The Northern Tribes Revolt

¹Rehoboam went to Shechem, where all the people of northern Israel had gathered to make him king.

²When Jeroboam son of Nebat, who had gone to Egypt to escape from King Solomon, heard this news, he returned from Egypt.

³The people of the northern tribes sent for him, and then they all went together to Rehoboam and said to him,

⁴“Your father Solomon treated us harshly and placed heavy burdens on us. If you make these burdens lighter and make life easier for us, we will be your loyal subjects.”

⁵“Come back in three days and I will give you my answer,” he replied. So they left.

⁶King Rehoboam consulted the older men who had served as his father Solomon's advisers. “What answer do you advise me to give these people?” he asked.

⁷They replied, “If you want to serve this people well, give a favorable answer to their request, and they will always serve you loyally.”

⁸But he ignored the advice of the older men and went instead to the young men who had grown up with him and who were now his advisers.

⁹“What do you advise me to do?” he asked. “What shall I say to the people who are asking me to make their burdens lighter?”

¹⁰They replied, “This is what you should tell them: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father's waist!’

¹¹Tell them, ‘My father placed heavy burdens on you; I will make them even heavier. He beat you with whips; I'll flog you with bullwhips!’”

¹²Three days later Jeroboam and all the people returned to King Rehoboam, as he had instructed them.

¹³The king ignored the advice of the older men and spoke harshly to the people,

¹⁴as the younger men had advised. He said, “My father placed heavy burdens on you; I will make them even heavier. He beat you with whips; I'll flog you with bullwhips!”

¹⁵It was the will of the Lord to bring about what he had spoken to Jeroboam son of Nebat through the prophet Ahijah from Shiloh. This is why the king did not pay any attention to the people.

¹⁶When the people saw that the king would not listen to them, they shouted, “Down with David and his family! What have they ever done for us? People of Israel, let's go home! Let Rehoboam look out for himself!” So the people of Israel rebelled,

¹⁷leaving Rehoboam as king only of the people who lived in the territory of Judah.

¹⁸Then King Rehoboam sent Adoniram, who was in charge of the forced labor, to go to the Israelites, but they stoned him to death. At this, Rehoboam hurriedly got in his chariot and escaped to Jerusalem.

¹⁹Ever since that time the people of the northern kingdom of Israel have been in rebellion against the dynasty of David.

²⁰When the people of Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned from Egypt, they invited him to a meeting of the people and made him king of Israel. Only the tribe of Judah remained loyal to David's descendants.

Shemaiah's Prophecy

²¹When Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he called together 180,000 of the best soldiers from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. He intended to go to war and restore his control over the northern tribes of Israel.

²²But God told the prophet Shemaiah

²³to give this message to Rehoboam and to all the people of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin:

²⁴“Do not attack your own relatives, the people of Israel. Go home, all of you. What has happened is my will.” They all obeyed the Lord's command and went back home.

Jeroboam Turns Away from God

²⁵King Jeroboam of Israel fortified the town of Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there for a while. Then he left and fortified the town of Penuel.

^26-27He said to himself, “As things are now, if my people go to Jerusalem and offer sacrifices to the Lord in the Temple there, they will transfer their allegiance to King Rehoboam of Judah and will kill me.”

²⁸After thinking it over, he made two bull-calves of gold and said to his people, “You have been going long enough to Jerusalem to worship. People of Israel, here are your gods who brought you out of Egypt!”

²⁹He placed one of the gold bull-calves in Bethel and the other in Dan.

³⁰And so the people sinned, going to worship in Bethel and in Dan.

³¹Jeroboam also built places of worship on hilltops, and he chose priests from families who were not of the tribe of Levi.

Worship at Bethel Is Condemned

³²Jeroboam also instituted a religious festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the festival in Judah. On the altar in Bethel he offered sacrifices to the gold bull-calves he had made, and he placed there in Bethel the priests serving at the places of worship he had built.

³³And on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, the day that he himself had set, he went to Bethel and offered a sacrifice on the altar in celebration of the festival he had instituted for the people of Israel.

The Northern Tribes Revolt

¹Rehoboam went to Shechem, where all the people of northern Israel had gathered to make him king.

²When Jeroboam son of Nebat, who had gone to Egypt to escape from King Solomon, heard this news, he returned home.

³The people of the northern tribes sent for him, and they all went together to Rehoboam and said to him,

⁴“Your father placed heavy burdens on us. If you make these burdens lighter and make life easier for us, we will be your loyal subjects.”

⁵Rehoboam replied, “Give me three days to consider the matter. Then come back.” So the people left.

⁶King Rehoboam consulted the older men who had served as his father Solomon's advisers. “What answer do you advise me to give these people?” he asked.

⁷They replied, “If you are kind to these people and try to please them by giving a considerate answer, they will always serve you loyally.”

⁸But he ignored the advice of the older men and went instead to the young men who had grown up with him and who were now his advisers.

⁹“What do you advise me to do?” he asked. “What shall I say to the people who are asking me to make their burdens lighter?”

¹⁰They replied, “This is what you should tell them: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father's waist.’

¹¹Tell them, ‘My father placed heavy burdens on you; I will make them even heavier. He beat you with whips; I'll flog you with bullwhips!’”

¹²Three days later Jeroboam and all the people returned to King Rehoboam, as he had instructed them.

¹³The king ignored the advice of the older men and spoke harshly to the people,

¹⁴as the younger men had advised. He said, “My father placed heavy burdens on you; I will make them even heavier. He beat you with whips; I'll flog you with bullwhips!”

¹⁵It was the will of the Lord God to bring about what he had spoken to Jeroboam son of Nebat through the prophet Ahijah from Shiloh. This is why the king did not pay any attention to the people.

¹⁶When the people saw that the king would not listen to them, they shouted, “Down with David and his family! What have they ever done for us? People of Israel, let's go home! Let Rehoboam look out for himself!” So the people of Israel rebelled,

¹⁷leaving Rehoboam as king only of the people who lived in the territory of Judah.

¹⁸Then King Rehoboam sent Adoniram, who was in charge of the forced labor, to go to the Israelites, but they stoned him to death. At this, Rehoboam hurriedly got in his chariot and escaped to Jerusalem.

¹⁹Ever since that time the people of the northern kingdom of Israel have been in rebellion against the dynasty of David.

Shemaiah's Prophecy

¹When King Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he called together 180,000 of the best soldiers from the tribes of Benjamin and Judah. He intended to go to war and restore his control over the northern tribes of Israel.

²But the Lord told the prophet Shemaiah

³to give this message to King Rehoboam and to all the people of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin:

⁴“Do not attack your own relatives. Go home, all of you. What has happened is my will.” They obeyed the Lord's command and did not go to fight Jeroboam.

Rehoboam Fortifies the Cities

⁵Rehoboam remained in Jerusalem and had fortifications built for the following cities of Judah and Benjamin:

⁶Bethlehem, Etam, Tekoa,

⁷Bethzur, Soco, Adullam,

⁸Gath, Mareshah, Ziph,

⁹Adoraim, Lachish, Azekah,

¹⁰Zorah, Aijalon, and Hebron.

¹¹He had them strongly fortified and appointed a commander for each of them, and in each one he placed supplies of food, olive oil, and wine,

¹²and also shields and spears. In this way he kept Judah and Benjamin under his control.

Priests and Levites Come to Judah

¹³From all the territory of Israel priests and Levites came south to Judah.

¹⁴The Levites abandoned their pastures and other land and moved to Judah and Jerusalem, because King Jeroboam of Israel and his successors would not let them serve as priests of the Lord.

¹⁵Jeroboam appointed priests of his own to serve at the pagan places of worship and to worship demons and the idols he made in the form of bull-calves.

¹⁶From all the tribes of Israel people who sincerely wanted to worship the Lord, the God of Israel, followed the Levites to Jerusalem, so that they could offer sacrifices to the Lord, the God of their ancestors.

¹⁷This strengthened the kingdom of Judah, and for three years they supported Rehoboam son of Solomon and lived as they had under the rule of King David and King Solomon.

Rehoboam's Family

¹⁸Rehoboam married Mahalath, whose father was Jerimoth son of David and whose mother was Abihail, the daughter of Eliab and granddaughter of Jesse.

¹⁹They had three sons, Jeush, Shemariah, and Zaham.

²⁰Later he married Maacah, the daughter of Absalom, and they had four sons: Abijah, Attai, Ziza, and Shelomith.

²¹In all, Rehoboam had eighteen wives and sixty concubines, and he fathered twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters. Of all his wives and concubines he loved Maacah best,

²²and he favored her son Abijah over all his other children, choosing him as the one to succeed him as king.

²³Rehoboam wisely assigned responsibilities to his sons and stationed them throughout Judah and Benjamin in the fortified cities. He provided generously for them and also secured many wives for them.

¹The most beautiful of songs, by Solomon.

The Woman

²Your lips cover me with kisses; your love is better than wine.

³There is a fragrance about you; the sound of your name recalls it. No woman could keep from loving you.

⁴Take me with you, and we'll run away; be my king and take me to your room. We will be happy together, drink deep, and lose ourselves in love. No wonder all women love you!

⁵Women of Jerusalem, I am dark but beautiful, dark as the desert tents of Kedar, but beautiful as the draperies in Solomon's palace.

⁶Don't look down on me because of my color, because the sun has tanned me. My brothers were angry with me and made me work in the vineyard. I had no time to care for myself.

⁷Tell me, my love, Where will you lead your flock to graze? Where will they rest from the noonday sun? Why should I need to look for you among the flocks of the other shepherds?

The Man

⁸Don't you know the place, loveliest of women? Go and follow the flock; find pasture for your goats near the tents of the shepherds.

⁹You, my love, excite men as a mare excites the stallions of Pharaoh's chariots.

¹⁰Your hair is beautiful upon your cheeks and falls along your neck like jewels.

¹¹But we will make for you a chain of gold with ornaments of silver.

The Woman

¹²My king was lying on his couch, and my perfume filled the air with fragrance.

¹³My lover has the scent of myrrh as he lies upon my breasts.

¹⁴My lover is like the wild flowers that bloom in the vineyards at Engedi.

The Man

¹⁵How beautiful you are, my love; how your eyes shine with love!

The Woman

¹⁶How handsome you are, my dearest; how you delight me! The green grass will be our bed;

¹⁷the cedars will be the beams of our house, and the cypress trees the ceiling.