Old/New Testament
II. The Reign of Jeroboam[a]
Chapter 12
Political Disunity.[b] 1 Rehoboam went to Shechem,[c] where all Israel had come to make him king. 2 When Jeroboam, son of Nebat, heard about it, he was still in Egypt. He had fled from King Solomon and remained in Egypt, 3 and they sent for him.
Then Jeroboam and the whole assembly of Israel came and they said to Rehoboam, 4 “Your father put a heavy yoke on us. If you now lighten the harsh servitude and the heavy yoke your father imposed on us, we will be your servants.” 5 He answered them, “Come back to me in three days,” and the people went away.
6 King Rehoboam asked advice of the elders who had been in his father Solomon’s service while he was alive, and asked, “How do you advise me to answer this people?” 7 They replied, “If today you become the servant of this people and serve them, and give them a favorable answer, they will be your servants forever.” 8 But he ignored the advice the elders had given him, and asked advice of the young men who had grown up with him and were in his service. 9 He said to them, “What answer do you advise that we should give this people, who have told me, ‘Lighten the yoke your father imposed on us’?” 10 The young men who had grown up with him replied, “This is what you must say to this people who have told you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy; you lighten it for us.’ You must say, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins. 11 My father put a heavy yoke on you, but I will make it heavier. My father beat you with whips, but I will beat you with scorpions.’” 12 Jeroboam and the whole people came back to King Rehoboam on the third day, as the king had instructed them: “Come back to me in three days.” 13 Ignoring the advice the elders had given him, the king gave the people a harsh answer. 14 He spoke to them as the young men had advised: “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will make it heavier. My father beat you with whips, but I will beat you with scorpions.” 15 (A)The king did not listen to the people, for this turn of events was from the Lord: he fulfilled the word the Lord had spoken through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam, son of Nebat. 16 (B)When all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king:
“What share have we in David?[d]
We have no heritage in the son of Jesse.
To your tents, Israel!
Now look to your own house, David.”
So Israel went off to their tents. 17 But Rehoboam continued to reign over the Israelites who lived in the cities of Judah.
18 King Rehoboam then sent out Adoram,[e] who was in charge of the forced labor, but all Israel stoned him to death. King Rehoboam then managed to mount his chariot and flee to Jerusalem. 19 And so Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day. 20 When all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they summoned him to an assembly and made him king over all Israel. None remained loyal to the house of David except the tribe of Judah alone.
Divine Approval.[f] 21 On his arrival in Jerusalem, Rehoboam assembled all the house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin—one hundred and eighty thousand elite warriors—to wage war against the house of Israel, to restore the kingdom to Rehoboam, son of Solomon. 22 However, the word of God came to Shemaiah, a man of God: 23 Say to Rehoboam, son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all the house of Judah and to Benjamin, and to the rest of the people: 24 Thus says the Lord: You must not go out to war against your fellow Israelites. Return home, each of you, for it is I who have brought this about. They obeyed the word of the Lord and turned back, according to the word of the Lord.
25 Jeroboam built up Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. Then he left it and built up Penuel.
Jeroboam’s Cultic Innovations.[g] 26 Jeroboam thought to himself: “Now the kingdom will return to the house of David. 27 If this people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, the hearts of this people will return to their master, Rehoboam, king of Judah, and they will kill me and return to Rehoboam, king of Judah.” 28 (C)The king took counsel, made two calves of gold, and said to the people: “You have been going up to Jerusalem long enough. Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.” 29 (D)And he put one in Bethel, the other in Dan.[h] 30 This led to sin, because the people frequented these calves in Bethel and in Dan. 31 He also built temples on the high places and made priests from among the common people who were not Levites.
Divine Disapproval.[i] 32 Jeroboam established a feast in the eighth month on the fifteenth day of the month like the pilgrimage feast in Judah, and he went up to the altar. He did this in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves he had made. He stationed in Bethel the priests of the high places he had built. 33 Jeroboam went up to the altar he built in Bethel on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, the month he arbitrarily chose. He established a feast for the Israelites, and he went up to the altar to burn incense.
Chapter 13
1 A man of God came from Judah to Bethel by the word of the Lord, while Jeroboam was standing at the altar to burn incense. 2 (E)He cried out against the altar by the word of the Lord: “Altar, altar, thus says the Lord: A child shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name, who shall slaughter upon you the priests of the high places who burn incense upon you, and they shall burn human bones upon you.” 3 (F)He also gave a sign that same day and said: “This is the sign that the Lord has spoken: The altar shall be torn apart and the ashes on it shall be scattered.” 4 When the king heard the word of the man of God which he was crying out against the altar in Bethel, Jeroboam stretched forth his hand from the altar and said, “Seize him!” But the hand he stretched forth against him withered, so that he could not draw it back. 5 (The altar was torn apart and the ashes from the altar were scattered, in accordance with the sign the man of God gave by the word of the Lord.)
6 Then the king said to the man of God, “Entreat the Lord, your God, and intercede for me that my hand may be restored.” So the man of God entreated the Lord, and the king’s hand was restored as it was before. 7 The king told the man of God, “Come with me to the house for some refreshment so that I may give you a present.” 8 The man of God said to the king, “If you gave me half your palace, I would not go with you, nor eat bread or drink water in this place. 9 For I was instructed by the word of the Lord: Do not eat bread or drink water, and do not return by the way you came.” 10 So he departed by another road and did not go back the way he had come to Bethel.
Prophetic Disunity.[j] 11 There was an old prophet living in Bethel, whose son came and told him all that the man of God had done that day in Bethel. When his sons repeated to their father the words the man of God had spoken to the king, 12 the father asked them, “Which way did he go?” So his sons pointed out to him the road taken by the man of God who had come from Judah. 13 Then he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” When they had saddled it, he mounted 14 and followed the man of God, whom he found seated under a terebinth. When he asked him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?” he answered, “Yes.” 15 Then he said, “Come home with me and have some bread.” 16 “I cannot return with you or go with you, and I cannot eat bread or drink water with you in this place,” he answered, 17 “for I was told by the word of the Lord: You shall not eat bread or drink water there, and do not go back the way you came.” 18 But he said to him, “I, too, am a prophet like you, and an angel told me by the word of the Lord: Bring him back with you to your house to eat bread and drink water.” But he was lying to him. 19 So he went back with him, and ate bread and drank water in his house. 20 But while they were sitting at table, the word of the Lord came to the prophet who had brought him back, 21 and he cried out to the man of God who had come from Judah: “Thus says the Lord: Because you rebelled against the charge of the Lord and did not keep the command which the Lord, your God, gave you, 22 but returned and ate bread and drank water in the place where he told you, Do not eat bread or drink water, your corpse shall not be brought to the grave of your ancestors.” 23 After he had eaten bread and drunk, they saddled for him the donkey that belonged to the prophet who had brought him back, 24 and he set out. But a lion met him on the road, and killed him. His body lay sprawled on the road, and the donkey remained standing by it, and so did the lion.
25 Some passersby saw the body lying in the road, with the lion standing beside it, and carried the news to the city where the old prophet lived. 26 On hearing it, the prophet who had brought him back from his journey said: “It is the man of God who rebelled against the charge of the Lord. The Lord has delivered him to a lion, which mangled and killed him, according to the word which the Lord had spoken to him.” 27 Then he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me,” and they saddled it. 28 He went off and found the body sprawled on the road with the donkey and the lion standing beside it. The lion had not eaten the body nor had it harmed the donkey. 29 The prophet lifted up the body of the man of God and put it on the donkey, and brought him back to the city to mourn and to bury him. 30 He laid the man’s body in his own grave, and they mourned over it: “Alas, my brother!” 31 (G)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. 32 (H)For the word which he proclaimed by the word of the Lord against the altar in Bethel and against all the temples on the high places in the cities of Samaria shall certainly come to pass.”
33 Even after this, Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way, but again made priests for the high places from among the common people. Whoever desired it was installed as a priest of the high places. 34 This is the account of the sin of the house of Jeroboam for which it was to be cut off and destroyed from the face of the earth.
VII. The Passion Narrative[a]
Chapter 22
The Conspiracy Against Jesus. 1 (A)Now the feast of Unleavened Bread, called the Passover,[b] was drawing near, 2 (B)and the chief priests and the scribes were seeking a way to put him to death, for they were afraid of the people. 3 (C)Then Satan entered into Judas,[c] the one surnamed Iscariot, who was counted among the Twelve,(D) 4 and he went to the chief priests and temple guards to discuss a plan for handing him over to them. 5 They were pleased and agreed to pay him money. 6 He accepted their offer and sought a favorable opportunity to hand him over to them in the absence of a crowd.
Preparations for the Passover.(E) 7 When the day of the feast of Unleavened Bread arrived, the day for sacrificing the Passover lamb,(F) 8 he sent out Peter and John, instructing them, “Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover.” 9 They asked him, “Where do you want us to make the preparations?” 10 And he answered them, “When you go into the city, a man will meet you carrying a jar of water.[d] Follow him into the house that he enters 11 and say to the master of the house, ‘The teacher says to you, “Where is the guest room where I may eat the Passover with my disciples?”’ 12 He will show you a large upper room that is furnished. Make the preparations there.” 13 Then they went off and found everything exactly as he had told them, and there they prepared the Passover.(G)
The Last Supper.(H) 14 When the hour came, he took his place at table with the apostles. 15 He said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover[e] with you before I suffer, 16 for, I tell you, I shall not eat it [again] until there is fulfillment in the kingdom of God.”(I) 17 Then he took a cup,[f] gave thanks, and said, “Take this and share it among yourselves; 18 for I tell you [that] from this time on I shall not drink of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God comes.” 19 [g](J)Then he took the bread, said the blessing, broke it, and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body, which will be given for you; do this in memory of me.” 20 And likewise the cup after they had eaten, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which will be shed for you.(K)
The Betrayal Foretold. 21 “And yet behold, the hand of the one who is to betray me is with me on the table; 22 for the Son of Man indeed goes as it has been determined; but woe to that man by whom he is betrayed.” 23 And they began to debate among themselves who among them would do such a deed.
The Role of the Disciples.(L) 24 [h]Then an argument broke out among them(M) about which of them should be regarded as the greatest. 25 [i](N)He said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them and those in authority over them are addressed as ‘Benefactors’; 26 but among you it shall not be so. Rather, let the greatest among you be as the youngest, and the leader as the servant.(O) 27 For who is greater: the one seated at table or the one who serves? Is it not the one seated at table? I am among you as the one who serves. 28 It is you who have stood by me in my trials; 29 and I confer a kingdom on you, just as my Father has conferred one on me,(P) 30 that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom; and you will sit on thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel.(Q)
Peter’s Denial Foretold.(R)
Scripture texts, prefaces, introductions, footnotes and cross references used in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC All Rights Reserved. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.