1 Kings 12

1 And Rehoboam goes to Shechem, for all Israel has come to Shechem to make him king.

2 And it comes to pass, at Jeroboam son of Nebat’s hearing (and he [is] yet in Egypt where he has fled from the presence of Solomon the king, and Jeroboam dwells in Egypt),

3 that they send and call for him; and they come—Jeroboam and all the assembly of Israel—and speak to Rehoboam, saying,

4 “Your father hardened our yoke, and you, now, lighten [some] of the hard service of your father, and his heavy yoke that he put on us, and we serve you.”

5 And he says to them, “Yet go [for] three days, and come back to me”; and the people go.

6 And King Rehoboam consults with the elderly who have been standing in the presence of his father Solomon, in his being alive, saying, “How are you counseling to answer this people?”

7 And they speak to him, saying, “If, today, you are a servant of this people, and have served them, and answered them, and spoken good words to them, then they have been servants to you [for] all the days.”

8 And he forsakes the counsel of the elderly which they counseled him, and consults with the boys who have grown up with him, who are standing before him;

9 and he says to them, “What are you counseling, and we answer this people, who have spoken to me, saying, Lighten [some] of the yoke that your father put on us?”

10 And they speak to him—the boys who had grown up with him—saying, “Thus you say to this people who have spoken to you, saying, Your father made our yoke heavy, and you, make [it] light on us; thus you speak to them, My little [finger] is thicker than the loins of my father;

11 and now, my father laid a heavy yoke on you, and I add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, and I discipline you with scorpions.”

12 And they come—Jeroboam and all the people—to Rehoboam, on the third day, as the king had spoken, saying, “Come back to me on the third day.”

13 And the king answers the people sharply, and forsakes the counsel of the elderly which they counseled him,

14 and speaks to them, according to the counsel of the boys, saying, “My father made your yoke heavy, and I add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, and I discipline you with scorpions”;

15 and the king did not listen to the people, for the revolution was from YHWH, in order to establish His word that YHWH spoke by the hand of Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam son of Nebat.

16 And all Israel sees that the king has not listened to them, and the people send the king back word, saying, “What portion do we have in David? Indeed, there is no inheritance in the son of Jesse; [return] to your tents, O Israel; now see your house, O David!” And Israel goes to its tents.

17 As for the sons of Israel, those dwelling in the cities of Judah—Rehoboam reigns over them.

18 And King Rehoboam sends Adoram who [is] over the tribute, and all Israel casts stones at him, and he dies; and King Rehoboam has strengthened himself to go up into a chariot to flee to Jerusalem;

19 and Israel transgresses against the house of David to this day.

20 And it comes to pass, at all Israel hearing that Jeroboam has returned, that they send and call him to the congregation, and cause him to reign over all Israel; none has been after the house of David except the tribe of Judah alone.

21 And Rehoboam comes to Jerusalem, and assembles all the house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin, one hundred and eighty thousand chosen warriors, to fight with the house of Israel, to bring back the kingdom to Rehoboam son of Solomon.

22 And the word of God is to Shemaiah a man of God, saying,

23 “Speak to Rehoboam son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and the rest of the people, saying,

24 Thus said YHWH: You do not go up nor fight with your brothers the sons of Israel; let each return to his house, for this thing has been from Me”; and they hear the word of YHWH, and turn back to go according to the word of YHWH.

25 And Jeroboam builds Shechem in the hill-country of Ephraim, and dwells in it, and goes out there, and builds Penuel;

26 and Jeroboam says in his heart, “Now the kingdom turns back to the house of David—

27 if this people goes up to make sacrifices in the house of YHWH in Jerusalem, then the heart of this people has turned back to their lord, to Rehoboam king of Judah, and they have slain me, and turned back to Rehoboam king of Judah.”

28 And the king takes counsel, and makes two calves of gold, and says to them, “Enough of you from going up to Jerusalem; behold, your gods, O Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”

29 And he sets the one in Beth-El, and the other he has put in Dan,

30 and this thing becomes a sin, and the people go before the one—to Dan.

31 And he makes the house of high places, and makes priests from the extremities of the people, who were not of the sons of Levi;

32 and Jeroboam makes a festival in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like the festival that [is] in Judah, and he offers on the altar—so he did in Beth-El—to sacrifice to the calves which he made, and he has appointed in Beth-El the priests of the high places that he made.

33 And he offers up on the altar that he made in Beth-El, on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, in the month that he devised from his own heart, and he makes a festival for the sons of Israel, and offers on the altar—to make incense.