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1 Kings 12:1-13:34

The revolt of the northern tribes. JEROBOAM king of Israel. (936 BCE) (1Kgs.12.1-20)

12¹Rehoboam then went to Shechem, all Israel having come to Shechem to proclaim him king. ²(As soon as Jeroboam son of Nebat heard the news—he was still in Egypt, where he had taken refuge from King Solomon—he returned from Egypt. ³They now sent for him, and Jeroboam and the whole assembly of Israel came.) And they spoke as follows to Rehoboam, ⁴'Your father laid a cruel yoke on us; if you will lighten your father's cruel slavery, that heavy yoke which he imposed on us, we are willing to serve you.' ⁵He said to them, 'Go away for three days and then come back to me.' And the people went away. ⁶King Rehoboam then consulted the elders who had been in attendance on his father Solomon while he was alive, and said, 'How do you advise me to answer this people?' ⁷They replied, 'If you become the servant of this people today, and submit to them and give them a fair reply, then they will remain your servants for ever.' ⁸But he rejected the advice given him by the elders and consulted the young men in attendance on him, who had grown up with him. ⁹He said, 'How do you advise us to answer these people who have been saying, 'Lighten the yoke which your father imposed on us!'? ' ¹⁰The young men who had grown up with him replied, 'This is the way to answer these people who have been saying, 'Your father made our yoke heavy, you must lighten it for us!' This is the right thing to say to them, 'My little finger is thicker than my father's loins. ¹¹Although my father laid a heavy yoke on you, I shall make it heavier still. My father controlled you with the whip, but I shall apply a spiked lash!' ' ¹²On the third day Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam in obedience to the king's instruction: 'Come back to me in three days' time.' ¹³And the king gave the people a harsh answer, rejecting the advice given him by the elders ¹⁴and speaking to them as the young men had recommended, 'My father made your yoke heavy, I shall make it heavier still! My father controlled you with the whip, but I shall apply a spiked lash!' ¹⁵Thus the king refused to listen to the people, and this was brought about by Yahweh to fulfil the promise which he had made through Ahijah of Shiloh to Jeroboam son of Nebat. ¹⁶When all Israel saw that the king refused to listen to them, the people answered the king thus: What share have we in David? -No heritage in the son of Jesse! Away to your tents, Israel! Now look after your own House, David! So Israel went home again. ¹⁷Rehoboam, however, reigned over those Israelites who lived in the towns of Judah. ¹⁸When King Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was in charge of forced labour, all Israel stoned him to death, while King Rehoboam managed to mount his chariot and escape to Jerusalem. ¹⁹And Israel has remained in rebellion against the House of David from that day to this. ²⁰When all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they summoned him to the assembly and made him king of all Israel; no one remained loyal to the House of David, except the tribe of Judah.

Shemaiah's prophecy. (1Kgs.12.21-24)

²¹When Rehoboam reached Jerusalem he mustered the whole House of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin, a hundred and eighty thousand picked warriors, to fight the House of Israel and win back the kingdom for Rehoboam son of Solomon. ²²But the word of Yahweh came to Shemaiah, man of God, ²³'Say this to Rehoboam son of Solomon, king of Judah, to the whole House of Judah, to Benjamin and to the rest of the people, ²⁴'Yahweh says this: Do not go and make war on your brothers, the Israelites; let everyone go home, for this is my doing.' ' They obeyed the command of Yahweh and turned back in accordance with his word.

Jeroboam turns away from the LORD. (1Kgs.12.25-31)

²⁵Jeroboam fortified Shechem in the mountain country of Ephraim and made that his residence. Then, leaving there, he fortified Penuel. ²⁶Jeroboam thought to himself, 'As things are, the kingdom will revert to the House of David. ²⁷If this people continues to go up to the Temple of Yahweh in Jerusalem to offer sacrifices, the people's heart will turn back again to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah, and they will put me to death.' ²⁸So the king thought this over and then made two golden calves; he said to the people, 'You have been going up to Jerusalem long enough. Here is your God, Israel, who brought you out of Egypt!' ²⁹He set one up at Bethel, ³⁰and the people went in procession in front of the other one all the way to Dan. In Israel this gave rise to sin, for the people went to Bethel to worship the one, and all the way to Dan to worship the other. ³¹He set up shrines on the high places and appointed priests from ordinary families, who were not of Levitical descent.

Worship at Bethel condemned. (1Kgs.12.32-13.10)

³²Jeroboam also instituted a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth of the month, like the feast kept in Judah, when he offered sacrifices on the altar. This he did at Bethel, offering sacrifices to the calves which he had made and, at Bethel, installing the priests of the high places which he had set up. ³³On the fifteenth of the eighth month, the month which he had chosen deliberately, he offered sacrifices on the altar which he had made at Bethel; he instituted a feast for the Israelites and himself went up to the altar to burn the sacrifice. 13¹There came to Bethel at Yahweh's command a man of God from Judah, just as Jeroboam was standing by the altar to offer the sacrifice, ²and at Yahweh's command this man denounced the altar. 'Altar, altar,' he said, 'Yahweh says this, 'A son is to be born to the House of David, Josiah by name, and on you he will slaughter the priests of the high places who have offered sacrifice on you, and on you he will burn human bones.' ' ³At the same time he gave a sign. 'This is the sign', he said, 'that Yahweh has spoken, 'This altar will burst apart and the ashes which are on it will be spilt.' ' ⁴When the king heard how the man of God denounced the altar of Bethel, he stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, 'Seize him!' But the hand he stretched out against the man withered, and he could not draw it back, ⁵and the altar burst apart and the ashes from the altar were spilt, in accordance with the sign given by the man of God at Yahweh's command. ⁶The king said to the man of God, 'I beg you to placate Yahweh your God, and so restore me the use of my hand.' The man of God placated Yahweh; the king's hand was restored as it had been before. ⁷The king then said to the man of God, 'Come home with me and refresh yourself, and I shall give you a present,' ⁸but the man of God replied to the king, 'Were you to give me half your palace, I would not go with you. I will eat and drink nothing here, ⁹for I have had Yahweh's order, 'You are to eat or drink nothing, nor to return by the way you came.' ' ¹⁰And he left by another road and did not return by the way he had come to Bethel.

The old prophet of Bethel. (1Kgs.13.11-32)

¹¹Now there was an old prophet living in Bethel, and his sons came to tell him all that the man of God had done in Bethel that day; and the words which he had said to the king, they told these to their father too. ¹²'Which road did he take?' their father asked. His sons showed him the road which the man of God who came from Judah had taken. ¹³'Saddle the donkey for me,' he said to his sons; they saddled the donkey for him and he mounted. ¹⁴He followed the man of God and found him sitting under a terebinth. 'Are you the man of God', he said, 'who came from Judah?' 'I am,' he replied. ¹⁵'Come home with me,' he said, 'and take some food.' ¹⁶'I cannot go back with you,' he answered, 'or eat or drink anything here, ¹⁷for I have received Yahweh's order, 'You are to eat or drink nothing there, nor to return by the way you came.' ' ¹⁸'I too am a prophet like you,' the other replied, 'and an angel told me this by Yahweh's command, 'Bring him back with you to your house to eat and drink.' ' He was lying to him. ¹⁹The man of God went back with him; he ate and drank at his house. ²⁰As they were sitting at table a word of Yahweh came to the prophet who had brought him back, ²¹and he addressed the man of God who came from Judah. 'Yahweh says this,' he said. ' 'Since you have defied Yahweh's command and not obeyed the orders which Yahweh your God gave you, ²²but have come back and eaten and drunk where he forbade you to eat and drink, your corpse will never reach the tomb of your ancestors.' ' ²³After he had eaten and drunk, the prophet saddled the donkey for him, and he turned about and went away. ²⁴A lion met him on the road and killed him; his corpse lay stretched out on the road; the donkey stood there beside it; the lion stood by the corpse too. ²⁵People going by saw the corpse lying on the road and the lion standing by the corpse, and went and spoke about it in the town where the old prophet lived. ²⁶When the prophet who had made the man turn back heard about it, he said, 'That is the man of God who defied Yahweh's command! Yahweh has handed him over to the lion, which has mauled and killed him, just as Yahweh had foretold it would.' ²⁷He said to his sons, 'Saddle the donkey for me,' and they saddled it. ²⁸He set off and found the man's corpse lying on the road with the donkey and the lion standing beside the corpse; the lion had neither eaten the corpse nor mauled the donkey. ²⁹The prophet lifted the corpse of the man of God and put it on the donkey and brought it back to the town where he lived to hold mourning for him and bury him. ³⁰He laid the corpse in his own tomb, and they raised the mourning cry for him, 'Alas, my brother!' ³¹After burying him, the prophet said to his sons, 'When I die, bury me in the same tomb as the man of God, lay my bones beside his. ³²For the word he uttered at Yahweh's command against the altar of Bethel and against all the shrines of the high places in the towns of Samaria will certainly come true.'

Jeroboam's fatal sin. (1Kgs.13.33-34)

³³Jeroboam did not give up his wicked ways after this incident, but went on appointing priests for the high places from the common people. He consecrated as priests of the high places any who wished to be. ³⁴Such conduct made the House of Jeroboam a sinful House, and caused its ruin and extinction from the face of the earth.