VIN(i)
1 Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king.
2 Nebat's son Jeroboam heard about it while he was still in Egypt, where he had fled to get away from King Solomon. Jeroboam returned from Egypt
3 and they sent and called him), Jeroboam and all the assembly of Israel came, and spoke to Rehoboam, saying,
4 Your father made our yoke hard. And now lighten the hard service of your father, and the heavy yoke which he put on us, and we will serve you.
5 And he said to them, Go away for three days and then come back to me again. So the people went away.
6 Then King Rehoboam consulted the elders who used to stand before Solomon his father, while he yet lived, saying,—How do, ye, advise, that I answer this people?
7 They said to him: "If you will be a servant to this people today, caring for them and giving them a favorable answer, then they will be your servants for ever."
8 But he rejected the advice of the old men, which they gave him, and he consulted with the youngsters who had grown up with him, who were serving before him.
9 He said to them, "What are you advising that we should reply to this people who spoke to me by saying, 'Lighten the yoke your father put on us.'"
10 The young men who had grown up with him said to him, “Tell these people who spoke to you, saying, 'Your father made our yoke heavy, but make it lighter to us;' tell them, 'My little finger is thicker than my father's waist.
11 and now, my father laid on you a heavy yoke, and I add to your yoke; my father chastised you with whips, and I--I chastise you with scorpions..
12 And they came, Jeroboam and all the people, to Rehoboam on the third day, as the king had spoken, saying, Come back to me on the third day.
13 the king answered the people churlishly and left the advice that old men gave him:
14 and spoke to them, in the manner the young men advised, saying, My father made your yoke heavy but I will add to your yoke. My father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.
15 The king would not listen to the people because the turn of events was from the LORD, to fulfill his prediction that the LORD spoke through Nebat's son Ahijah the Shilonite.
16 When all of Israel saw that the king would not listen to them, the people answered the king, saying, "What share do we have in David? There is no inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, Israel! Now look to your house, David!" Then Israel went to their tents.
17 But, as for the sons of Israel who were dwelling in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them.
18 King Rehoboam sent Hadoram, who was in charge of conscripted labor, but all of Israel stoned him to death, and King Rehoboam had to jump in his chariot and flee back in a hurry to Jerusalem.
19 Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day.
20 When all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they sent and called him to the congregation, and made him king over all Israel. There was no one who followed David’s house, except for the tribe of Judah only.
21 And, when Rehoboam entered Jerusalem, he called together all the house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin—a hundred and eighty thousand chosen men, able to make war,—to fight against the house of Israel, to bring back the kingdom to Rehoboam, son of Solomon.
22 But the word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God, saying,
23 Speak to Rehoboam son of Solomon king of Judah, and to all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people! saying,
24 Thus says LORD, Ye shall not go up, nor fight against your brothers the sons of Israel. Return every man to his house, for this thing is of me. So they hearkened to the word of LORD, and returned and went their way according to the
25 Later on, Jeroboam fortified Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. He also expanded from there and built Penuel.
26 Then Jeroboam said to himself, "Now the kingdom will return to the house of David
27 If this people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem: and the heart of this people will turn to their lord Roboam, the king of Juda, and they will kill me, and return to him.
28 And the king took counsel, and went, and made two golden heifers, and said to the people, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold, here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
29 And he put one in Beth-el and the other in Dan.
30 This thing became a sin; for the people went even as far as Dan to worship before the one there.
31 Then he built the houses on the high places, and he appointed priests from all walks of life who were not from the sons of Levi.
32 And Jeroboam made a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like the feast that is in Judah and he went up to 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 Then, on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, he went up to burn incense on the altar that he had set up in Bethel, thus beginning the feast that he had made up out of his own heart for the Israelites.