40Solomon sought to put Jeroboam to death, but Jeroboam promptly fled to King Shishak of Egypt; and he remained in Egypt till the death of Solomon.
41The other events of Solomon’s reign, and all his actions and his wisdom, are recorded in the book of the Annals of Solomon. 42The length of Solomon’s reign in Jerusalem, over all Israel, was forty years. 43Solomon slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of his father David; and his son Rehoboam succeeded him as king.
12 Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had come to Shechem to acclaim him as king. 2Jeroboam son of Nebat learned of it while he was still in Egypt; for Jeroboam had fled from King Solomon, a-and had settled in Egypt.-a 3They sent for him; and Jeroboam and all the assembly of Israel came and spoke to Rehoboam as follows: 4“Your father made our yoke heavy. Now lighten the harsh labor and the heavy yoke which your father laid on us, and we will serve you.” 5He answered them, “Go away for three days and then come back to me.” So the people went away.
6King Rehoboam took counsel with the elders who had served his father Solomon during his lifetime. He said, “What answer do you advise [me] to give to this people?” 7They answered him, “If you will be a servant to those people today and serve them, and if you respond to them with kind words, they will be your servants always.” 8But he ignored the advice that the elders gave him, and took counsel with the young men who had grown up with him and were serving him. 9“What,” he asked, “do you advise that we reply to the people who said to me, ‘Lighten the yoke that your father placed upon us’?” 10And the young men who had grown up with him answered, “Speak thus to the people who said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, now you make it lighter for us.’ Say to them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins. 11My father imposed a heavy yoke on you, and I will add to your yoke; my father flogged you with whips, but I will flog you with scorpions.’ ”
12Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day, since the king had told them: “Come back on the third day.” 13The king answered the people harshly, ignoring the advice that the elders had given him. 14He spoke to them in accordance with the advice of the young men, and said, “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke; my father flogged you with whips, but I will flog you with scorpions.” 15(The king did not listen to the people; for the LORD had brought it about in order to fulfill the promise that the LORD had made through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam son of Nebat.) 16When all Israel saw that the king had not listened to them, the people answered the king:
“We have no portion in David,
No share in Jesse’s son!
To your tents, O Israel!
Now look to your own House, O David.”
So the Israelites returned to their homes.b 17But Rehoboam continued to reign over the Israelites who lived in the towns of Judah.
18King Rehoboam sent Adoram,c who was in charge of the forced labor, but all Israel pelted him to death with stones. Thereupon King Rehoboam hurriedly mounted his chariot and fled to Jerusalem. 19Thus Israel revolted against the House of David, as is still the case.
20When all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they sent messengers and summoned him to the assembly and made him king over all Israel. Only the tribe of Judah remained loyal to the House of David.
21On his return to Jerusalem, Rehoboam mustered all the House of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin, 180,000 picked warriors, to fight against the House of Israel, in order to restore the kingship to Rehoboam son of Solomon. 22But the word of God came to Shemaiah, the man of God: 23“Say to King Rehoboam son of Solomon of Judah, and to all the House of Judah and Benjamin and the rest of the people: 24Thus said the LORD: You shall not set out to make war on your kinsmen the Israelites. Let every man return to his home, for this thing has been brought about by Me.” They heeded the word of the LORD and turned back, in accordance with the word of the LORD.
25Jeroboam fortified Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and resided there; he moved out from there and fortified Penuel. 26Jeroboam said to himself, “Now the kingdom may well return to the House of David. 27If these people still go up to offer sacrifices at the House of the LORD in Jerusalem, the heart of these people will turn back to their master, King Rehoboam of Judah; they will kill me and go back to King Rehoboam of Judah.” 28So the king took counsel and made two golden calves. He said to d-the people,-d “You have been going up to Jerusalem long enough. This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!” 29He set up one in Bethel and placed the other in Dan. 30That proved to be a cause of guilt, for the people went to worship [the calf at Bethel and] the one at Dan. 31He also made cult places and appointed priests from the ranks of the people who were not of Levite descent.
32He stationed at Bethel the priests of the shrines that he had appointed to sacrifice to the calves that he had made. And Jeroboam established a festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth month; in imitation of the festival in Judah, he established one at Bethel, and he ascended the altar [there]. 33On the fifteenth day of the eighth month—the month in which he had contrived of his own mind to establish a festival for the Israelites— Jeroboam ascended the altar that he had made in Bethel.
13 As he ascended the altar to present an offering, 1a man of God arrived at Bethel from Judah at the command of the LORD. While Jeroboam was standing on the altara to present the offering, the man of God, at the command of the LORD, cried out against the altar: 2“O altar, altar! Thus said the LORD: A son shall be born to the House of David, Josiah by name; and he shall slaughter upon you the priests of the shrines who bring offerings upon you. And human bones shall be burned upon you.” 3He gave a portent on that day, saying, “Here is the portent that the LORD has decreed: This altar shall break apart, and the ashes on it shall be spilled.” 4When the king heard what the man of God had proclaimed against the altar in Bethel, Jeroboam stretched out his arm above the altar and cried, “Seize him!” But the arm that he stretched out against him became rigid, and he could not draw it back. 5The altar broke apart and its ashes were spilled—the very portent that the man of God had announced at the LORD’s command. 6Then the king spoke up and said to the man of God, “Please entreat the LORD your God and pray for me that I may be able to draw back my arm.” The man of God entreated the LORD and the king was able to draw his arm back; it became as it was before.
7The king said to the man of God, “Come with me to my house and have some refreshment; and I shall give you a gift.” 8But the man of God replied to the king, “Even if you give me half your wealth, I will not go in with you, nor will I eat bread or drink water in this place; 9for so I was commanded by the word of the LORD: You shall eat no bread and drink no water, nor shall you go back by the road by which you came.” 10So he left by another road and did not go back by the road on which he had come to Bethel.
11There was an old prophet living in Bethel; and his sonsb came and told him all the things that the man of God had done that day in Bethel [and] the words that he had spoken to the king. When they told it to their father, 12their father said to them, “Which road did he leave by?” c-His sons had seen-c the road taken by the man of God who had come from Judah. 13“Saddle the ass for me,” he said to his sons. They saddled the ass for him, and he mounted it 14and rode after the man of God. He came upon him sitting under a terebinth and said to him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?” “Yes, I am,” he answered. 15“Come home with me,” he said, “and have something to eat.” 16He replied, “I may not go back with you and enter your home; and I may not eat bread or drink water in this place; 17the order I received by the word of the LORD was: You shall not eat bread or drink water there; nor shall you return by the road on which you came.” 18“I am a prophet, too,” said the other, “and an angel said to me by command of the
