1 Kings 12

Translated from the Hebrew of the Westminster Leningrad Codex. Tap a verse to see why it reads as it does. Tap a small letter to read its footnote.

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The northern tribes reject Rehoboam

¹Rehoboam went to Shechem, because all Israel had gathered at Shechem to make him king. ²When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard about it, he was still in Egypt, where he had taken refuge from King Solomon, and he remained 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 ease the harsh labor your father demanded and the heavy yoke he laid on us, and we will serve you.” ⁵He said to them, “Go away for three days, then come back to me.” So the people left. ⁶King Rehoboam then consulted the elders who had served his father Solomon while he was alive. “What answer do you advise me to give this people?” he asked. ⁷They answered him, “If today you will be a servant to this people and serve them, and answer them with kind words, they will always be your servants.” ⁸But he rejected the advice the elders had given him and consulted the young men who had grown up with him and now served him. ⁹He asked them, “What do you advise? How should we answer this people who have said to me, ‘Lighten the yoke your father put on us’?” ¹⁰The young men who had grown up with him answered, “This people said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you must make it lighter for us.’ Give them this answer: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist. ¹¹So then: my father laid a heavy yoke on you, but I will make your yoke heavier still. My father punished you with whips, but I will punish you with scorpions.’” ¹²On the third day Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam, as the king had told them: “Return to me on the third day.” ¹³The king gave the people a harsh answer. He rejected the advice the elders had given him. ¹⁴He spoke to them as the young men had advised: “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will make your yoke heavier still. My father punished you with whips, but I will punish you with scorpions.” ¹⁵So the king did not listen to the people, for this turn of events came from the LORD, to fulfill the word the LORD 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: \q “What part do we have in David? \q We have no inheritance in Jesse’s son! \q To your tents, Israel! Now look after your own house, David!” \q So Israel went home. ¹⁷But Rehoboam reigned over the Israelites who lived in the towns of Judah.

¹⁸King Rehoboam then sent Adoram, the officer in charge of the forced labor, but all Israel stoned him to death. King Rehoboam managed to get up into his chariot and escape to Jerusalem. ¹⁹So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day.

Jeroboam becomes king of Israel

²⁰When all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they sent for him, summoned him before the congregation, 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 mustered the whole house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin, 180,000 picked warriors, to fight against the house of Israel and regain the kingdom for Rehoboam son of Solomon.

²²But the word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God: ²³“Speak to Rehoboam son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to the whole house of Judah and Benjamin, and to everyone else among the people, and tell them, ²⁴‘The LORD says this: Do not go up to fight against your relatives, the Israelites. Go home, every one of you, for this thing has come from me.’” So they heeded the word of the LORD and went back home, as the LORD had said.

Jeroboam’s golden calves

²⁵Jeroboam fortified Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. From there he went out and fortified Penuel. ²⁶Jeroboam thought to himself, “As things are, the kingdom will go back to the house of David. ²⁷If these people go up to offer sacrifices at the house of the LORD in Jerusalem, their hearts will turn back to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah, and they will kill me and go back to Rehoboam king of Judah.” ²⁸So the king took counsel and made two golden calves. He said to the people, “You have gone up to Jerusalem long enough. Israel, here are your gods, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!” ²⁹He set up one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. ³⁰This thing became a sin. The people went as far as Dan to worship before the one there. ³¹He also made 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 in Bethel he installed the priests of the high places he had made. ³³He went up to the altar he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, the month he had invented on his own. He instituted a festival for the Israelites and went up to the altar to burn incense.