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The Bible1 Kings 12

The Bible

1 Kings 12

1
English · Berean Standard Bible

Then Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had gone there to make him king.

2
English · Berean Standard Bible

When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard about this, he was still in Egypt where he had fled from King Solomon and had been living ever since.

3
English · Berean Standard Bible

So they sent for Jeroboam, and he and the whole assembly of Israel came to Rehoboam and said,

4
English · Berean Standard Bible

“Your father put a heavy yoke on us. But now you must lighten the burden of your father’s service and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you.”

5
English · Berean Standard Bible

Rehoboam answered, “Go away for three days and then return to me.” So the people departed.

6
English · Berean Standard Bible

Then King Rehoboam consulted with the elders who had served his father Solomon during his lifetime. “How do you advise me to respond to these people?” he asked.

7
English · Berean Standard Bible

They replied, “If you will be a servant to these people and serve them this day, and if you will respond by speaking kind words to them, they will be your servants forever.”

8
English · Berean Standard Bible

But Rehoboam rejected the advice of the elders; instead, he consulted the young men who had grown up with him and served him.

9
English · Berean Standard Bible

He asked them, “What message do you advise that we send back to these people who have spoken to me, saying, ‘Lighten the yoke your father put on us’?”

10
English · Berean Standard Bible

The young men who had grown up with him replied, “This is how you should answer these people who said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you must make it lighter.’ This is what you should tell them: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist!

11
English · Berean Standard Bible

Whereas my father burdened you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke. Whereas my father scourged you with whips, I will scourge you with scorpions.’”

12
English · Berean Standard Bible

After three days, Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam, since the king had said, “Come back to me on the third day.”

13
English · Berean Standard Bible

And the king answered the people harshly. He rejected the advice of the elders

14
English · Berean Standard Bible

and spoke to them as the young men had advised, saying, “Whereas my father made your yoke heavy, I will add to your yoke. Whereas my father scourged you with whips, I will scourge you with scorpions.”

15
English · Berean Standard Bible

So the king did not listen to the people, and indeed this turn of events was from the LORD, to fulfill the word He had spoken to Jeroboam son of Nebat through Ahijah the Shilonite.

16
English · Berean Standard Bible

When all Israel saw that the king had refused to listen to them, they answered the king: “What portion do we have in David, and what inheritance in the son of Jesse? To your tents, O Israel! Look now to your own house, O David!” So the Israelites went home,

17
English · Berean Standard Bible

but Rehoboam still reigned over the Israelites living in the cities of Judah.

18
English · Berean Standard Bible

Then King Rehoboam sent out Adoram, who was in charge of the forced labor, but all Israel stoned him to death. And King Rehoboam mounted his chariot in haste and escaped to Jerusalem.

19
English · Berean Standard Bible

So to this day Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David.

20
English · Berean Standard Bible

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 followed the house of David.

21
English · Berean Standard Bible

And when Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he mobilized the whole house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin—180,000 chosen warriors—to fight against the house of Israel and restore the kingdom to Rehoboam son of Solomon.

22
English · Berean Standard Bible

But the word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God:

23
English · Berean Standard Bible

“Tell Rehoboam son of Solomon king of Judah, all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and the rest of the people

24
English · Berean Standard Bible

that this is what the LORD says: ‘You are not to go up and fight against your brothers, the Israelites. Each of you must return home, for this is My doing.’” So they listened to the word of the LORD and turned back according to the word of the LORD.

25
English · Berean Standard Bible

Then Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. And from there he went out and built Penuel.

26
English · Berean Standard Bible

Jeroboam said in his heart, “Now the kingdom might revert to the house of David.

27
English · Berean Standard Bible

If these people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, their hearts will return to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah; then they will kill me and return to Rehoboam king of Judah.”

28
English · Berean Standard Bible

After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves and said to the people, “Going up to Jerusalem is too much for you. Here, O Israel, are your gods, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”

29
English · Berean Standard Bible

One calf he set up in Bethel, and the other in Dan.

30
English · Berean Standard Bible

And this thing became a sin; the people walked as far as Dan to worship before one of the calves.

31
English · Berean Standard Bible

Jeroboam also built shrines on the high places and appointed from every class of people priests who were not Levites.

32
English · Berean Standard Bible

And Jeroboam ordained a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the feast that was in Judah, and he offered sacrifices on the altar; he made this offering in Bethel to sacrifice to the calves he had set up, and he installed priests in Bethel for the high places he had set up.

33
English · Berean Standard Bible

On the fifteenth day of the eighth month, a month of his own choosing, Jeroboam offered sacrifices on the altar he had set up in Bethel. So he ordained a feast for the Israelites, offered sacrifices on the altar, and burned incense.

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Hebrew text: Westminster Leningrad Codex (public domain). Original work of the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible available at https://github.com/openscriptures/morphhb (CC BY 4.0). · Source ↗

Hebrew text: Westminster Leningrad Codex (public domain), from the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible. Original work of the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible available at https://github.com/openscriptures/morphhb (Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International, https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Changes: lemma and morphology markup removed; morpheme separators removed; qere readings shown in [brackets] after the ketiv, which is shown in (parentheses); petucha/setuma marks omitted; verses renumbered to English versification (Psalm titles moved to headings).

The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible, BSB. Dedicated to the public domain. · Source ↗

The Holy Bible, King James Version (Authorized Version), standard text of 1769; electronic text courtesy of eBible.org and the CrossWire Bible Society. Public domain outside the United Kingdom. In the UK, rights in the Authorized Version are vested in the Crown under Letters Patent, administered by Cambridge University Press. · Source ↗

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