Rehoboam's Folly

12 ^(A)Rehoboam went to ^(B)Shechem, for all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king. ² And as soon as ^(C)Jeroboam the son of Nebat heard of it (for ^(D)he was still in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon), then Jeroboam returned from^[a] Egypt. ³ And they sent and called him, and Jeroboam and all the assembly of Israel came and said to Rehoboam, ^4 (E)“Your father made our yoke heavy. Now therefore lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke on us, and we will serve you.” ⁵ He said to them, ^(F)“Go away for three days, then come again to me.” So the people went away.

⁶ Then King Rehoboam took counsel with the old men, who had stood before Solomon his father while he was yet alive, saying, “How do you advise me to answer this people?” ⁷ And they said to him, “If you will be a servant to this people today and serve them, and speak good words to them when you answer them, then they will be your servants forever.” ⁸ But he abandoned the counsel that the old men gave him and took counsel with the young men who had grown up with him and stood before him. ⁹ And he said to them, “What do you advise that we answer this people who have said to me, ‘Lighten the yoke that your father put on us’?” ¹⁰ And the young men who had grown up with him said to him, “Thus shall you speak to this people who said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you lighten it for us,’ thus shall you say to them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father's thighs. ¹¹ And now, whereas ^(G)my father laid on you a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.’”

¹² So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam the third day, as the king said, ^(H)“Come to me again the third day.” ¹³ And the king answered the people harshly, and forsaking the counsel that the old men had given him, ¹⁴ he spoke to them according to the counsel of the young men, saying, ^(I)“My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke. My father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions.” ¹⁵ So the king did not listen to the people, for ^(J)it was a turn of affairs brought about by the Lord that he might fulfill his word, which ^(K)the Lord spoke by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.

The Kingdom Divided

¹⁶ And when all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king, “What portion do we have in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. ^(L)To your tents, O Israel! Look now to your own house, David.” So Israel went to their tents. ¹⁷ But Rehoboam reigned over ^(M)the people of Israel who lived in the cities of Judah. ¹⁸ Then King Rehoboam sent ^(N)Adoram, who was taskmaster over the forced labor, and all Israel stoned him to death with stones. And King Rehoboam hurried to mount his chariot to flee to Jerusalem. ^19 (O)So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day. ²⁰ And when all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they sent and called him to the assembly and made him king over all Israel. There was none that followed the house of David but ^(P)the tribe of Judah only.

^21 (Q)When Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, he assembled all the house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin, 180,000 chosen warriors, to fight against the house of Israel, to restore the kingdom to Rehoboam the son of Solomon. ²² But the word of God came to ^(R)Shemaiah the man of God: ²³ “Say to Rehoboam the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the ^(S)rest of the people, ²⁴ ‘Thus says the Lord, You shall not go up or fight against your relatives the people of Israel. Every man return to his home, ^(T)for this thing is from me.’” So they listened to the word of the Lord and went home again, according to the word of the Lord.

Jeroboam's Golden Calves

²⁵ Then Jeroboam ^(U)built Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. And he went out from there and ^(V)built Penuel. ²⁶ And Jeroboam said in his heart, “Now the kingdom will turn back to the house of David. ²⁷ If this people ^(W)go up to offer sacrifices in the temple of the Lord at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will turn again to their lord, to Rehoboam king of Judah, and they will kill me and return to Rehoboam king of Judah.” ²⁸ So the king took counsel and ^(X)made two calves of gold. And he said to the people, “You have gone up to Jerusalem long enough. ^(Y)Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” ²⁹ And he set one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. ³⁰ Then ^(Z)this thing became a sin, for the people went as far as Dan to be before one.^{[b] 31} He also made ^(AA)temples on high places and ^(AB)appointed priests from among all the people, who were not of the Levites. ³² And Jeroboam appointed a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month like ^(AC)the feast that was in Judah, and he offered sacrifices on the altar. So he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he made. And he placed in Bethel ^(AD)the priests of the high places that he had made. ³³ He went up to the altar that he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day in the eighth month, in the month that he had devised from his own heart. And he instituted a feast for the people of Israel and went up to the altar ^(AE)to make offerings.

16 And the word of the Lord came to ^(A)Jehu the son of ^(B)Hanani against Baasha, saying, ² “Since I ^(C)exalted you out of the dust and made you leader over my people Israel, and ^(D)you have walked in the way of Jeroboam and have made my people Israel to sin, provoking me to anger with their sins, ³ behold, I will utterly ^(E)sweep away ^(F)Baasha and his house, and I will make your house ^(G)like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat. ^4 (H)Anyone belonging to Baasha who dies in the city the dogs shall eat, and anyone of his who dies in the field the birds of the heavens shall eat.”

⁵ Now the rest of the acts of Baasha and what he did, and his might, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? ⁶ And Baasha slept with his fathers and was buried at ^(I)Tirzah, and Elah his son reigned in his place. ⁷ Moreover, the word of the Lord came by the prophet ^(J)Jehu the son of Hanani against Baasha and his house, both because of all the evil that he did in the sight of the Lord, provoking him to anger with the work of his hands, in being like the house of Jeroboam, and also because ^(K)he destroyed it.

Elah Reigns in Israel

⁸ In the twenty-sixth year of Asa king of Judah, Elah the son of Baasha began to reign over Israel in Tirzah, and he reigned two years. ⁹ But his servant ^(L)Zimri, commander of half his chariots, conspired against him. When he was at Tirzah, drinking himself drunk in the house of Arza, ^(M)who was over the household in Tirzah, ¹⁰ Zimri came in and struck him down and killed him, in the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah, and reigned in his place.

¹¹ When he began to reign, as soon as he had seated himself on his throne, he struck down ^(N)all the house of Baasha. He ^(O)did not leave him a single male of his relatives or his friends. ¹² Thus Zimri destroyed all the house of Baasha, ^(P)according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke against Baasha by ^(Q)Jehu the prophet, ¹³ for all the sins of Baasha and the sins of Elah his son, which they sinned and which they made Israel to sin, ^(R)provoking the Lord God of Israel to anger with their idols. ¹⁴ Now the rest of the acts of Elah and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?

Zimri Reigns in Israel

¹⁵ In the twenty-seventh year of Asa king of Judah, Zimri reigned seven days in Tirzah. Now the troops were encamped against ^(S)Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines, ¹⁶ and the troops who were encamped heard it said, “Zimri has conspired, and he has killed the king.” Therefore all Israel made Omri, the commander of the army, king over Israel that day in the camp. ¹⁷ So Omri went up from Gibbethon, and all Israel with him, and they besieged Tirzah. ¹⁸ And when Zimri saw that the city was taken, he went into the citadel of the king's house and burned the king's house over him with fire and died, ¹⁹ because of his sins that he committed, doing evil in the sight of the Lord, ^(T)walking in the way of Jeroboam, and for his sin which he committed, making Israel to sin. ²⁰ Now the rest of the acts of Zimri, and the conspiracy that he made, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?

Omri Reigns in Israel

²¹ Then the people of Israel were divided into two parts. Half of the people followed Tibni the son of Ginath, to make him king, and half followed Omri. ²² But the people who followed Omri overcame the people who followed Tibni the son of Ginath. So Tibni died, and Omri became king. ²³ In the thirty-first year of Asa king of Judah, Omri began to reign over Israel, and he reigned for twelve years; six years he reigned in Tirzah. ²⁴ He bought the hill of ^(U)Samaria from Shemer for two talents^[a] of silver, and he fortified the hill and called the name of the city that he built ^(V)Samaria, after the name of Shemer, the owner of the hill.

^25 (W)Omri did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and did more evil ^(X)than all who were before him. ²⁶ For ^(Y)he walked in all the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and in the sins that he made Israel to sin, ^(Z)provoking the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger by their idols. ²⁷ Now the rest of the acts of Omri that he did, and the might that he showed, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? ²⁸ And Omri slept with his fathers and was buried in Samaria, and Ahab his son reigned in his place.

Ahab Reigns in Israel

²⁹ In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, Ahab the son of Omri began to reign over Israel, and Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty-two years. ³⁰ And Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the Lord, ^(AA)more than all who were before him. ³¹ And as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, ^(AB)he took for his wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the ^(AC)Sidonians, ^(AD)and went and served Baal and worshiped him. ³² He erected an altar for Baal in ^(AE)the house of Baal, which he built in Samaria. ³³ And Ahab made an ^(AF)Asherah. Ahab did more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger ^(AG)than all the kings of Israel who were before him. ^34 (AH)In his days Hiel of Bethel built ^(AI)Jericho. He laid its foundation at the cost of Abiram his firstborn, and set up its gates at the cost of his youngest son Segub, according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke by Joshua the son of Nun.