ruled again by Rehoboam. Then they will kill me and follow Rehoboam king of Judah.”

²⁸ King Jeroboam asked his men for advice. So he made two golden calves. He said to the people, “It is too hard for you to go to Jerusalem to worship. Israel, here are your gods who brought you out of Egypt.” ²⁹ King Jeroboam put one golden calf in the city of Bethel. And he put the other in the city of Dan. ³⁰ And this became a very great sin. The people traveled as far as Dan to worship the calf there.

³¹ Jeroboam built temples on the places of worship. He chose priests from all the people. (He did not choose priests only from the tribe of Levi.) ³² And he started a new festival. It was the fifteenth day of the eighth month. This was like the festival in Judah. During that time the king offered sacrifices on the altar. He offered sacrifices to the calves in Bethel he had made. He also chose priests in Bethel to serve at the places of worship he had made. ³³ So Jeroboam chose his own time for a festival for the Israelites. It was the fifteenth day of the eighth month. During that time he offered sacrifices on the altar he had built in Bethel. So he set up a festival for the Israelites. And he offered sacrifices on the altar.

The Man of God Speaks Against Bethel

13 The Lord commanded a man of God from Judah to go to Bethel. When he arrived, Jeroboam was standing by the altar to offer a sacrifice. ² The Lord had commanded the man of God to speak against the altar. The man said, “Altar, the Lord says to you: ‘David’s family will have a son named Josiah. He will kill the priests of the places of worship. They now make their sacrifices on you. But Josiah will sacrifice those priests on you. Human bones will be burned on you.’” ³ The man of God gave proof that these things would happen. He said, “This is God’s sign that this will happen. This altar will break apart. And the ashes on it will fall onto the ground.”

⁴ King Jeroboam heard what the man of God said about the altar in Bethel. So Jeroboam raised his hand from the altar and pointed at the man. “Capture him!” he said. But when the king said this, his arm became paralyzed. He could not move it. ⁵ Also, the altar broke into pieces. All its ashes fell onto the ground. This was the sign the Lord had told the man of God to give.

⁶ Then the king said to the man of God, “Please pray to the Lord your God for me. Ask him to heal my arm.”

So the man of God prayed to the Lord. And the king’s arm was healed. It became as it was before.

⁷ Then the king said to the man of God, “Please come home and eat with me. I will give you a gift.”

⁸ But the man of God answered the king, “I will not go home with you! Even if you gave me half of your kingdom, I would not go! I will not eat or drink anything in this place. ⁹ The Lord commanded me not to eat or drink anything. He also commanded me not to return on the same road by which I came.” ¹⁰ So he traveled on a different road. He did not return on the same road by which he had come to Bethel.

¹¹ Now there was an old prophet living in Bethel. His sons came and told him what the man of God had done there that day. They told their father what he had said to King Jeroboam. ¹² The father asked, “Which road did he use when he left?” So his sons showed him which road the man of God from Judah had taken. ¹³ The prophet told his sons to put a saddle on his donkey. So they saddled the donkey, and he left.

¹⁴ He went after the man of God. He found the man sitting under an oak tree. The prophet asked, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?”

The man answered, “Yes, I am.”

¹⁵ So the prophet said, “Please come home and eat with me.”

¹⁶ But the man of God answered, “I can’t go home with you. I can’t eat or drink with you in this place. ¹⁷ The Lord said to me, ‘You must not eat or drink anything there. And you must not return on the same road by which you came.’”

¹⁸ Then the old prophet said, “But I also am a prophet like you.” Then he told a lie. He said, “An angel from the Lord came to me. He told me to bring you to my home. He said you should eat and drink with me.” ¹⁹ So the man of God went to the old prophet’s house. And he ate and drank with him there.

²⁰ While they were sitting at the table, the Lord spoke his word to the old prophet. ²¹ The old prophet cried out to the man of God from Judah. He said, “The Lord said you did not obey him! He said you did not do what the Lord your God commanded you. ²² The Lord commanded you not to eat or drink anything in this place. But you came back and ate and drank. So your body will not be buried in your family grave.”

²³ The man of God finished eating. Then the prophet put a saddle on his donkey for him. And the man left. ²⁴ As he was traveling on the road home, a lion attacked and killed him. His body lay on the road. The donkey and the lion stood near it. ²⁵ Some men were traveling on that road. They saw the body and the lion standing near it. So they went to the city where the old prophet lived. And they told what they had seen.

²⁶ The old prophet who had brought the man of God back heard about what had happened. He said, “It is the man of God who did not obey the Lord’s command. So the Lord sent a lion to kill him. The Lord said he would do this.”

²⁷ Then the prophet said to his sons, “Put a saddle on my donkey.” So they did. ²⁸ The old prophet went out and found the body lying on the road. The donkey and the lion were still standing near it. The lion had not eaten the body. And it had not hurt the donkey. ²⁹ So the prophet put the body on his donkey. And he carried it back to the city. There he would have a time of sadness for him and bury him. ³⁰ The prophet buried the body in his own family grave. And he was sad for the man of God. He said, “Oh, my brother.”

³¹ So the prophet buried the body. Then he said to his sons, “When I die, bury me in this same grave. Put my bones next to his. ³² Through him the Lord spoke against the altar at Bethel. And he spoke against the places of worship in the towns of Samaria. And what the Lord spoke through him will certainly come true.”

³³ But King Jeroboam did not stop doing evil things. He continued to choose priests for the places of worship from all the people. Anyone who wanted to be a priest for the places of worship was allowed. ³⁴ In this way the kingdom of Jeroboam sinned. And that sin caused its ruin and destruction from the earth.

Jeroboam’s Son Dies

14 At that time Jeroboam’s son Abijah became very sick. ² So Jeroboam said to his wife, “Go to Shiloh. Go to see the prophet Ahijah. He is the one who said I would become king of Israel. But dress yourself so people won’t know you are my wife. ³ Give the prophet ten loaves of bread, some cakes and a jar of honey. Then ask him what will happen to our son. And he will tell you.” ⁴ So the king’s wife did as he said. She went to Ahijah’s home in Shiloh.

Now Ahijah was very old and had become blind. ⁵ But the Lord had said to him, “Jeroboam’s son is sick. So Jeroboam’s wife is coming to ask you about him. When she arrives, she will pretend to be someone else.” Then the Lord told Ahijah what to say.

⁶ When Ahijah heard her walking to the door, he said, “Come in, wife of Jeroboam. Why are you pretending to be someone else? I have bad news for you. ⁷ Go back and tell Jeroboam that this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Jeroboam, I chose you from among all the people of Israel. I made you the leader of my people. ⁸ I took the kingdom away from David’s family. And I gave it to you. But you are not like my servant David. He always obeyed my commands. He followed me with all his heart. He did only the things I said were right. ⁹ But you have done more evil things than anyone who ruled before you. You have quit following me. You have made other gods and idols of metal. This has made me very angry. ¹⁰ So I will bring disaster to the family of Jeroboam. I will kill all of the men in your family, both slaves and free men. I will destroy your family as completely as fire burns up manure. ¹¹ Anyone from your family who dies in the city will be eaten by dogs. And anyone from your family who dies in the fields will be eaten by the birds. The Lord has spoken!’”

¹² Then Ahijah said to Jeroboam’s wife, “Now go home. When you enter your city gate, your son will die. ¹³ All Israel will be sad for him and bury him. He will be the only one of Jeroboam’s family who will be buried. This is because he is the only one in Jeroboam’s family who pleased the Lord, the God of Israel.

¹⁴ “The Lord will put a new king over Israel. That king will destroy Jeroboam’s family. This will happen soon. ¹⁵ Then the Lord will punish Israel. The people of Israel will be like grass moving in the water. The Lord will pull up Israel from this good land. This is the land he gave their ancestors. But he will scatter Israel beyond the Euphrates River. This will happen because the Lord is angry with the people. They made him angry when they made idols to worship Asherah. ¹⁶ Jeroboam sinned, and then he made the people of Israel sin. So the Lord will let the people of Israel be defeated.”

¹⁷ Then Jeroboam’s wife traveled back to Tirzah. When she entered her home, the boy died. ¹⁸ They buried him. And all Israel had a time of sadness for him. This happened as the Lord said it would. The Lord had said these things through his servant, the prophet Ahijah.

¹⁹ Everything else Jeroboam did is written down. He fought wars and continued to rule the people. It is all written in the book of the history of the kings of Israel. ²⁰ Jeroboam ruled as king for 22 years. Then he died, and his son Nadab became king in his place.

The Death of Rehoboam

²¹ Solomon’s son Rehoboam was 41 years old when he became king of Judah. His mother was Naamah from the land of Ammon. Rehoboam ruled in Jerusalem for 17 years. (The Lord had chosen that city from all the land of Israel. He chose to be worshiped there.)

²² The people of Judah did what the Lord said was wrong. The people’s sins made the Lord very angry at them. They made the Lord even more angry than their ancestors had done. ²³ The people built stone pillars and places to worship false gods and Asherah idols. They built them on every high hill and under every green tree. ²⁴ There were even male prostitutes at the places of worship to the gods. The people who had lived in the land before the Israelites had done many evil things. And God had taken the land away from them. Now the people of Judah were doing the same evil things.

²⁵ During the fifth year Rehoboam was king, Shishak attacked Jerusalem. Shishak was king of Egypt. ²⁶ He took the treasures from the Temple of the Lord and the king’s palace. He took everything, even the gold shields Solomon had made. ²⁷ So King Rehoboam made bronze shields to put in their place. He gave them to the men who were guarding the palace gates. ²⁸ Whenever the king went to the Temple of the Lord, the guards carried the shields. After they were finished, they put the shields back in the guardroom.

²⁹ Everything else King Rehoboam did is written down. It is in the book of the history of the kings of Judah. ³⁰ Rehoboam and Jeroboam were always fighting a war with each other. ³¹ Rehoboam died and was buried with his ancestors in Jerusalem. His mother was Naamah from Ammon. And Rehoboam’s son Abijam^[a] became king in his place.