1 Kings 12

1 And Roboam went to Sichem: for thither were all Israel come together to make him king.

All [HYP] the people of [northern] Israel went to Shechem [city] in order to appoint Rehoboam to be their king. So Rehoboam also went there.

2 But Jeroboam the son of Nabat, who was yet in Egypt, a fugitive from the face of king Solomon, hearing of his death, returned out of Egypt.

When Jeroboam, who was still in Egypt, heard about that, he returned from Egypt [to Israel].

3 And they sent and called him: and Jeroboam came, and all the multitude of Israel, and they spoke to Roboam, saying:

The [leaders of the northern tribes] summoned him, and they went together [to talk] to Rehoboam. They said to him,

4 Thy father laid a grievous yoke upon us: now therefore do thou take off a little of the grievous service of thy father, and of his most heavy yoke, which he put upon us, and we will serve thee.

“Your father [Solomon] forced us to work very hard [MET] for him. If you (lighten these loads/do not force us to work that hard), and if you charge us less taxes than we were paying to him, we will serve you [faithfully].”

5 And he said to them: Go till the third day, and come to me again. And when the people was gone,

He replied, “Go away, and come back three days from now [and I will give you my answer].” So those leaders and Jeroboam left.

6 King Roboam took counsel with the old men, that stood before Solomon his father while he yet lived, and he said: What counsel do you give me, that I may answer this people?

Then King Rehoboam consulted the older men who had advised his father Solomon while he was still living. He asked them, “What shall I say to answer those men?”

7 They said to him: If thou wilt yield to this people today, and condescend to them, and grant their petition, and wilt speak gentle words to them, they will be thy servants always.

They replied, “If you want to serve your people well, speak kindly to those men when you reply to them. If you do that, your people will always serve you faithfully.”

8 But he left the counsel of the old men, which they had given him, and consulted with the young men, that had been brought up with him, and stood before him.

But he ignored what the older men advised him to do. Instead, he consulted the younger men who had grown up with him, who were now (his advisors/the ones who told him what would be good to do).

9 And he said to them: What counsel do you give me, that I may answer this people, who have said to me: Make the yoke which thy father put upon us lighter?

He said to them, “What should I say to the men who are asking me to reduce the [work and taxes] that my father required from them?”

10 And the young men that had been brought up with him, said: Thus shalt thou speak to this people, who have spoken to thee, saying: Thy father made our yoke heavy, do thou ease us. Thou shalt say to them: My little finger is thicker than the back of my father.

They replied, “This is what you should tell them: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist.

11 And now my father put a, heavy yoke upon you, but I will add to your yoke: my father beat you with whips, but I will beat you with scorpions.

What I mean is that my father required you [to work hard and pay high taxes]. But I will make those loads heavier. [It was as though] my father whipped you, but [it will be as though] I will whip you with whips that have pieces of metal in them.’”

12 So Jeroboam and all the people came to Roboam the third day, as the king had appointed, saying: Come to me again the third day.

So three days later, Jeroboam and all the leaders came to Rehoboam again, as he had told them to do.

13 And the king answered the people roughly, leaving the counsel of the old men, which they had given him,

The king ignored the advice of the older men and spoke harshly to the Israeli leaders.

14 And he 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 beat you with whips, but I will beat you with scorpions.

[He told them what the younger men had advised.] He said, “My father put heavy burdens [of work and taxes] on you, but I will put heavier burdens on you. [It was as though] he beat you with whips, but I will beat you with whips that have pieces of metal in them!”

15 And the king condescended not to the people: for the Lord was turned away from him, to make good his word, which he had spoken in the hand of Ahias the Silonite, to Jeroboam the son of Nabat.

So the king did not pay any attention to the Israeli leaders. But this happened in order that what Yahweh wanted would occur, what he had told the prophet Ahijah about Jeroboam [becoming king of the ten tribes].

16 Then the people seeing that the king would not hearken to them, answered him, saying: What portion have we in David? or what inheritance in the son of Isai? Go home to thy dwellings, O Israel, now David look to thy own house. So Israel departed to their dwellings.

When the Israeli leaders realized that the king did not pay any attention to what they said, they shouted, “We do not [RHQ] want anything to do with this descendant of King David! We will not pay attention to what this grandson of Jesse says! You people of Israel, let’s go home! As for this descendant of David [MTY], he can rule his own kingdom [MTY]!” So the Israeli leaders returned to their homes.

17 But as for all the children of Israel that dwelt in the cities of Juda, Roboam reigned over them.

And [after that, ] the [only Israeli] people whom Rehoboam ruled over were those who lived in the territory of [the tribe of] Judah.

18 Then king Roboam sent Aduram, who was over the tribute: and all Israel stoned him, and he died. Wherefore king Roboam made haste to get him up into his chariot, and he fled to Jerusalem:

Then King Rehoboam sent Adoniram [to talk to the Israeli people]. Adoniram was the man who supervised [all the men who were] forced to work [for Rehoboam]. But the Israeli people killed him by throwing stones at him. When that happened, King Rehoboam quickly got in his chariot and escaped to Jerusalem.

19 And Israel revolted from the house of David, unto this day.

Ever since that time, the people of [the northern tribes of] Israel have been rebelling against the descendants [MTY] of [King] David.

20 And it came to pass when all Israel heard that Jeroboam was come again, that they gathered an assembly, and sent and called him, and made him king over all Israel, and there was none that followed the house of David but the tribe of Juda only.

When the Israeli people heard that Jeroboam had returned [from Egypt], they invited him to come to a meeting, and there they appointed him to be the king of Israel. Only the people of the tribes of Judah [and Benjamin] continued to be loyal to [the kings descended from King] [MTY] David.

21 And Roboam came to Jerusalem, and gathered together all the house of Juda, and the tribe of Benjamin, a hundred four-score thousand chosen men for war, to fight against the house of Israel and to bring the kingdom again under Roboam the son of Solomon.

When Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he gathered 180,000 of the best soldiers from the tribes [MTY] of Judah and Benjamin. He wanted them to fight against the northern tribes of [MTY] Israel [and defeat them], in order that he could [rule all the tribes of] his kingdom again.

22 But the word of the Lord came to Semeias the man of God, saying:

But God spoke to the prophet Shemaiah and said this to him:

23 Speak to Roboam the son of Solomon, the king of Juda, and to all the house of Juda, and Benjamin, and the rest of the people, saying:

“Go and tell this to [Solomon’s son] Rehoboam, the king of Judah, and to all the people of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin and the people from the northern tribe who live in Judah:

24 Thus saith the Lord: You shall not go up nor fight against your brethren the children of Israel: let every man return to his house, for this thing is from me. They hearkened to the word of the Lord, and returned from their journey, as the Lord had commanded them.

‘Yahweh says that you must not go to fight against your own relatives, the people of Israel. All of you must go home. What has happened is what Yahweh wanted to happen.’” [So Shemaiah went and told that to them, ] and they all paid attention to what Yahweh had commanded them to do, and they went home.

25 And Jeroboam built Sichem in mount Ephraim, and dwelt there, and going out from thence he built Phanuel.

Then Jeroboam’s workers built [walls around] Shechem [city] in the hilly area [where the descendants] of Ephraim [lived], and he ruled from there for a while. He and his workers then left there and went to Peniel [town], and they built walls around that town.

26 And Jeroboam said in his heart: Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David,

Then Jeroboam said to himself, “If my people [continue to] go to Jerusalem and offer sacrifices to Yahweh at the temple there, soon they will again become loyal to Rehoboam, the king of Judah [DOU], and they will kill me.”

27 If this people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem: and the heart of this people will turn to their lord Roboam the king of Juda, and they will kill me, and return to him.

28 And finding out a device he made two golden calves, and said to them: Go ye up no more to Jerusalem: Behold thy gods, O Israel, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt.

So he consulted [his advisors, and then he did what they suggested]. He [told his workers to] make gold [statues of] two calves. Then he said to the people, “You have been going to Jerusalem [to worship] for a long time. It is a big trouble for you to continue going there. You people of Israel, look! These statues are the gods that brought our [ancestors] up from Egypt! [So you can worship these, here!]”

29 And he set the one in Bethel, and the other in Dan:

He [told his workers to] place one of the statues in Bethel [city in the south] and one in Dan [city in the north].

30 And this thing became an occasion of sin: for the people went to adore the calf as far as Dan.

So [what Jeroboam did caused] the people [to] sin. Some of them went and worshiped the calf at Bethel, and others went and worshiped the other calf at Dan.

31 And he made temples in the high places, and priests of the lowest of the people, who were not of the sons of Levi.

[Moses had declared that only men from the tribe of Levi would be priests, but] Jeroboam also told his workers to build shrines on hilltops, and then he appointed men who were not from the tribe of Levi to be priests.

32 And he appointed a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, after the manner of the feast that was celebrated in Juda. And going up to the altar, he did in like manner in Bethel, to sacrifice to the calves, which he had made: and he placed in Bethel priests of the high places, which he had made.

He also appointed Adonijah and two priests, Elishama and Jehoram. They had a celebration at the end of October, like the celebration [of Living in Temporary Shelters] that occurred in Judah [each year]. On the altar [that they built] in Bethel, he offered sacrifices to the gold statues of calves that they had made, and he stationed the priests there at the shrines that his workers had built.

33 And he went up to the altar, which he had built in Bethel, on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, which he had devised of his own heart: and he ordained a feast to the children of Israel, and went upon the altar to burn incense.

Jeroboam went up to that altar on that day in October which he himself had chosen. There on that altar he burned incense [to be a sacrifice]. And he declared that the people should celebrate that festival [on that same day every year].