First Book of Kings 12

² As soon as Jeroboam son of Nebat heard the news – he was still in Egypt, where he had taken refuge from King Solomon – he returned from Egypt.

¹ Rehoboam went to Shechem, for it was to Shechem that all Israel[*a] had gone to proclaim him king,

³ and they said this to him,

⁴ ‘Your father gave us a heavy burden to bear; lighten your father’s harsh tyranny now, and the weight of the burden he laid on us, and we will serve you’.

⁵ He said to them, ‘Go away for three days and then come back to me’. And the people went away.

⁶ King Rehoboam consulted the elders, who had been in the service of his father Solomon while he was alive. ‘What reply’ he asked ‘do you advise me to give to this people?’

⁷ ‘Act as servant of this people now,’ they said ‘humour them, treat them fairly, and they will be your servants for ever.’

⁸ But he rejected the advice given him by the elders and consulted the young men who had grown up with him and were in his service.

⁹ ‘How do you advise us’ he asked ‘to answer this people who have said to me, “Lighten the burden your father imposed on us”?’

¹⁰ The young men who had grown up with him replied, ‘Give this answer to these people who have said, “Your father gave us a heavy burden to bear, you must lighten it for us”, say this to them, “My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins!

¹¹ So then, my father made you bear a heavy burden. I will make it heavier still. My father beat you with whips; I am going to beat you with loaded scourges.”‘

¹² On the third day all the people came to Rehoboam in obedience to the king’s command: ‘Come back to me on the third day’.

¹³ The king, rejecting the advice given him by the elders, gave the people a harsh answer,

¹⁴ speaking to them as the young men had recommended. ‘My father made you bear a heavy burden,’ he said ‘but I will make it heavier still. My father beat you with whips; I am going to beat you with loaded scourges.’

¹⁵ The king in fact took no notice of the people’s wishes, and this was brought about by Yahweh to carry out the promise he had spoken through Ahijah of Shiloh to Jeroboam son of Nebat.

¹⁶ When all Israel saw that the king took no notice of their wishes, they gave him this answer: ‘What share have we in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, Israel! Henceforth look after your own house, David!’ And Israel went off to their tents.

¹⁷ Rehoboam, however, reigned over those sons of Israel who lived in the towns of Judah.

¹⁸ King Rehoboam sent Adoram who was in charge of forced labour, but the Israelites stoned him to death; whereupon King Rehoboam was obliged to mount his chariot and escape to Jerusalem.

¹⁹ And Israel has been separated from the House of David until the present day.

²⁰ When all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they summoned him to the assembly and made him king of all Israel; no one remained loyal to the House of David, except the tribe of Judah.

²¹ Rehoboam went to Jerusalem and mustered the whole House of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin, a hundred and eighty thousand picked warriors, to fight the House of Israel and win back the kingdom for Rehoboam son of Solomon.

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

²³ ‘Say this to Rehoboam son of Solomon, king of Judah, to the whole House of Judah, to Benjamin and to the rest of the people,

²⁴ “Yahweh says this: Do not go to fight against your brothers, the sons of Israel; let everyone go home, for what has happened is my doing”‘.

²⁵ Jeroboam fortified Shechem in the mountain country of Ephraim, and lived there. Then, leaving there, he fortified Penuel.

²⁶ Jeroboam thought to himself, ‘As things are, the kingdom will revert to the House of David.

²⁷ If this people continues to go up to the Temple of Yahweh in Jerusalem to offer sacrifices, the people’s heart will turn back again to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah, and they will put me to death.’

²⁸ So the king thought this over and then made two golden calves; he said to the people, ‘You have been going up to Jerusalem long enough. Here are your gods, Israel; these brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’

²⁹ He set up one in Bethel

³⁰ and the people went in procession all the way to Dan in front of the other.

³¹ He set up the temple of the high places and appointed priests from ordinary families, who were not of the sons of Levi.

³² Jeroboam also instituted a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth of the month, like the feast that was kept in Judah, and he went up to the altar.[*b] That was how he behaved in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves he had made; and at Bethel he put the priests of the high places he had established.

³³ On the fifteenth of the eighth month, the month he had deliberately chosen, he went up to the altar he had made; he instituted a feast for the Israelites, and went up to the altar to offer incense.