Chronological

12 Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king.

² And when Jeroboam son of Nebat heard of it—for he still dwelt in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon—[he] returned from Egypt.

³ And they sent and called him, and Jeroboam and all the assembly of Israel came and said to Rehoboam,

⁴ Your father made our yoke heavy; now therefore lighten the hard service and the heavy yoke your father put upon us, and we will serve you.

⁵ He replied, Go away for three days and then return to me. So the people departed.

⁶ And King Rehoboam consulted with the old men who stood before Solomon his father while he yet lived and said, How do you advise me to answer this people?

⁷ And they said to him, If you will be a servant to this people today and serve them and answer them with good words, they will be your servants forever.

⁸ But he forsook the counsel the old men gave him and consulted the young men who grew up with him and stood before him.

⁹ He said to them, What do you advise that we answer this people who have said, Make the yoke your father put on us lighter?

¹⁰ The young men who grew up with him answered, To the people who told you, Your father made our yoke heavy, but you make it lighter for us—say this, My little finger shall be thicker than my father’s loins.

¹¹ And now whereas my father loaded you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke. My father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.

¹² So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day, as the king had appointed.

¹³ And the king answered the people roughly and forsook the counsel the old men had given him,

¹⁴ And spoke to them after the counsel of the young men, saying, My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke; he chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.

¹⁵ So the king did not hearken to the people, for the situation was from the Lord, that He might fulfill His word which He spoke by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam son of Nebat.^(A)

¹⁶ So when all Israel saw that the king did not heed them, they answered the king, What portion have we in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, O Israel! Look now to your own house, David! So Israel went to their tents.

¹⁷ But Rehoboam reigned over the Israelites who dwelt in the cities of Judah.

¹⁸ Then King Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was over the tribute [taskmaster over the forced labor], and all Israel stoned him to death with stones. So King Rehoboam hastened to get into his chariot to flee to Jerusalem.

¹⁹ So Israel has rebelled against the house of David to this day.

²⁰ When all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they sent and called him to the assembly and made him king over all Israel. None followed the house of David except the tribe of Judah only.

²¹ And when Rehoboam had come to Jerusalem, he assembled all the house of Judah, with the tribe of Benjamin, 180,000 chosen warriors, to fight against the house of Israel to bring the kingdom back to Rehoboam son of Solomon.

²² But the word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God, saying,

²³ Tell Rehoboam son of Solomon king of Judah and all the house of Judah and Benjamin and the remnant of the people,

²⁴ Thus says the Lord, You shall not go up or fight against your brethren, the Israelites. Return every man to his house, for this thing is from Me. So they hearkened to the Lord’s word and returned home, according to the Lord’s word.

²⁵ Then Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. He went out from there and built Penuel.

²⁶ Jeroboam said in his heart, Now the kingdom will return to the house of David.

²⁷ If this people goes up to the house of the Lord at Jerusalem to sacrifice, then the heart of this people will turn again to their lord, to Rehoboam king of Judah; and they will kill me and go back to Rehoboam king of Judah.

²⁸ So the king took counsel and made two calves of gold. And he said to the people, It is too much for you to go [all the way] up to Jerusalem. Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.

²⁹ And he set the one golden calf in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan.

³⁰ And this thing became a sin; for the people went to worship each of them even as far as Dan.

³¹ Jeroboam also made houses on high places and made priests of people who were not Levites.

³² And Jeroboam appointed a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the feast kept in Judah, and he offered sacrifices upon the altar. So he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves he had made. And he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places he had made.

³³ So he offered upon the altar he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, a date which he chose individually; and he appointed a feast for the Israelites and he went up to the altar to burn incense [in defiance of God’s law.]

13 And behold, there came a man of God out of Judah by the word of the Lord to Bethel. Jeroboam stood by the altar to burn incense.

² The man cried against the altar by the word of the Lord, O altar, altar, thus says the Lord: Behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name; and on you shall he offer the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and men’s bones shall be burned on you.

³ And he gave a sign the same day, saying, This is the sign which the Lord has spoken: Behold, the altar shall be split and the ashes that are upon it shall be poured out. [Fulfilled in II Kings 23:15, 16.]

⁴ When King Jeroboam heard the words the man of God cried against the altar in Bethel, he thrust out his hand, saying, Lay hold on him! And his hand which he put forth against him dried up, so that he could not draw it to him again.

⁵ The altar also was split and the ashes poured out from the altar according to the sign which the man of God had given by the word of the Lord.

⁶ And the king said to the man of God, Entreat now the favor of the Lord your God and pray for me, that my hand may be restored to me. And the man of God entreated the Lord, and the king’s hand was restored and became as it was before.

⁷ And the king said to the man of God, Come home with me and refresh yourself, and I will give you a reward.

⁸ And the man of God said to the king, If you give me half your house, I will not go in with you, and I will not eat bread or drink water in this place.

⁹ For I was commanded by the word of the Lord, You shall eat no bread or drink water or return by the way you came.

¹⁰ So he went another way and did not return by the way that he came to Bethel.

¹¹ Now there dwelt an old prophet in Bethel; and his sons came and told him all that the man of God had done that day in Bethel; the words which he had spoken to the king they told also to their father.

¹² Their father asked them, Which way did he go? For his sons had seen which way the man of God who came from Judah had gone.

¹³ He said to his sons, Saddle the donkey for me. So they saddled the donkey and he rode on it

¹⁴ And went after the man of God. And he found him sitting under an oak, and he said to him, Are you the man of God who came from Judah? And he said, I am.

¹⁵ Then he said to him, Come home with me and eat bread.

¹⁶ He said, I may not return with you or go in with you, neither will I eat bread or drink water with you in this place.

¹⁷ For I was told by the word of the Lord, You shall not eat bread or drink water there or return by the way that you came.

¹⁸ He answered, I am a prophet also, as you are. And an angel spoke to me by the word of the Lord, saying, Bring him back with you to your house, that he may eat bread and drink water. But he lied to him.

¹⁹ So the man from Judah went back with him and ate and drank water in his house.

²⁰ And as they sat at the table, the word of the Lord came to the prophet who brought him back.

²¹ And he cried to the man of God who came from Judah, Thus says the Lord: Because you have disobeyed the word of the Lord and have not kept the command which the Lord your God commanded you,

²² But have come back and have eaten bread and drunk water in the place of which the Lord said to you, Eat no bread and drink no water—your corpse shall not come to the tomb of your fathers.

²³ And after the prophet of the house had eaten bread and drunk, he saddled the donkey for the man he had brought back.

²⁴ And when he had gone, a lion met him by the road and slew him, and his corpse was cast in the way, and the donkey stood by it; the lion also stood by the corpse.

²⁵ And behold, men passed by and saw the corpse thrown in the road, and the lion standing by the corpse, and they came and told it in the city where the old prophet dwelt.

²⁶ When the prophet who brought him back from the way heard of it, he said, It is the man of God who was disobedient to the word of the Lord; therefore the Lord has given him to the lion, which has torn him and slain him, according to the word of the Lord which He spoke to him.

²⁷ And he said to his sons, Saddle the donkey for me. And they saddled it.

²⁸ And he went and found the corpse thrown in the road, and the donkey and the lion stood by the body; the lion had not eaten the corpse or torn the donkey.

²⁹ The prophet took up the corpse of the man of God and laid it upon the donkey and brought it back, and the old prophet came into the city to mourn and to bury him.

³⁰ And he laid the body in his own grave, and they mourned over him, saying, Alas, my brother!

³¹ After he had buried him, he said to his sons, When I am dead, bury me in the grave in which the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones.

³² For the saying which he cried by the word of the Lord against the altar in Bethel and against all the houses of the high places which are in the cities of Samaria shall surely come to pass.

³³ After this thing, Jeroboam turned not from his evil way, but made priests for the high places again from among all the people. Whoever would, he consecrated, that there might be priests for the high places.

³⁴ And this thing became the sin of the dynasty of Jeroboam that caused it to be abolished and destroyed from the face of the earth.

14 Then Abijah [the little] son of Jeroboam became sick.

² And Jeroboam said to his wife, Arise, I pray you, and disguise yourself, that you may not be recognized as Jeroboam’s wife, and go to Shiloh. Behold, Ahijah the prophet is there, who told me that I should be king over this people.

³ Take ten loaves, some cakes, and a bottle of honey, and go to him. He will tell you what shall happen to the child.

⁴ Jeroboam’s wife did so. She arose and went [twenty miles] to Shiloh and came to the house of Ahijah. Ahijah could not see, for his eyes were dim because of his age.

⁵ And the Lord said to Ahijah, Behold, the ^[a]wife of Jeroboam is coming to ask you concerning her son, for he is sick. Thus and thus shall you say to her. When she came, she pretended to be another woman.

⁶ But when Ahijah heard the sound of her feet as she came in at the door, he said, Come in, wife of Jeroboam. Why do you pretend to be another? For I am charged with heavy news for you.

⁷ Go, tell Jeroboam, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Because I exalted you from among the people and made you leader over My people Israel

⁸ And rent the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it to you—and yet you have not been as My servant David, who kept My commandments and followed Me with all his heart, to do only what was right in My eyes,

⁹ But have done evil above all who were before you; for you have made yourself other gods, molten images, to provoke Me to anger and have cast Me behind your back—

¹⁰ Therefore behold, I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam and will cut off from [him] every male, both bond and free, in Israel, and will utterly sweep away the house of Jeroboam as a man sweeps away dung, till it is all gone.

¹¹ Anyone belonging to Jeroboam who dies in the city the dogs shall eat, and any who dies in the field the birds of the heavens shall eat. For the Lord has spoken it.

¹² Arise therefore [Ano, Jeroboam’s wife], get to your own house. When your feet enter the city, the child shall die.

¹³ And all Israel shall mourn for him and bury him; for he only of Jeroboam’s family shall come to the grave, because in him there is found something good and pleasing to the Lord, the God of Israel, in the house of Jeroboam.

¹⁴ Moreover, the Lord will raise up for Himself a king over Israel who shall cut off the house of Jeroboam this day. From now on

¹⁵ The Lord will smite Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water; and He will root up Israel out of this good land which He gave to their fathers and will scatter them beyond the [Euphrates] River, because they have made their Asherim [idolatrous symbols of the goddess Asherah], provoking the Lord to anger.

¹⁶ He will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam which he has sinned and made Israel to sin.

¹⁷ So Jeroboam’s wife departed and came to Tirzah. When she came to the threshold of the house, the child died.

¹⁸ And all Israel buried him and mourned for him, according to the word of the Lord spoken by His servant Ahijah the prophet.

¹⁹ The rest of the acts of Jeroboam, how he warred and how he reigned, behold, they are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel.

²⁰ Jeroboam reigned for twenty-two years, and he slept with his fathers; and Nadab his son reigned in his stead.

²¹ And Rehoboam son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city the Lord chose out of all the tribes of Israel to put His Name [and the pledge of His presence] there. His mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonitess.

²² And Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord, Whom they provoked to jealousy with the sins they committed, above all that their fathers had done.

²³ For they also built themselves [idolatrous] high places, pillars, and Asherim [idolatrous symbols of the goddess Asherah] on every high hill and under every green tree.

²⁴ There were also sodomites (male cult prostitutes) in the land. They did all the abominations of the nations whom the Lord cast out before the Israelites.

²⁵ In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt [Jeroboam’s brother-in-law] came up against Jerusalem.

²⁶ He took away the treasures of the house of the Lord and of the king’s house; he took away all, including all the shields of gold which Solomon had made.

²⁷ King Rehoboam made in their stead bronze shields and committed them to the hands of the captains of the guard who kept the door of the king’s house.

²⁸ And as often as the king went into the house of the Lord, the guards bore them and brought them back into the guardroom.

²⁹ The rest of the acts of Rehoboam, and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

³⁰ There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam continually.

³¹ Rehoboam slept with his fathers and was buried with them in the City of David. His mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonitess. Abijam (Abijah) his son reigned in his stead.