1 Kings 12

1Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king.

2When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard of it, he was still in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon; Jeroboam was living in Egypt.

3So they sent and summoned him, and Jeroboam and the whole assembly of Israel came and said to Rehoboam,

4“Your father made our yoke hard. Now lighten the hard service your father imposed and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you.”

5He said to them, “Go away for three more days, then come back to me.” So the people went away.

6Then King Rehoboam consulted the elders who had served his father Solomon while he was still alive. “How do you advise me to answer this people?” he asked.

7They told him, “If today you will be a servant to this people and serve them, and if you answer them with kind words, they will be your servants for all time.”

8But he rejected the advice the elders had given him and consulted the young men who had grown up with him and who served him.

9He asked them, “What do you advise us to answer this people who said to me, ‘Lighten the yoke your father put on us’?”

10The 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 must lighten it for us’—this is what you should tell them: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist.

11My father loaded a heavy yoke on you, but I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.’”

12So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day, as the king had told them, “Come back to me on the third day.”

13The king answered the people harshly. He rejected the advice the elders had given him

14and spoke to them as the young men had advised: “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 scorpions.”

15So the king did not listen to the people, for this turn of events came from Yahweh, to fulfill the word that Yahweh had spoken through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam son of Nebat.

16When all Israel saw that the king would not listen to them, the people answered the king: “What share do we have in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, Israel! Now look after your own house, David!” So Israel went off to their tents.

17But as for the Israelites who lived in the towns of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them.

18Then King Rehoboam sent out Adoram, who was in charge of the forced labor, but all Israel stoned him to death. King Rehoboam managed to get into his chariot and flee to Jerusalem.

19So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day.

20When all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they sent for him, called him to the assembly, and made him king over all Israel. No one followed the house of David except the tribe of Judah alone.

21When Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he assembled the whole house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin, 180,000 chosen warriors, to fight against the house of Israel and win back the kingdom for Rehoboam son of Solomon.

22But the word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God:

23“Say to Rehoboam son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to the whole house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people,

24‘This is what Yahweh says: Do not go up and do not fight against your brothers, the Israelites. Go home, every one of you, for this thing is from me.’” So they listened to the word of Yahweh and turned back and went home, as Yahweh had said.

25Then Jeroboam built up Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. From there he went out and built up Penuel.

26Jeroboam said to himself, “Now the kingdom will go back to the house of David.

27If these people go up to offer sacrifices at the house of Yahweh in Jerusalem, their hearts will turn back to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah. They will kill me and go back to Rehoboam king of Judah.”

28So after taking counsel, the king made two calves of gold. He said to the people, “You have been going up to Jerusalem long enough. Here are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”

29He set one up in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan.

30This thing became a sin; the people went all the way to Dan to worship before the one there.

31He also built shrines on the high places and appointed priests from all sorts of people who were not Levites.

32Jeroboam instituted a festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the festival held in Judah, and he went up to the altar. He did this in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves he had made, and he installed in Bethel the priests of the high places he had made.

33On the fifteenth day of the eighth month, the month he had devised on his own, he went up to the altar he had made in Bethel. He instituted a festival for the Israelites and went up to the altar to burn incense.