1 Kings 12

The TorahRooted Bible (TRB), translated directly from the Hebrew and Greek.

The kingdom divided

¹ Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king. ² And when Jeroboam the son of Nebat heard of it, he was still in Egypt, where he had fled from the presence of King Solomon, for Jeroboam was living in Egypt. ³ And they sent and called him; and Jeroboam and all the assembly of Israel came and spoke to Rehoboam, saying, ⁴ "Your father made our yoke hard. Now therefore lighten the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke which he put on us, and we will serve you." ⁵ He said to them, "Go away for three days, then come back to me." So the people went away.

⁶ Then King Rehoboam took counsel with the elders who had stood before Solomon his father while he was still alive, saying, "How do you advise me to answer this people?" ⁷ And they spoke to him, saying, "If today you will be a servant to this people, and serve them, and answer them, and speak good words to them, then they will be your servants forever." ⁸ But he forsook the counsel of the elders which they had given him, and took counsel with the young men who had grown up with him, who stood before him. ⁹ And he said to them, "What do you advise that we answer this people who have spoken to me, saying, 'Lighten the yoke which your father put on us'?" ¹⁰ And the young men who had grown up with him spoke to him, saying, "Thus you shall say to this people who spoke to you, saying, 'Your father made our yoke heavy, but you lighten it for us'; thus you shall speak to them: 'My little finger is thicker than my father's waist! ¹¹ And now, whereas my father loaded you with 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 on the third day, as the king had said, "Come back to me on the third day." ¹³ And the king answered the people harshly, and forsook the counsel of the elders which they had given him; ¹⁴ and he spoke to them according to the counsel of the young men, saying, "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 it was a turn of events from Yahweh, that He might establish His word which Yahweh spoke by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.

¹⁶ When all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king, saying, "What portion do we have in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, O Israel! Now see to your own house, David!" So Israel went away to their tents. ¹⁷ But as for the children of Israel who lived in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them. ¹⁸ Then King Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was over the forced labor, and all Israel stoned him with stones, and he died. And King Rehoboam made haste to mount his chariot to flee to Jerusalem. ¹⁹ So 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 none who followed the house of David except the tribe of Judah only.

Yahweh forbids war against Israel

²¹ When Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, he assembled all the house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin, one hundred and eighty thousand chosen warriors, to fight against the house of Israel, to bring the kingdom back to Rehoboam the son of Solomon. ²² But the word of Elohim came to Shemaiah the man of Elohim, saying, ²³ "Speak to Rehoboam the 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 Yahweh: You shall not go up or fight against your brothers the children of Israel. Return every man to his house, for this thing has come from Me.'" So they listened to the word of Yahweh, and turned back and went away, according to the word of Yahweh.

Jeroboam's golden calves

²⁵ Then Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there; and he went out from there and built Penuel. ²⁶ And Jeroboam said in his heart, "Now the kingdom will return to the house of David. ²⁷ If this people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of Yahweh at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will turn back 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 made two calves of gold, and he said to them, "You have gone up to Jerusalem long enough. Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt." ²⁹ He set one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. ³⁰ And this thing became a sin, for the people went before the one, as far as Dan. ³¹ He also made shrines on the high places, and made priests from all sorts of people, who were not of the sons of Levi.

³² And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like the feast that was in Judah, and he went up to the altar. So he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he had made. And he stationed in Bethel 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 which he had devised of his own heart; and he ordained a feast for the children of Israel and went up to the altar to burn incense.

Notes

• 12:1 Shechem, in the hill country of Ephraim, was where Joshua had renewed the covenant with all the tribes (Joshua 24:1) and where Abimelech had been made king (Judges 9:6). Rehoboam had inherited the throne of Judah in Jerusalem, but the northern tribes, as with David (2 Samuel 5:3), expected to come to terms with the king before they made him theirs.
• 12:7 The elders' counsel turns on one Hebrew root, avad, "serve": if the king will be a "servant" (eved) and "serve" the people for a day, they will be his "servants" always. It answers the people's own promise, "we will serve you" (verse 4).
• 12:11 "My little finger" is literally "my little one" (qatanni); most understand it as the little finger, set against the thickness of a father's waist. "Scorpions" is not explained in the text: it may be a scourge with barbs or metal points, or simply a picture of a sting far worse than a whip. The young men's answer turns the people's word "heavy" (kaved) into a boast.
• 12:16 The cry repeats almost word for word the call of Sheba son of Bichri in David's day: "We have no portion in David, and no inheritance in the son of Jesse; every man to his tents, O Israel!" (2 Samuel 20:1). The old split between the northern tribes and Judah (2 Samuel 19:41-43) now becomes lasting. Verse 15 shows both sides of the event: Rehoboam chose foolishly, and the turn came "from Yahweh" to fulfill Ahijah's word (11:31).
• 12:28 Jeroboam repeats the words said over Aaron's calf at Sinai: "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!" (Exodus 32:4). In both places "gods" (elohim) takes a plural verb, "who brought you up." Many scholars think the calves were meant as pedestals on which Yahweh was unseen enthroned, much as the cherubim were in the temple, and that Jeroboam meant to worship Yahweh this way; the text, however, calls it sin (verse 30), and Yahweh later calls the calves "other gods" (14:9).
• 12:33 Jeroboam's feast copies Sukkot, "the feast that was in Judah," but one month later. The Torah had fixed the day: "On the fifteenth day of this seventh month is the Feast of Tabernacles to Yahweh for seven days" (Leviticus 23:34), and Solomon had dedicated the temple at that feast (8:2). The text gives no reason for the change except that Jeroboam "devised" (bada, "invented") the month "of his own heart": an appointed time made by a man, kept with priests he chose himself (verse 31) and with the king himself going up to burn incense.

1 Kings 11 · 1 Kings 13

Open in the study app