1 Kings 12–13

Israel’s Appeal to Rehoboam

12Then Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all of Israel had come to Shechem to make him king. ²It happened that Jeroboam the son of Nebat heard of it while he was still in Egypt where he had fled from the face of King Solomon, and Jeroboam had lived in Egypt. ³So they sent and summoned him, and Jeroboam and all the assembly of Israel came. Then they spoke to Rehoboam, saying, ⁴“Your father made our yoke heavy; now lighten the hard labor of your father and the heavy yoke which he placed on us, and we will serve you.” ⁵He said, “Go up for three days and then return to me”; so the people went away.

Rehoboam Seeks Counsel to Respond

⁶Then King Rehoboam consulted with the old men who had been serving^a before Solomon his father when he was alive, saying, “How are you advising me to answer this people?”^{b 7}They said to him, “If you will be a servant today to this people, then you will serve them; and if you answer them and speak good words to them, they will always be your servants.” ⁸But he rejected the advice of the old men, which they gave him, and he consulted with the youngsters who had grown up with him, who were serving^c before him. ⁹He said to them, “What are you advising that we should reply to this people who spoke to me by saying, ‘Lighten the yoke your father put on us.’ ” ¹⁰Then the youngsters who had grown up with him spoke to him, saying, “Thus you shall say to this people who spoke to you: ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you lighten it for us,’ you shall say to them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins. ¹¹So then, my father loaded a heavy yoke on all of you, but I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions!’ ”

Rehoboam Responds Unwisely with Disastrous Results

¹²Jeroboam and all of the people came to Rehoboam on the third day, as the king had spoken: “Return to me on the third day.” ¹³Then the king answered all the people harshly, as he had rejected the advice of the old men that they had offered. ¹⁴He spoke to them according to the advice of the youngsters, saying, “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add onto your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.” ¹⁵So the king did not listen to the people, for it was a turning of events from Yahweh in order to fulfill his word which Yahweh had spoken through the hand of Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat. ¹⁶When all of Israel saw that the king would not listen to them, the people answered the king, saying, “What share do we have in David?^d There is no inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, Israel! Now look to your house, David!” Then Israel went to their^e tents.

¹⁷The Israelites^f were living in the cities of Judah, and Rehoboam was reigning over them. ¹⁸King Rehoboam sent Adoram who was over the forced labor, and all of Israel cast stones at him and he died, but King Rehoboam managed to get up on the chariot to flee to Jerusalem. ¹⁹So Israel rebelled against the house of David until this day.

Civil War Averted

²⁰It happened that just when all of Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they sent and called him to the assembly and made him king over all of Israel. Not one followed after the house of David except the tribe of Judah alone. ²¹When Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, he assembled all of the house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin, a hundred and eighty thousand choice troops^g to fight with the house of Israel, to restore the kingship to Rehoboam the son of Solomon. ²²Then the word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God, saying, ²³“Say to Rehoboam the son of Solomon the king of Judah and to all the house of Judah and Benjamin and the remainder of the people, saying, ²⁴‘Thus says Yahweh: “You shall not go up and you shall not fight with your brothers the Israelites.^h Return each of you to his house, for this thing was from me.” ’ ” So they heeded the word of Yahweh, and they returned to go home according to the word of Yahweh.

Jeroboam Becomes King over Israel

²⁵Then Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and he resided in it. Then he went out from there and built Penuel. ²⁶Then Jeroboam said to himself,ⁱ “Now the kingdom will return to the house of David ²⁷if this people go up to offer sacrifices in the house^j of Yahweh in Jerusalem. The heart of this people will return to their master Rehoboam the king of Judah, and they shall kill me and return to him.”^k

²⁸And the king had decided, so he made two golden calves and he said to them,^l “You have been going up to Jerusalem long enough;^m here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.” ²⁹He put one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. ³⁰This thing became a sin, and the people walked before the one as far as Dan. ³¹Then he built the houses on the high places, and he appointed priests from all walks of lifeⁿ who were not from the sons of Levi. ³²Jeroboam also inaugurated a religious feast in the eighth month on the fifteenth day of the month, like the religious feast which was in Judah, and he offered sacrifices on the altar. Thus he did in Bethel, by sacrificing to the calves that he had made; and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made. ³³He offered sacrifices on the altar which he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day of the eighth month which his heart had devised. He inaugurated a religious feast for the Israelites,^o and he went up to the altar to offer incense.

A Man of God Proclaims Judgment against the False Altar

13Suddenly a man of God from Judah came to Bethel, by the word of Yahweh, while Jeroboam was standing at the altar to offer incense. ²Then he proclaimed against the altar by the word of Yahweh and said, “O altar, altar, thus says Yahweh: ‘Look, a son will be born to the house of David, Josiah by name, and he shall sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and human bones shall burn on you.’ ”

³He gave a sign on that day, saying, “This is the sign that Yahweh has predetermined: Look, this altar will be torn apart, and the ashes that are on it will be poured out.”

⁴It happened at the moment the king heard the word of the man of God that he cried out against the altar in Bethel, Jeroboam stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, “Seize him!” But his hand which he stretched out to him was paralyzed, and he was not able to draw it back to himself. ⁵Then the altar was torn apart and the ashes from the altar poured out according to the sign which the man of God had announced by the word of Yahweh. ⁶Then the king responded and said to the man of God, “Please entreat the favor of Yahweh your God, and pray for me that my hand may return to me.” So the man of God entreated the face of Yahweh, and the hand of the king returned to him, as it was in the beginning. ⁷Then the king spoke to the man of God, “Come with me to the house and refresh yourself, that I may give you a gift.” ⁸Then the man of God said to the king, “Even if you give to me half of your house I will not come with you, nor will I eat bread or drink water in this place, ⁹for the word of Yahweh has commanded me, saying, ‘You shall not eat bread nor drink water, and you shall not return on the way that you came.’ ” ¹⁰So he went another way, and he did not return by the way on which he had come to Bethel.

The Man of God Disobeys

¹¹Now a certain older prophet was living in Bethel, and his son came and recounted to him all of the things that the man of God had done that day in Bethel and the words he had spoken to the king, and they told them to their father. ¹²Then their father asked them, “Which way did he go?”^a His sons had seen the way which the man of God who had come from Judah had taken. ¹³Then he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” So they saddled the donkey for him, and he mounted it ¹⁴and went after the man of God. He found him sitting under the oak and said to him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?” He said, “I am.” ¹⁵Then he said to him, “Come with me to the house and eat some food.” ¹⁶Then he said, “I am not able to return with you or to go with you. I will not eat food nor will I drink water with you in this place. ¹⁷For a word came to me by the word of Yahweh, ‘You shall not eat food, nor shall you drink water there. You shall not return to go by the way that you came.’ ”

¹⁸Then he said, “I am also a prophet like you. An angel spoke to me by the word of Yahweh, saying, ‘Let him return with you to your house that he may eat food and drink water.’ ” He lied to him. ¹⁹So he returned with him and ate food in his house and drank water.

²⁰Now it happened that they were sitting at the table, and the word of Yahweh came to the prophet who brought him back. ²¹He proclaimed to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, “Thus says Yahweh: ‘Because you have disobeyed the word of Yahweh and have not kept the command which Yahweh your God commanded you, ²²but you have returned and have eaten food and drank water in the place which he ordered you not to eat food nor to drink water, then your dead body shall not return to the tomb of your ancestors.’ ”^b

The Disobedient Man of God Dies

²³It happened after he ate food and drank water that he saddled the donkey for the prophet whom he had brought back. ²⁴When he left, a lion found him on the road and killed him, and his dead body was thrown on the road with the donkey standing beside it, and the lion was standing by the dead body. ²⁵As men were passing by and they saw the dead body thrown in the road and the lion standing beside the dead body, they came and told it in the city where the old prophet was living. ²⁶When the prophet who had brought him back from the way heard, he said, “It is the man of God who disobeyed the mouth of Yahweh, and Yahweh has given him to the lion. He tore him in pieces and killed him according to the word of Yahweh…