1 Kings 12

1 Kings 12:1 Then Rehoboam went to Shechem, because all Israel had gone to Shechem to make him king.

1 Kings 12:2 When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard about it, he stayed in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon’s presence. Jeroboam stayed in Egypt.

1 Kings 12:3 But they summoned him, and Jeroboam and the whole assembly of Israel came and spoke to Rehoboam:

1 Kings 12:4 “Your father made our yoke heavy. You, therefore, lighten your father’s harsh service and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you.”

1 Kings 12:5 Rehoboam replied, “Go away for three days and then return to me.” So, the people left.

1 Kings 12:6 Then King Rehoboam consulted with the elders who had served his father Solomon when he was alive, asking, “How do you advise me to respond to this people?”

1 Kings 12:7 They replied, “Today if you will be a servant to this people and serve them, and if you respond to them by speaking kind words to them, they will be your servants forever.”

1 Kings 12:8 But he rejected the advice of the elders who had advised him and consulted with the young men who had grown up with him and attended him.

1 Kings 12:9 He asked them, “What message do you advise that we send back to this people who said to me, ‘Lighten the yoke your father put on us’?”

1 Kings 12:10 Then the 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, make it lighter on us! ‘ This is what you should tell them: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist!

1 Kings 12:11 Although my father burdened you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with barbed whips.'”

1 Kings 12:12 So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day, as the king had ordered: “Return to me on the third day.”

1 Kings 12:13 Then the king answered the people harshly. He rejected the advice the elders had given him

1 Kings 12:14 and spoke to them according to the young men’s advice: “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 barbed whips.”

1 Kings 12:15 The king did not listen to the people, because this turn of events came from Yahveh to carry out his word, which Yahveh had spoken through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam son of Nebat.

1 Kings 12:16 When all Israel saw that the king had not listened to them, the people answered him: What future do we have in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. Israel, return to your tents; David, now look after your own house! So, Israel went to their tents,

1 Kings 12:17 but Rehoboam reigned over the Israelites living in the cities of Judah.

1 Kings 12:18 Then King Rehoboam sent Adoram, who oversaw forced labor, but all Israel stoned him to death. King Rehoboam managed to get into the chariot and flee to Jerusalem.

1 Kings 12:19 Israel is still in rebellion against the house of David today.

1 Kings 12:20 When all Israel heard that Jeroboam had come back, they summoned him to the assembly and made him king over all Israel. No one followed the house of David except the tribe of Judah alone.

1 Kings 12:21 When Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he mobilized one hundred eighty thousand fit young soldiers from the entire house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin to fight against the house of Israel to restore the kingdom to Rehoboam son of Solomon.

1 Kings 12:22 But the word of God came to Shemaiah, the man of God:

1 Kings 12:23 “Say to Rehoboam son of Solomon, king of Judah, to the whole house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people,

1 Kings 12:24 ‘This is what Yahveh says: You are not to march up and fight against your brothers, the Israelites. Each of you return home, because this thing is from me.'” So they listened to the word of Yahveh and went back according to the word of Yahveh.

1 Kings 12:25 Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. From there he went out and built Penuel.

1 Kings 12:26 Jeroboam said to himself, “The kingdom might now return to the house of David.

1 Kings 12:27 If these people regularly go to offer sacrifices in Yahveh ‘s temple in Jerusalem, the heart of these people will return to their lord, King Rehoboam of Judah. They will kill me and go back to the king of Judah.”

1 Kings 12:28 So the king sought advice. Then he made two golden calves, and he said to the people, “Going to Jerusalem is too difficult for you. Israel, here are your gods who brought you up from the land of Egypt.”

1 Kings 12:29 He set up one in Bethel, and put the other in Dan.

1 Kings 12:30 This led to sin; the people walked in procession before one of the calves all the way to Dan.

1 Kings 12:31 Jeroboam also made shrines on the high places and made priests from the ranks of the people who were not Levites.

1 Kings 12:32 Jeroboam made a festival in the eighth month on the fifteenth day of the month, like the festival in Judah. He offered sacrifices on the altar; he made this offering in Bethel to sacrifice to the calves he had made. He also stationed the priests in Bethel for the high places he had made.

1 Kings 12:33 He offered sacrifices on the altar he had set up in Bethel on the fifteenth day of the eighth month. He chose this month on his own. He made a festival for the Israelites, offered sacrifices on the altar, and burned incense.