First Kings Chapter 12
1 Rehoboam went to Shechem. For all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king.
2 When Jeroboam the son of Nebat, heard, he being still in Egypt. For he had fled from the presence of King Solomon, and Jeroboam lived in Egypt;
3 they called him. And Jeroboam and all the congregation of Israel came and spoke to Rehoboam saying,
4 your father made our yoke hard. Now lighten the hard service of your father, and the heavy yoke that he put on us, and we will serve you.
5 He said to them, Go. Yet in three days come back to me. So the people went away.
6 King Rehoboam talked with the old men who had stood before Solomon his father while he still lived and said, How do you advise to return a word to this people?
7 They spoke to him saying, If you will be a servant to this people today, and will serve them and answer them, and speak good words to them, then they will be your servants forever.
8 But he left the counsel of the old men who had advised him, and talked with the young men who had grown up with him, who stood before him.
9 He said to them, What advice do you give that we may answer this people who have spoken to me saying, Lighten the yoke that your father put on us?
10 The young men who had grown up with him spoke to him saying, So shall you speak to this people who spoke to you saying, Your father made our yoke heavy, but you make it lighter for us, so you shall say to them: My little finger will be thicker than my father's body⁺.
11 Now my father loaded you with a heavy yoke, and I will add to your yoke. My father has whipped you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.
12 They came, Jeroboam and all the people, to Rehoboam the third day, as the king had appointed saying, Come to me again the third day.
13 The king answered the people roughly, and left the old men's advice that they advised him,
14 and spoke to them according to the advice of the young men saying, my father made your yoke heavy, and I will add to your yoke. My father whipped you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.
15 The king did not listen to the people, for the cause was from the Lord, that He might perform His saying that the Lord spoke by Ahijah of Shiloh to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.
16 All Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, and the people answered the king saying, What part do we have in David? Yes, there is no inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, O Israel. Now see to your house, O David. And Israel went to its tents.
17 As for the children of Israel, those living in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them.
18 King Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was over the tribute. Then all Israel stoned him with stones so that he died and King Rehoboam hurried to get into a chariot to flee to Jerusalem.
19 Israel rebelled against the house of David to this day.
20 When all Israel heard that Jeroboam had come again, they called him to the company, and made him king over all Israel. There was none who followed the house of David, but the tribe of Judah only.
21 When Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, and he gathered all the house of Judah with the tribe of Benjamin, 180,000 warriors, to fight against the house of Israel, to bring the kingdom again to Rehoboam the son of Solomon.
22 But the Word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God saying,
23 Speak to Rehoboam the son of King Solomon of Judah, and to all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people saying,
24 Thus says the Lord, You shall not go up nor fight against your brothers the children of Israel. Each man return to his house. For this is from me. They listened to the Word of the Lord and turned to go back, according to the Word of the Lord.
25 Jeroboam built Shechem in mount Ephraim and lived in it and left from there and built Penuel.
26 Jeroboam said in his heart, Now the kingdom shall return to the house of David.
27 If this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again to their lord, to King Rehoboam of Judah, and they shall kill me and go again to King Rehoboam of Judah.
28 The king took counsel, and made two calves of gold and said to them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
29 He set the one in Bethel, and he put the other in Dan.
30 This thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one, even to Dan.
31 He made a house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people, who were not the sons of Levi.
32 Jeroboam ordered a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like the feast that is in Judah. And he offered on the altar. So he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he had made. And he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places that he had made.
33 He offered on the altar that he had made in Bethel the fifteenth day of the eighth month, in the month that he had devised out of his own heart. And he ordered a feast for the children of Israel. And he offered on the altar, and burned incense.