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UST by section 1 KI 12:1

1 KI 12:1–12:33 ©

The First Book of Kings 12

12Leaders from all the tribes of Israel went to the city of Shechem in order to appoint Rehoboam as their king. So Rehoboam also went there. 2Jeroboam had fled to Egypt to escape from Solomon, and he had settled there. He learned in Egypt that Solomon had died. 3The Israelite leaders asked him to come back to Israel, and he did. They went together to speak with Rehoboam. They told him, 4”Your father Solomon forced us to work very hard, but if you allow us to work less hard, then we will agree to be your subjects.” 5He replied, “Go away for a couple of days to give me some time to consider that. Then come back and I will give you my answer.” So those leaders and Jeroboam left.

6Then King Rehoboam asked for advice from the older men who had been officials of his father Solomon while he was still living. He asked them, “What do you think I should say in response to what these Israelite leaders have asked me to do?” 7They replied, “We recommend that on this occasion, you humble yourself and do what they have asked. Speak kindly to them when you reply to them. If you do that, they will always be your loyal subjects.” 8But Rehoboam decided not to do what the older men had advised him to do. Instead, he asked for advice from the younger men who had been his friends since they were boys and who were now his advisors. 9He asked them, “What do you think we should say in response to these Israelite leaders who have asked me to allow them to work less hard than my father required them to work?” 10Those young men who were his boyhood friends replied, “This is what you should tell these people who asked you to allow them to work less hard than your father required them to work: ‘I am a harsher man than my father was. 11This is my answer to you. My father required you to work hard. But I am going to make you work even harder. My father had his overseers discipline you Israelite workers harshly. But I am going to have them discipline you even more harshly.’ ”

12A couple of days after Jeroboam and the Israelite leaders first met with Rehoboam, they came to speak with him again, which is what he had told them to do. 13The king disregarded the advice that the older men had given him. Instead, he spoke roughly to the Israelite leaders. 14He told them what the younger men had advised him to say. He said, “My father required you to work hard. But I am going to make you work even harder. My father had his overseers discipline you Israelite workers harshly. But I am going to have them discipline you even more harshly.” 15So the king did not do what the Israelite leaders wanted him to do. That was because Yahweh caused him to refuse their request. In that way, Yahweh made happen what he had told Jeroboam son of Nebat through the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite.

16When the Israelite leaders realized that Rehoboam was not going to do what they had asked, they responded to him by shouting, “We do not want to be subjects of this descendant of King David! We will not accept this grandson of Jesse as our ruler! We Israelites should all go home! As for this descendant of David, he can rule his own tribe!” So the Israelite leaders returned to their homes.

17(After that, the only Israelites who accepted Rehoboam as their king were the members of the tribe of Judah.) 18King Rehoboam had an official whose name was Adoniram. He supervised the men whom Rehoboam forced to work for him. Before the Israelite leaders left, King Rehoboam sent out Adoniram to try to make them obey him. But the Israelite people killed him by throwing stones at him. When that happened, King Rehoboam got into his chariot as fast as he could and escaped to Jerusalem. 19Ever since that time, the people of the northern tribes of Israel have refused to be subjects of descendants of King David. 20When the people of the northern tribes heard that Jeroboam had returned from Egypt, they invited him to come to a gathering of their representatives. There they appointed him to be their king. Only the people of the tribe of Judah continued to be loyal to the kings who were descendants of David.

21When Rehoboam got back to Jerusalem, he gathered 180,000 of the best soldiers from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. He wanted them to fight against soldiers of the northern Israelite tribes and defeat them so that he could rule all of the Israelite tribes again. 22But God spoke to the prophet Shemaiah and said to him, 23“Here is something that I want you to tell Rehoboam son of Solomon, the king of Judah, the army of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, and the people of those tribes. 24Tell them that I say that they must not go to fight against their fellow Israelites. They must all go home. Tell them that this has happened because I wanted it to happen.” So Shemaiah went and told that to them, and they all obeyed what Yahweh had commanded them to do and went home.

25Then Jeroboam told his workers to rebuild walls around the city of Shechem in the hilly area where the tribe of Ephraim lived. He moved to that city and made it his capital. Later he and his workers went from there to the city of Peniel, and they rebuilt the walls around that city to make it a border fortress. 26Then Jeroboam said to himself, “It seems likely that the descendants of David will soon rule all of Israel once again. 27If my subjects continue to go to Jerusalem and offer sacrifices to Yahweh at the temple there, soon they will want Rehoboam to be their king again. Then they will kill me and agree to become his subjects again.” 28So he asked his advisors what they thought he should do, and then he did what they suggested. He told his workers to make two gold statues of calves. Then he told the people whom he ruled, “It would be too difficult for you to keep traveling to Jerusalem to worship. You people of Israel, look! These statues represent the God who rescued our ancestors from slavery in Egypt and you can worship them here!” 29He told his workers to place one of the statues in the city of Bethel in the south of his kingdom and one in the city of Dan in the north. 30What Jeroboam did caused the people of his kingdom to sin because they started worshiping these calves as idols. They would travel all the way to the city of Dan to worship where one of the calves was. 31Jeroboam had his workers build shrines for worship on the top of hills. He also appointed Israelite men from many different tribes to be priests, even though the law of Moses said that only men from the tribe of Levi could be priests. 32Jeroboam also held a celebration like the Festival of Shelters that people celebrated in Judah each year. However, he held it on the fifteenth day of the eighth month rather than on that day in the seventh month, as the law of Moses commanded. He went to Bethel and offered sacrifices to the golden calf statue that he had made and put there. He had the priests whom he had appointed come to Bethel and work in the shrine that his workers had built there. 33Jeroboam offered sacrifices on the altar in that shrine on the fifteenth day of the eighth month. He had chosen that month himself. There on that altar he burned incense as an offering. And he declared that the people should celebrate that festival on that same day every year.

1 KI 12:1–12:33 ©

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