1 Kings 12–13

The Kingdom Divided

12Then Rehoboam ^jwent to Shechem, ^kfor all Israel ^lhad gone to Shechem to make him king. ^m2When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard about it, for he was still in Egypt where he had fled from King Solomon’s presence, ⁿJeroboam stayed in Egypt. ^o3They summoned him, and Jeroboam and the whole assembly of Israel came and spoke to Rehoboam: ⁴“Your father made our yoke difficult. ^pYou, therefore, lighten your father’s harsh service and the heavy yoke he put on us, ^qand we will serve you.”

⁵Rehoboam replied, “Go home for three days and then return to me.” So the people left. ⁶Then King Rehoboam consulted with the elders ^rwho had served his father Solomon when he was alive, asking, “How do you advise me to respond to these people?”

⁷They replied, “Today if you will be a servant to these people and serve them, and if you respond to them by speaking kind words to them, they will be your servants forever.” ^s

⁸But he rejected the advice of the elders who had advised him ^tand consulted with the young men who had grown up with him and served him. ⁹He asked them, “What message do you advise that we send back to these people who said to me, ‘Lighten the yoke your father put on us’?”

¹⁰Then the young men who had grown up with him told him, “This is what you should say to these 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 loins! ¹¹Although 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.’ ” ^uv

¹²So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day, as the king had ordered: “Return to me on the third day.” ¹³Then the king answered the people harshly. He rejected the advice the elders had given him ¹⁴and 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.” ^w

¹⁵The king did not listen to the people, because this turn of events came from the Lord ^xto carry out His word, which the Lord had spoken through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam son of Nebat. ^y16When all Israel saw that the king had not listened to them, the people answered him:

What portion do we have in David?

We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. ^z

Israel, return to your tents;

David, now look after your own house! ^a

So Israel went to their tents, ¹⁷but Rehoboam reigned over the Israelites living in the cities of Judah. ^b

¹⁸Then King Rehoboam sent Adoram, ^cdwho was in charge of forced labor, but all Israel stoned him to death. King Rehoboam managed to get into the chariot and flee to Jerusalem. ¹⁹Israel is in rebellion against the house of David until today. ^e

Rehoboam in Jerusalem

²⁰When all Israel heard that Jeroboam had come back, ^fthey summoned him to the assembly and made him king over all Israel. ^gNo one followed the house of David except the tribe of Judah alone. ^h21When Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, ⁱhe mobilized 180,000 choice warriors from the entire house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin ^jto fight against the house of Israel to restore the kingdom to Rehoboam son of Solomon. ²²But a revelation from God came to Shemaiah, ^kthe man of God: 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, ²⁴‘This is what the Lord says: You are not to march up and fight against your brothers, the Israelites. Each of you must return home, for I have done this.’ ” ^l

So they listened to what the Lord said and went back as He had told them.

Jeroboam’s Idolatry

²⁵Jeroboam built Shechem ^min the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. From there he went out and built Penuel. ⁿ²⁶Jeroboam said to himself, “The way things are going now, the kingdom might return to the house of David. ^o27If these people regularly go to offer sacrifices in the Lord’s temple in Jerusalem, ^pthe heart of these people will return to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah. They will murder me and go back to the king of Judah.” ²⁸So 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 is your God ^qwho brought you out of the land of Egypt.” ^r29He set up one in Bethel, ^sand put the other in Dan. ^t30This led to sin; ^uthe people walked in procession before one of the calves all the way to Dan. ^vw

³¹Jeroboam also built shrines on the high places ^xand set up priests from every class of people who were not Levites. ^y32Jeroboam made a festival in the eighth month on the fifteenth day of the month, like the festival in Judah. ^zHe offered sacrifices on the altar; he made this offering in Bethel to sacrifice to the calves he had set up. He also stationed the priests in Bethel for the high places he had set up. ^a33He offered sacrifices on ^bthe altar he had set up in Bethel on the fifteenth day of the eighth month. He chose this month on his own. ^cHe made a festival for the Israelites, offered sacrifices on the altar, and burned incense. ^d

Judgment on Jeroboam

13A man of God ^ecame from Judah to Bethel by a revelation from the Lord while Jeroboam was standing beside the altar to burn incense. ^f2The man of God cried out against the altar by a revelation from the Lord: “Altar, altar, this is what the Lord says, ‘A son will be born to the house of David, named Josiah, and he will sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who are burning incense on you. Human bones will be burned on you.’ ” ^g3He gave a sign ^hthat day. He said, “This is the sign that the Lord has spoken: ‘The altar will now be ripped apart, and the ashes that are on it will be poured out.’ ” ⁱ

⁴When the king heard the word that the man of God had cried out against the altar at Bethel, Jeroboam stretched out his hand from the altar and said, “Arrest him!” But the hand he stretched out against him withered, and he could not pull it back to himself. ⁵The altar was ripped apart, and the ashes poured from the altar, according to the sign that the man of God had given by the word of the Lord.

⁶Then the king responded to the man of God, “Plead for the favor of the Lord your God and pray for me ^jso that my hand may be restored to me.” So the man of God pleaded for the favor of the Lord, and the king’s hand was restored to him and became as it had been at first.

⁷Then the king declared to the man of God, “Come home with me, refresh yourself, and I’ll give you a reward.” ^k

⁸But the man of God replied, “If you were to give me half your house, ^lI still wouldn’t go with you, and I wouldn’t eat bread or drink water in this place, ⁹for this is what I was commanded by the word of the Lord: ^m‘You must not eat bread or drink water or go back the way you came.’ ” ¹⁰So he went another way; he did not go back by the way he had come to Bethel.

The Old Prophet and the Man of God

¹¹Now a certain old prophet was living in Bethel. ⁿHis son ^ocame and told him all the deeds that the man of God had done that day in Bethel. His sons also told their father the words that he had spoken to the king. ^p12Then their father said to them, “Which way did he go?” His sons had seen ^qthe way taken by the man of God who had come from Judah. ¹³Then he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” So they saddled the donkey for him, and he got on it. ¹⁴He followed the man of God and found him sitting under an oak tree. He asked him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?”

“I am,” he said.

¹⁵Then he said to him, “Come home with me and eat bread.”

¹⁶But he answered, “I cannot go back with you, eat bread, or drink water with you in this place, ¹⁷for a message came to me by the word of the Lord: ‘You must not eat bread or drink water there ^ror go back by the way you came.’ ”

¹⁸He said to him, “I am also a prophet ^slike you. An angel spoke to me by the word of the Lord: ‘Bring him back with you to your house so that he may eat bread and drink water.’ ” The old prophet deceived him, ^t19and the man of God went back with him, ate bread in his house, and drank water.

²⁰While they were sitting at the table, the word of the Lord came to the prophet who had brought him back, ²¹and the prophet cried out to the man of God who had come from Judah, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Because you rebelled against the command of the Lord and did not keep the command that the Lord your God commanded you— ²²but you went back and ate bread and drank water in the place that He said to you, “Do not eat bread and do not drink water”— ^uyour corpse will never reach the grave of your fathers.’ ” ^v

²³So after he had eaten bread and after he had drunk, the old prophet saddled the donkey for the prophet he had brought back. ²⁴When he left, ^wa lion attacked ^xhim along the way and killed him. ^yHis corpse was thrown on the road, and the donkey was standing beside it; the lion was standing beside the corpse too.

²⁵There were men passing by who saw the corpse thrown on the road and the lion standing beside it, and they went and spoke about it in the city where the old prophet lived. ²⁶When the prophet who had brought him back from his way heard about it, he said, “He is the man of God who disobeyed the command of the Lord. The Lord has given him to the lion, and it has mauled and killed him, according to the word of the Lord that He spoke to him.”

²⁷Then the old prophet instructed his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” They saddled it, ^z28and he went and found the corpse of the man of God thrown on the road with the donkey and the lion standing beside the corpse. The lion had not eaten the corpse or mauled the donkey. ²⁹So the prophet lifted the corpse of the man of God and laid it on the donkey and brought it back. The old prophet came into the city to mourn and bury him. ³⁰Then he laid the corpse in his own grave, ^aand they mourned over him:…