1 Rehoboam went to Shechem, since all Israel had gone to Shechem to make him king.
2 Jeroboam son of Nebat heard about it while he was still in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon; Jeroboam had been living in Egypt.
3 They sent for him, and Jeroboam came with the whole assembly of Israel, and they spoke to Rehoboam:
4 "Your father put a hard yoke on us. Now make lighter the hard labor your father imposed and the heavy yoke he laid on us, and we will serve you."
5 He told them, "Go off for three more days, and then return to me." So the people left.
6 King Rehoboam consulted the elders who had attended his father Solomon during his lifetime. "What answer do you advise me to give this people?" he asked.
7 They told him, "If today you become a servant to this people and serve them, and if you answer them with good words, they will be your servants for all time."
8 But he set aside the advice the elders gave him and consulted the young men who had grown up with him and were now attending him.
9 He asked them, "What do you advise? How should we answer this people who told me, 'Make lighter the yoke your father put on us'?"
10 The young men who had grown up with him told him, "Say this to the people who told you, 'Your father made our yoke heavy; you make it lighter for us.' Tell them this: 'My little finger is thicker than my father's waist!
11 My father loaded a heavy yoke on you; well, I will make your yoke heavier. My father punished you with whips; I will punish you with scorpions.'"
12 On the third day Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam, as the king had directed: "Return to me on the third day."
13 The king gave the people a harsh answer. He set aside the advice the elders had given him
14 and spoke to them as the young men had advised: "My father made your yoke heavy; I will make your yoke heavier. My father punished you with whips; I will punish you with scorpions."
15 The king would not listen to the people, because the LORD had brought about this turn of events in order to carry out his word that the LORD had spoken by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam son of Nebat.
16 All Israel saw that the king refused to listen to them, and the people gave the king this reply: "What share have we in David? We have no inheritance in Jesse's son! To your tents, Israel! Look after your own house now, David!" And Israel went home to their tents.
17 Rehoboam, however, ruled over the children of Israel who lived in the towns of Judah.
18 King Rehoboam sent out Adoram, the man in charge of forced labor, but all Israel pelted him with stones until he died. King Rehoboam managed to get up into his chariot and escape to Jerusalem.
19 And so Israel has been in revolt against the house of David to this day.
20 When all Israel heard that Jeroboam had come back, they sent for him to come to the assembly and made him king over all Israel. No one followed David's house except the tribe of Judah only.
21 Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem and mustered the whole house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin, a hundred and eighty thousand picked fighting men, to make war on the house of Israel and win back the kingdom for Rehoboam son of Solomon.
22 But the word of God came to Shemaiah, the man of God:
23 "Speak to Rehoboam son of Solomon, king of Judah, to all the house of Judah and Benjamin and to the rest of the people, and say,
24 'This is what the LORD says: Do not go up and do not fight your brothers, the children of Israel. Go back home, every one of you, for this has been brought about by me.'" They obeyed the word of the LORD and went back home, as the LORD had said.
25 Jeroboam fortified Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and made his home there. From there he went out and fortified Penuel.
26 Jeroboam thought to himself, "As things are, the kingdom will go back to David's house.
27 If this people keep going up to offer sacrifices in the LORD's house in Jerusalem, their hearts will turn back to their lord Rehoboam king of Judah. They will kill me and go back to Rehoboam king of Judah."
28 After taking advice, the king made two golden calves. He told the people, "Going up to Jerusalem is too much for you. Here are your gods, Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!"
29 He set up the one in Bethel and placed the other in Dan.
30 This matter led to sin: the people went before the one calf even as far as Dan.
31 He made houses on high places as well, and appointed priests from among all the people, men who were not Levites.
32 Jeroboam established a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the feast held in Judah, and he offered on the altar. He did this in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves he had made, and in Bethel he installed the priests of the high places he had made.
33 On the fifteenth day of the eighth month, the month he had invented on his own, he went up to offer on the altar he had made in Bethel. He established a feast for the children of Israel and went up to the altar to burn incense.