NAS - 1 Kings Chapter 12 to 13

12 King Rehoboam Acts Foolishly

¹Then Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king. ²Now when Jeroboam the son of Nebat heard of it, he was living in Egypt (for he was yet in Egypt, where he had fled from the presence of King Solomon). ³Then they sent and called him, and Jeroboam and all the assembly of Israel came and spoke to Rehoboam, saying, ⁴"Your father made our yoke hard; now therefore lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke which he put on us, and we will serve you." ⁵Then he said to them, "Depart for three days, then return to me." So the people departed.

⁶King Rehoboam consulted with the elders who had served his father Solomon while he was still alive, saying, "How do you counsel me to answer this people?" ⁷Then they spoke to him, saying, "If you will be a servant to this people today, and will serve them and grant them their petition, and speak good words to them, then they will be your servants forever." ⁸But he forsook the counsel of the elders which they had given him, and consulted with the young men who grew up with him and served him. ⁹So he said to them, "What counsel do you give that we may answer this people who have spoken to me, saying, `Lighten the yoke which your father put on us'?" ¹⁰The young men who grew up with him spoke to him, saying, "Thus you shall say to this people who spoke to you, saying, `Your father made our yoke heavy, now you make it lighter for us!' But you shall speak to them, `My little finger is thicker than my father's loins! ¹¹ `Whereas my father loaded you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.'"

¹²Then Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day as the king had directed, saying, "Return to me on the third day." ¹³The king answered the people harshly, for he forsook the advice of the elders which they had given him, ¹⁴and he spoke to them according to the advice 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." ¹⁵So the king did not listen to the people; for it was a turn of events from the LORD, that He might establish His word, which the LORD spoke through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.

The Kingdom Divided; Jeroboam Rules Israel

¹⁶When all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king, saying, "What portion do we have in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse; To your tents, O Israel! Now look after your own house, David!" So Israel departed to their tents. ¹⁷But as for the sons of Israel who lived in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them. ¹⁸Then King Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was over the forced labor, and all Israel stoned him to death. And King Rehoboam made haste to mount his chariot to flee to Jerusalem. ¹⁹So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day.

²⁰It came about when all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, that they sent and called him to the assembly and made him king over all Israel. None but the tribe of Judah followed the house of David.

²¹Now when Rehoboam had come to Jerusalem, he assembled all the house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin, 180,000 chosen men who were warriors, to fight against the house of Israel to restore the kingdom to Rehoboam the son of Solomon. ²²But the word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God, saying, ²³"Speak to Rehoboam the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all the house of Judah and Benjamin and to the rest of the people, saying, ²⁴`Thus says the LORD, "You must not go up and fight against your relatives the sons of Israel; return every man to his house, for this thing has come from Me."'" So they listened to the word of the LORD, and returned and went their way according to the word of the LORD.

Jeroboam's Idolatry

²⁵Then Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and lived there. And he went out from there and built Penuel. ²⁶Jeroboam said in his heart, "Now the kingdom will return to the house of David. ²⁷"If this people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will return to their lord, even to Rehoboam king of Judah; and they will kill me and return to Rehoboam king of Judah." ²⁸So the king consulted, and made two golden calves, and he said to them, "It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem; behold your gods, O Israel, that brought you up from the land of Egypt." ²⁹He set one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. ³⁰Now this thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one as far as Dan. ³¹And he made houses on high places, and made priests from among all the people who were not of the sons of Levi. ³²Jeroboam instituted a feast in the eighth month on the fifteenth day of the month, like the feast which is in Judah, and he went up to the altar; thus he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves which he had made. And he stationed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made. ³³Then he went up to the altar which he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day in the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised in his own heart; and he instituted a feast for the sons of Israel and went up to the altar to burn incense.

13 Jeroboam Warned, Stricken

¹Now behold, there came a man of God from Judah to Bethel by the word of the LORD, while Jeroboam was standing by the altar to burn incense. ²He cried against the altar by the word of the LORD, and said, "O altar, altar, thus says the LORD, `Behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name; and on you he shall sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and human bones shall be burned on you.'" ³Then he gave a sign the same day, saying, "This is the sign which the LORD has spoken, `Behold, the altar shall be split apart and the ashes which are on it shall be poured out.'" ⁴Now when the king heard the saying of the man of God, which he cried against the altar in Bethel, Jeroboam stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, "Seize him." But his hand which he stretched out against him dried up, so that he could not draw it back to himself. ⁵The altar also was split apart and the ashes were poured out from the altar, according to the sign which the man of God had given by the word of the LORD. ⁶The king said to the man of God, "Please entreat the LORD your God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored to me." So the man of God entreated the LORD, and the king's hand was restored to him, and it became as it was before. ⁷Then the king said to the man of God, "Come home with me and refresh yourself, and I will give you a reward." ⁸But the man of God said to the king, "If you were to give me half your house I would not go with you, nor would I eat bread or drink water in this place. ⁹"For so it was commanded me by the word of the LORD, saying, `You shall eat no bread, nor drink water, nor return by the way which you came.'" ¹⁰So he went another way and did not return by the way which he came to Bethel.

The Disobedient Prophet

¹¹Now an old prophet was living in Bethel; and his sons came and told him all the deeds which the man of God had done that day in Bethel; the words which he had spoken to the king, these also they related to their father. ¹²Their father said to them, "Which way did he go?" Now his sons had seen the way which the man of God who came from Judah had gone. ¹³Then he said to his sons, "Saddle the donkey for me." So they saddled the donkey for him and he rode away on it. ¹⁴So he went after the man of God and found him sitting under an oak; and he said to him, "Are you the man of God who came from Judah?" And he said, "I am." ¹⁵Then he said to him, "Come home with me and eat bread." ¹⁶He said, "I cannot return with you, nor go with you, nor will I eat bread or drink water with you in this place. ¹⁷"For a command came to me by the word of the LORD, `You shall eat no bread, nor drink water there; do not return by going the way which you came.'" ¹⁸He said to him, "I also am a prophet like you, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the LORD, saying, `Bring him back with you to your house, that he may eat bread and drink water.'" But he lied to him. ¹⁹So he went back with him, and ate bread in his house and drank water.

²⁰Now it came about, as they were sitting down at the table, that the word of the LORD came to the prophet who had brought him back; ²¹and he cried to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, "Thus says the LORD, `Because you have disobeyed the command of the LORD, and have not observed the commandment which the LORD your God commanded you, ²²but have returned and eaten bread and drunk water in the place of which He said to you, "Eat no bread and drink no water"; your body shall not come to the grave of your fathers.'" ²³It came about after he had eaten bread and after he had drunk, that he saddled the donkey for him, for the prophet whom he had brought back. ²⁴Now when he had gone, a lion met him on the way and killed him, and his body was thrown on the road, with the donkey standing beside it; the lion also was standing beside the body. ²⁵And behold, men passed by and saw the body thrown on the road, and the lion standing beside the body; so they came and told it in the city where the old prophet lived.

²⁶Now when the prophet who brought him back from the way heard it, he said, "It is the man of God, who disobeyed the command of the LORD; therefore the LORD has given him to the lion, which has torn him and killed him, according to the word of the LORD which He spoke to him." ²⁷Then he spoke to his sons, saying, "Saddle the donkey for me." And they saddled it. ²⁸He went and found his body thrown on the road with the donkey and the lion standing beside the body; the lion had not eaten the body nor torn the donkey. ²⁹So the prophet took up the body of the man of God and laid it on the donkey and brought it back, and he came to the city of the old prophet to mourn and to bury him. ³⁰He laid his body in his own grave, and they mourned over him, saying, "Alas, my brother!" ³¹After he had buried him, he spoke to his sons, saying, "When I die, bury me in the grave in which the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones. ³²"For the thing shall surely come to pass which he cried by the word of the LORD against the altar in Bethel and against all the houses of the high places which are in the cities of Samaria."

³³After this event Jeroboam did not return from his evil way, but again he made priests of the high places from among all the people; any who would, he ordained, to be priests of the high places. ³⁴This event became sin to the house of Jeroboam, even to blot it out and destroy it from off the face of the earth.