their children who remained after them in the land, whom the {Israelites} were not able to completely destroy, Solomon conscripted them for forced labor, until this very day.

As soon as the daughter of Pharaoh went up from the city of David to her house which he built for her, then he built the Millo.

Solomon sacrificed three times a year: burnt offerings and fellowship offerings on the altar that he had built to Yahweh, and he offered incense with it before Yahweh; and so he completed the house.

They went to Ophir and imported from there four hundred and twenty talents of gold, and they brought it to King Solomon.

Now the queen of Sheba had heard of the fame of Solomon regarding the name of Yahweh, and she came to test him with hard questions.

So she came to Jerusalem with very great wealth; [with] camels carrying spices, very much gold, and precious stones. She came to Solomon, and she spoke to him all that was on her heart.

{Solomon answered all of her questions}; there was not a thing hidden from the king which he could not explain to her.

Then she said to the king, "The report which I heard in my land was true concerning your accomplishments and your wisdom.

I had not believed the report to be true until I came and my eyes had seen, and behold! The half had not been told to me. {Your wisdom and prosperity surpass} the report that I had heard.

May Yahweh your God be blessed, who has delighted in you to set you on the throne of Israel, because of the love of Yahweh for Israel forever, and he has made you king to execute justice and righteousness."

Then she gave the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold, abundant spices, and precious stones. Spices as these did not come again in such abundance [as that which] the queen of Sheba brought to King Solomon.

The king made a raised structure for the house of Yahweh and for the house of the king out of the almug wood, as well as lyres and harps for the singers. [This much] almug wood has not come nor been seen [again] up to this day.

King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all of her desire that she asked, besides that which {King Solomon freely offered her}. Then she turned and went to her land with her servants.

The weight of the gold that came to Solomon in one year [was] six hundred and sixty-six talents of gold,

King Solomon made two hundred shields of hammered gold; six hundred [measures of] gold went up over each shield.

Six steps [led up] to the throne, and [there was] a circular top to the throne behind it, and armrests were {on each side of the seat}, with two lions standing beside the armrests.

For the fleet of Tarshish belonged to the king [and was] on the sea with the fleet of Hiram; once every three years the fleet of Tarshish used to come carrying gold and silver, ivory, apes, and baboons.

King Solomon was greater than all the kings of the earth with respect to wealth and wisdom.

All of the earth [was] seeking the presence of Solomon, to hear his wisdom which God had put in his heart.

They [were] each bringing his gift; objects of silver and objects of gold, clothing, weapons, spices, horses, and mules. {This used to happen year after year}.

from the nations which Yahweh had said to the {Israelites}, "You shall not {marry them}, and they shall not {marry you}. They will certainly turn your heart after other gods." But Solomon clung to them to love.

Thus he did for all of his foreign wives, offering incense and sacrificing to their gods.

Yahweh was angry with Solomon, for he had turned his heart from Yahweh, the God of Israel who had appeared to him twice.

And he had commanded him concerning this matter not to go after other gods, but he did not keep that which Yahweh commanded.

So Yahweh said to Solomon, "Because this was with you, and you did not keep my covenant and my ordinances which I have commanded you, I will certainly tear the kingdom from you, and I will give it to your servant.

However, I will not do it in your days, for the sake of David your father; from the hand of your son I will tear it [away].

Yet all of the kingdom I will not tear [away]. I will give one tribe to your son for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem which I have chosen."

It had happened that when David was at Edom, Joab the commander of the army went up to bury the slain, and he killed every male in Edom.

But Hadad himself had fled, and some Edomite men from the servants of his father with him, to go to Egypt, when Hadad [was] a young boy.

They had set out from Midian until they came to Paran where they took men from Paran with them and came [to] Egypt, [to] Pharaoh king of Egypt. He gave to him a house and assigned food for him and gave him land.

Now Hadad heard in Egypt that David had slept with his ancestors and that Joab the commander of the army was dead. Then Hadad said to Pharaoh, "Send me away that I may go to my land."

Pharaoh said to him, "What do you lack with me that you now [are] seeking to go to your land?" He said, "No, but you must surely send me away."

He gathered men around him and he became the commander of bandits. When David killed [some of] them, they went to Damascus and settled {there}, and they reigned in Damascus.

It happened at that time that Jeroboam went out from Jerusalem, and he accidentally met Ahijah the Shilonite the prophet on the way. Now he had clothed himself with new clothing. While the two of them [were] alone in the field,

Then he said to Jeroboam, "Take for yourself ten pieces, for thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: 'Behold, I [am about] to tear the kingdom from the hand of Solomon, and I will give to you ten tribes,

because he has forsaken me, and they bowed down to Ashtoreth, the god of [the] Sidonians, to Chemosh, the god of Moab, and to Molech, the god of the {Ammonites}. They did not walk in my ways to do right in my eyes, my ordinances, or my judgments, as [did] David his father.

But I will take the kingship from the hand of his son, and I will give ten tribes to you.

To his son I will give one tribe in order to be a lamp for my servant David, always before my face, in Jerusalem the city in which I have chosen to place my name.

It shall be that if you listen to all that I command you and you walk in my ways and you do right in my eyes by keeping my statutes and my commandments, as David my servant did, then I will be with you, and I will build an enduring house for you as I built for David, and I will give Israel to you.

Then Solomon sought to kill Jeroboam, but Jeroboam got up and fled to Egypt, to Shishak the king of Egypt, and he remained in Egypt until the death of Solomon.

Then Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all of Israel had come to Shechem to make him king.

So they sent and summoned him, and Jeroboam and all the assembly of Israel came. [Then] they spoke to Rehoboam, saying,

He said, "Go up for three days and then return to me"; so the people went away.

Then King Rehoboam consulted with the old men who had been {serving} before Solomon his father when he was alive, saying, "How [are] you advising [me] {to answer this people}?"

They said to him, "If you will be a servant today to this people, then you will serve them; and if you answer them and speak good words to them, they will always be your servants."

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.'"

Then the youngsters who had grown up with him spoke to him, saying, "Thus you shall say to this people who spoke to you: 'Your father made our yoke heavy, but you lighten [it] for us,' you shall say to them, 'My little finger is thicker than my father's loins.

So then, my father loaded a heavy yoke on all of you, but I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions!'"

Jeroboam and all of the people came to Rehoboam on the third day, as the king had spoken: "Return to me on the third day."

He spoke to them according to the advice of the youngsters, saying, "My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add onto your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with scorpions."

So the king did not listen to the people, for it was a turning of events from Yahweh in order to fulfill his word which Yahweh had spoken through the hand of Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.

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.

King Rehoboam sent Adoram who [was] over the forced labor, and all of Israel cast stones at him and he died, but King Rehoboam managed to get up on the chariot to flee [to] Jerusalem.

So Israel rebelled against the house of David until this day.

It happened that just when all of Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they sent and called him to the assembly and made him king over all of Israel. Not one [followed] after the house of David except the tribe of Judah alone.

When Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, he assembled all of the house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin, a hundred and eighty thousand {choice troops} to fight with the house of Israel, to restore the kingship to Rehoboam the son of Solomon.

Then the word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God, saying,

"Say to Rehoboam the son of Solomon the king of Judah and to all the house of Judah and Benjamin and the remainder of the people, saying,

'Thus says Yahweh: "You shall not go up and you shall not fight with your brothers the {Israelites}. Return each of you to his house, for this thing was from me." '" So they heeded the word of Yahweh, and they returned to go home according to the word of Yahweh.

Then Jeroboam {said to himself}, "Now the kingdom will return to the house of David

if this people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of Yahweh in Jerusalem. The heart of this people will return to their master Rehoboam the king of Judah, and they shall kill me and {return to him}."

And the king had decided, so he made two golden calves and he said to them, "{You have been going up to Jerusalem long enough}; here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt."

Jeroboam also inaugurated a religious feast in the eighth month on the fifteenth day of the month, like the religious feast which was in Judah, and he offered [sacrifices] on the altar. Thus he did in Bethel, by sacrificing to the calves that he had made; and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made.

He offered [sacrifices] on the altar which he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day of the eighth month which his heart had devised. He inaugurated a religious feast for the {Israelites}, and he went up to the altar to offer incense.

Suddenly a man of God from Judah came to Bethel, by the word of Yahweh, while Jeroboam [was] standing at the altar to offer incense.

Then he proclaimed against the altar by the word of Yahweh and said, "O altar, altar, thus says Yahweh: 'Look, a son will be born to the house of David, Josiah by name, and he shall sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and human bones shall burn on you.'"

He gave a sign on that day, saying, "This [is] the sign that Yahweh has predetermined: Look, [this] altar will be torn [apart], and the ashes that [are] on it will be poured out."

It happened at the moment the king heard the word of the man of God that he cried out against the altar in Bethel, Jeroboam stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, "Seize him!" But his hand which he stretched out to him was paralyzed, and he was not able to draw it back to himself.

Then the altar was torn [apart] and the ashes from the altar poured out according to the sign which the man of God had announced by the word of Yahweh.

Then the king responded and said to the man of God, "Please entreat the favor of Yahweh your God, and pray for me that my hand may return to me." So the man of God entreated the face of Yahweh, and the hand of the king returned to him, as it was in the beginning.

Then the king spoke to the man of God, "Come with me to the house and refresh yourself, that I may give you a gift."

Then the man of God said to the king, "Even if you give to me half of your house I will not come with you, nor will I eat bread or drink water in this place,

So he went another way, and he did not return by the way on which he had come to Bethel.

Now a certain older prophet was living in Bethel, and his son came and recounted to him all of the things that the man of God had done that day in Bethel [and] the words he had spoken to the king, and they told them to their father.

Then he said to his sons, "Saddle the donkey for me." So they saddled the donkey for him, and he mounted it

and went after the man of God. He found him sitting under the oak and said to him, "Are you the man of God who came from Judah?" He said, "I [am]."

Then he said to him, "Come with me to the house and eat [some] food."

Then he said, "I am not able to return with you or to go with you. I will not eat food nor will I drink water with you in this place.

For a word [came] to me by the word of Yahweh, 'You shall not eat food, nor shall you drink water there. You shall not return to go by the way that you came.'"

Then he said, "I [am] also a prophet like you. An angel spoke to me by the word of Yahweh, saying, 'Let him return with you to your house that he may eat food and drink water.'" He lied to him.

Now it happened that they [were] sitting at the table, and the word of Yahweh came to the prophet who brought him back.

He proclaimed to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, "Thus says Yahweh: 'Because you have disobeyed the word of Yahweh and have not kept the command which Yahweh your God commanded you,

but you have returned and have eaten food and drank water in the place which he ordered you not to eat food nor to drink water, then your dead body shall not return to the tomb of your ancestors.'"

When the prophet who had brought him back from the way heard, he said, "It [is] the man of God who disobeyed the mouth of Yahweh, and Yahweh has given him to the lion. He tore him in pieces and killed him according to the word of Yahweh which he had spoken to him."

Then he spoke to his sons, saying, "Saddle the donkey for me." So they saddled it.

So the prophet lifted up the corpse of the man of God and put it on the donkey and brought it back. He came to the city of the old prophet to mourn him and to bury him.

It happened after he buried him that he said to his sons, "When I die, you shall bury me in the tomb where the man of God [is] buried; you shall lay my bones beside his bones.

This matter became sin in the house of Jeroboam, to make it disappear and to destroy [it] from the surface of the earth.

Jeroboam said to his wife, "Please get up and disguise yourself so that they will not know that you [are] the wife of Jeroboam, and go [to] Shiloh. Look, Ahijah the prophet is there, and he spoke concerning me [before I became] king over this people.

You must take ten loaves of bread in your hand and cakes and a jar of honey, and you must go to him. He shall tell you what will happen to the boy."

The wife of Jeroboam did so. She got up, went [to] Shiloh, and came [to] the house of Ahijah. Now Ahijah was not able to see, for {his eyes were fixed} because of his old age.

Then Yahweh said to Ahijah, "Look, the wife of Jeroboam [is] coming to seek a word from you about her son, for he [is] ill. {Thus and so} you shall say to her. When she comes, she [will be] disguising herself."

I tore the kingdom from the house of David and I gave it to you. But you were not like my servant David who kept my commandments, and who went after me with all his heart, to do only [what is] right in my eyes.

But you did more evil than all who were before you. You have gone and made for yourself other gods and molten idols to provoke me, but me you have {completely disregarded}.

Therefore, look, I am about to bring disaster upon the house of Jeroboam, and I will cut off {males} from Jeroboam, bond or free, in Israel. I will burn after the house of Jeroboam as one burns after the manure, until it is finished.

As for you, get up. Go to your house. When your feet enter the city, the child will die.

All of Israel will mourn for him, and they will bury him. This one alone will come to a tomb for Jeroboam, because a good thing has been found in him by Yahweh the God of Israel in the house of Israel.

Yahweh will raise up a king for himself over Israel who will even now cut off the house of Jeroboam this day.

Yahweh will strike Israel as one shakes the reed plant in the water, and he will root Israel up from this good land that he gave to their ancestors. He will scatter them beyond the River because they have made their sacred poles [which are] provoking Yahweh.

He will give up Israel because of the sin of Jeroboam which he sinned and which he caused Israel to sin."