Historical
Rehoboam’s Foolishness
12 Then Rehoboam went to Shechem for all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king. 2 Now when Jeroboam son of Nebat heard about it, he was still in Egypt where he had fled from the face of King Solomon and settled in Egypt. 3 They summoned him, so Jeroboam and all the congregation of Israel came and spoke to Rehoboam saying: 4 “Your father made our yoke burdensome. Now therefore lighten the harsh labor of your father and his heavy yoke which he laid on us and we will serve you.”
5 He said to them: “Go away for three more days and then come back to me.” So the people departed.
6 Then King Rehoboam consulted with the elders who had served his father Solomon while he was still alive, saying, “How do you advise me to respond to these people?”
7 They spoke to him, saying: “If you will be a servant to this people today, serving them, granting them their petition, and speaking favorably to them, then they will be your servants forever.”
8 But he rejected the counsel the elders had given him, instead consulting with the young men who grew up with him and stood before him. 9 So he asked them, “How do you advise me to respond to these people who have spoken to me saying: ‘Lighten the yoke that your father laid on us?’”
10 The young men who had grown up with him spoke to him saying: “Thus you should say to these people who spoke to you saying ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you, make it lighter on us!’ thus you should say to them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins! 11 So now, my father laid on you a heavy yoke, and as for me, I will add to your yoke; my father chastised you with whips, but as for me, I will chastise you with scorpions.’”
12 Then Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day, as the king told them, saying, “Come back to me on the third day.” 13 The king answered the people harshly. He rejected the counsel the elders had given him, 14 and 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 chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.”
Ten Tribes Revolt
15 So the king did not listen to the people. For it was a turn of events from Adonai fulfilling His word, which Adonai spoke by the hand of Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam son of Nebat. 16 But when all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king saying:
“What share have we in David?
No inheritance in Jesse’s son!
To your tents, O Israel!
Now look at your own house, David!”
So the Israelites departed to their tents. 17 But as for the children of Israel who lived in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them. 18 Then King Rehoboam sent Adoram who was over the forced labor, but all Israel stoned him to death. Then King Rehoboam hurried to mount his chariot to flee to Jerusalem. 19 Israel has rebelled against the house of David to this day.
20 Now when all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they summoned him to the assembly and made him king over all Israel. Only the tribe of Judah remained loyal to the house of David. 21 When Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he assembled all the house of Judah as well as the tribe of Benjamin—180,000 select soldiers, to fight against the house of Israel in order to restore the kingship back to Rehoboam son of Solomon.
22 But the word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God, saying: 23 “Speak to Rehoboam 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 Adonai: you are not to go up or fight against your brothers, the children of Israel. Turn back every man to his own house, for this matter is from Me.”
So they heeded the word of Adonai. They turned and went back, according to the word of Adonai.
25 Then Jeroboam rebuilt Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and resided there. From there he went out and built Penuel.[a]
Jeroboam Resorts to Idolatry
26 But Jeroboam said in his heart, “Now the kingdom may return to the house of David. 27 If this people keep going up to offer sacrifices in the House of Adonai at Jerusalem, then the heart of these people will turn back to their lord—to King Rehoboam of Judah. Then they will kill me and return to King Rehoboam of Judah.” 28 So the king sought counsel and made two golden calves. He said to them, “You have been going up to Jerusalem long enough! Here are your gods O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” 29 Then he set up one in Bethel and the other he put in Dan. 30 Now this thing became a sin for the people went to worship before the one even up in Dan.
31 He also made shrines on the high places and appointed priests from among the people, who were not sons of Levi. 32 Then Jeroboam instituted a festival in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, imitating the Festival that is in Judah. He went up to the altar that he built in Bethel, to sacrifice to the calves that he had made. He installed in Bethel the priests of the high places that he made. 33 Then he went up to the altar which he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day in the eighth month—in the month that he had made up from his own heart—and made up a festival for the children of Israel, and went up to the altar to burn incense.
Prophet Against Bethel
13 Unexpectedly, a man of God came from Judah to Bethel with the word of Adonai while Jeroboam was standing by the altar to burn incense. 2 He cried out against the altar with the word of Adonai and said: “O altar, altar, thus says Adonai, behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name, and upon you will he sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and human bones will be burned upon you.’” 3 The same day he gave a sign, saying, “This is the sign that Adonai has spoken, the altar is about to be split apart and the fat ashes on it will be poured out.”
4 Now when the king heard the word of the man of God, which he proclaimed against the altar in Bethel, Jeroboam stretched out his hand from the altar saying: “Seize him!” But the hand which he stretched out against him withered—he could not even draw it back to himself. 5 The altar also was split apart and the fat ashes poured out from the altar, just as was the sign that the man of God gave with the word of Adonai.
6 So the king responded by saying to the man of God: “Please seek the face of Adonai your God, and pray for me, so my hand may be restored to me!” So the man of God sought the face of Adonai and the king’s hand was restored to him, becoming as it was before.
7 Then the king said to the man of God: “Come home with me and have something to eat, and then, I will give you a reward.”
8 But the man of God said to the king: “Even if you give me half your house, I will not go with you nor will I eat bread or drink water in this place. 9 For so I was charged by the word of Adonai, saying, ‘You are to eat no bread, nor drink water, nor return by the way by which you came.’” 10 So he took another road and did not return by the way he had come to Bethel.
11 Now one old prophet was living in Bethel. His son came and told him all the deeds that the man of God had done that day in Bethel and all the words that he had spoken to the king they related to their father. 12 Then their father asked them: “Which way did he go?” For his sons had seen which way the man of God that came from Judah went.
13 Then he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me!” So they saddled the donkey for him and he rode away on it. 14 Then he went after the man of God and found him sitting under an oak tree. He said to him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?”
“I am,” he said.
15 “Come home with me,” he said to him, “and eat bread!”
16 But he 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 it was said to me by the word of Adonai: You shall eat no bread nor drink water there, nor should you return back by the way by which you came.”
18 So he said to him: “I also am a prophet like you. An angel spoke to me with the word of Adonai saying, ‘Bring him back with you to your house that he may eat bread and drink water.’” (He lied to him.) [b] 19 So he went back with him and ate bread in his house and drank water.
20 Now while they were sitting at the table, the word of Adonai came to the prophet who had brought him back, 21 and he cried to the man of God that came from Judah saying, “Thus says Adonai: Because you rebelled against the word of Adonai, and did not keep the commandment which Adonai your God commanded you, 22 but turned back, ate bread and drank water in the place of which He said to you, ‘Eat no bread and drink no water,’ your carcass will not enter the tomb of your fathers.”
23 So after he had eaten bread and after he had drunk, he saddled the donkey for him, for the prophet he had brought back. 24 But when he was gone, a lion met him along the way and killed him. So his carcass was thrown on the road with both the donkey and the lion standing beside the carcass. 25 Then, men passed by and saw the carcass thrown on the road with the lion standing by the carcass. So they came and told it in the town where the old prophet lived. 26 Now when the prophet who had brought him back from the road heard it, he said: “It is the man of God who defied the word of Adonai; therefore Adonai gave him to the lion which mauled him and killed him, according to the word Adonai spoke to him.”
27 Then he spoke to his sons saying: “Saddle the donkey for me!” So they saddled it. 28 Then he went and found his carcass lying on the road, with the donkey and the lion standing by the carcass. The lion had not eaten the carcass nor mauled the donkey. 29 Then the prophet picked up the carcass of the man of God, he laid it on the donkey and brought it back to the town of the old prophet to mourn and to bury him. 30 He laid his carcass in his own tomb and they mourned over him saying, “Oy, my brother!” 31 After burying him, he said to his sons, “When I die, bury me in the tomb where the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones. 32 For the message he declared by the word of Adonai against the altar in Bethel, and against all the shrines of the high places which are in the towns of Samaria, will surely come to pass.”
33 Even after this, Jeroboam did not turn back from his evil way, but once again, he appointed priests for the high places from among all ranks of the people. Whoever wanted to be a priest, he consecrated him for the high places. 34 So this matter became sin against the house of Jeroboam, in the end, wiping it out and destroying it from the face of the earth.
Curse on House of Jeroboam
14 At that time, Abijah, Jeroboam’s son fell sick. 2 Jeroboam said to his wife, “Please go disguise yourself, so they won’t recognize you as Jeroboam’s wife, and go to Shiloh. Look, the prophet Ahijah who told me that I would be king over these people is there. 3 Take with you ten loaves, biscuits and a jar of honey, and go to him. He will tell you what will happen to the boy.”
4 Jeroboam’s wife did so. She got up and went to Shiloh, and came to the house of Ahijah. Now Ahijah could not see for his eyes were dim because of his age. 5 Adonai had said to Ahijah, “Look! Jeroboam’s wife is coming to ask you about her son, for he is sick. You are to say such and such to her, for she will be in disguise.”
6 As soon as Ahijah heard the sound of her feet as she came through the door, he said, “Come in, wife of Jeroboam. Why this disguise? But I have been sent to you with a difficult message. 7 Go tell Jeroboam, thus says Adonai, God of Israel: ‘I raised you up from among the people and made you leader over My people Israel. 8 I tore the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it you. Yet you have not been like My servant David who kept My commandments and followed Me with all his heart, doing only what was right in My eyes. 9 Instead you have done more evil than all who were before you, and have gone and made yourself other gods—molten images to vex Me—and have cast Me behind your back. 10 Therefore, I am about to bring evil on the house of Jeroboam. I will cut off to Jeroboam even one man, bond and free, in Israel. I will burn up the house of Jeroboam as one burns the dung until it is all gone. 11 Anyone who belongs to Jeroboam and dies in the city, the dogs will eat, and anyone who dies in the field, the birds of the sky will eat. For Adonai has spoken it.
12 “As for you, arise and go to your house. As soon as you set foot in the town, the boy will die. 13 All Israel will lament over him and bury him, for it is only him of Jeroboam’s house who will be buried, because in him alone, of all Jeroboam’s house, something good was found toward Adonai, the God of Israel.
14 “Moreover Adonai will raise up for Himself a king over Israel who will cut off the house of Jeroboam that day. So now, what else? 15 Adonai will strike Israel until it sways like a reed in the water. He will uproot Israel from this good land that He gave to their fathers, and will scatter them beyond the River, because they have made their Asherah poles, provoking Adonai. 16 So He will give up Israel because of the sins of Jeroboam which he committed, and caused Israel to commit.”
17 Then Jeroboam’s wife got up, left and went to Tirzah. As soon as she stepped over the threshold of the house, the child died. 18 They buried him and all Israel lamented over him, just as was the word of Adonai that He spoke through His servant Ahijah the prophet.
19 As for the rest of the deeds of Jeroboam, how he made war and how he reigned, behold, they are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. 20 The days that Jeroboam reigned were 22 years and then he slept with his fathers. His son Nadab reigned in his place.
Idolatry and Consequences
21 Meanwhile Rehoboam son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was 41 years old when he became king, and he reigned 17 years in Jerusalem—the city where Adonai had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel to put His Name. His mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonitess.
22 Judah did what was evil in Adonai’s eyes. They provoked Him to jealousy with more than all that their forefathers had done with the sins that they committed. 23 They also built for themselves high places, sacred pillars and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every leafy tree; 24 and there were also male cult prostitutes in the land. They did the same abominations as those of the nations that Adonai had driven out before the children of Israel.
25 Now it came to pass in the fifth year of King Rehoboam, King Shishak of Egypt marched against Jerusalem. 26 He took away the treasures of the House of Adonai and the treasures of the royal palace. He took away everything—even taking all the golden shields that Solomon had made. 27 So King Rehoboam made in their place bronze shields and committed them to the hands of the captains of the guard, watching over the doorway of the royal palace. 28 Whenever the king went to the House of Adonai, the guard would carry them and bring them back into the guardroom.
29 Now the rest of the deeds of Rehoboam and all that he did—are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? 30 There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam continually. 31 Then Rehoboam slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. His mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonite. Then his son Abijam became king in his place.
Tree of Life (TLV) Translation of the Bible. Copyright © 2015 by The Messianic Jewish Family Bible Society.