1 Kings 12

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

² When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard—he was still in Egypt where he had fled from King Solomon—Jeroboam returned from Egypt.

³ They sent for him, and Jeroboam and the whole assembly of Israel came and spoke to Rehoboam, saying,

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

⁵ He said to them, "Go for three days, then come back to me." So the people left.

⁶ King Rehoboam consulted the elders who had served his father Solomon while he was still alive, saying, "How do you advise me to answer this people?"

⁷ They said to him, "If today you will be a servant to this people and serve them, and answer them with good words, they will be your servants forever."

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

⁹ He said to them, "What do you advise? How should we answer this people who said to me, 'Lighten the yoke your father put on us'?"

¹⁰ The young men who had grown up with him said to him, "This is what you should say to this people who said to you, 'Your father made our yoke heavy; lighten it for us.' Say to them: 'My little finger is thicker than my father's waist.

¹¹ Now then—my father loaded you with a heavy yoke, but I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.'"

¹² Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day, as the king had said, "Come back to me on the third day."

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

¹⁴ and spoke to them according to the counsel of the young men, saying, "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."

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

¹⁶ When all Israel saw that the king did 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 to their tents.

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

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

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

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

²¹ When Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, he assembled all the house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin—one hundred eighty thousand chosen warriors—to fight against the house of Israel, to restore the kingdom to Rehoboam son of Solomon.

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

²³ "Say to Rehoboam son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people:

²⁴ 'This is what the LORD says: You must not go up and fight against your brothers, the Israelites. Each man go home, for this thing is from me.'" So they listened to 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 went out from there and built up Penuel.

²⁶ Jeroboam said in his heart, "Now the kingdom will return to the house of David.

²⁷ If this people goes up to offer sacrifices at the house of the LORD in Jerusalem, the heart of this people will return to their master, to Rehoboam king of Judah. They will kill me and return to Rehoboam king of Judah."

²⁸ So the king took counsel, made two golden calves, and said to the people, "You have gone up to Jerusalem long enough! Here are your gods, Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt."

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

³⁰ This thing became a sin, for the people went before the one as far as Dan.

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

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

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