When all Israel heard that Jeroboam had come back, they summoned him to the assembly and made him king over all Israel. No one followed the house of David except the tribe of Judah alone.

When Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he mobilized 180,000 choice warriors from the entire house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin to fight against the house of Israel to restore the kingdom to Rehoboam son of Solomon.

“Say to Rehoboam son of Solomon, king of Judah, to the whole house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people,

‘This is what the Lord says: You are not to march up and fight against your brothers, the Israelites. Each of you must return home, for I have done this.’”

So they listened to what the Lord said and went back as He had told them.

Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. From there he went out and built Penuel.

If these people regularly go to offer sacrifices in the Lord’s temple in Jerusalem, the heart of these people will return to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah. They will murder me and go back to the king of Judah.”

So the king sought advice.

Then he made two golden calves, and he said to the people, “Going to Jerusalem is too difficult for you. Israel, here is your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt.”

He set up one in Bethel, and put the other in Dan.

Jeroboam also built shrines on the high places and set up priests from every class of people who were not Levites.

He offered sacrifices on the altar he had set up in Bethel on the fifteenth day of the eighth month. He chose this month on his own. He made a festival for the Israelites, offered sacrifices on the altar, and burned incense.

The man of God cried out against the altar by a revelation from the Lord: “Altar, altar, this is what the Lord says, ‘A son will be born to the house of David, named Josiah, and he will sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who are burning incense on you. Human bones will be burned on you.’”

He gave a sign that day. He said, “This is the sign that the Lord has spoken: ‘The altar will now be ripped apart, and the ashes that are on it will be poured out.’”

When the king heard the word that the man of God had cried out against the altar at Bethel, Jeroboam stretched out his hand from the altar and said, “Arrest him!” But the hand he stretched out against him withered, and he could not pull it back to himself.

The altar was ripped apart, and the ashes poured from the altar, according to the sign that the man of God had given by the word of the Lord.

Then the king responded to the man of God, “Plead for the favor of the Lord your God and pray for me so that my hand may be restored to me.” So the man of God pleaded for the favor of the Lord, and the king’s hand was restored to him and became as it had been at first.

Then the king declared to the man of God, “Come home with me, refresh yourself, and I’ll give you a reward.”

But the man of God replied, “If you were to give me half your house, I still wouldn’t go with you, and I wouldn’t eat bread or drink water in this place,

So he went another way; he did not go back by the way he had come to Bethel.

Now a certain old prophet was living in Bethel. His son came and told him all the deeds that the man of God had done that day in Bethel. His sons also told their father the words that he had spoken to the king.

Then he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” So they saddled the donkey for him, and he got on it.

He followed the man of God and found him sitting under an oak tree. He asked him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?”

“I am,” he said.

Then he said to him, “Come home with me and eat bread.”

He said to him, “I am also a prophet like you. An angel spoke to me by the word of the Lord: ‘Bring him back with you to your house so that he may eat bread and drink water.’” The old prophet deceived him,

and the man of God went back with him, ate bread in his house, and drank water.

and the prophet cried out to the man of God who had come from Judah, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Because you rebelled against the command of the Lord and did not keep the command that the Lord your God commanded you—

but you went back and ate bread and drank water in the place that He said to you, “Do not eat bread and do not drink water”— your corpse will never reach the grave of your fathers.’”

So after he had eaten bread and after he had drunk, the old prophet saddled the donkey for the prophet he had brought back.

When he left, a lion attacked him along the way and killed him. His corpse was thrown on the road, and the donkey was standing beside it; the lion was standing beside the corpse too.

There were men passing by who saw the corpse thrown on the road and the lion standing beside it, and they went and spoke about it in the city where the old prophet lived.

When the prophet who had brought him back from his way heard about it, he said, “He is the man of God who disobeyed the command of the Lord. The Lord has given him to the lion, and it has mauled and killed him, according to the word of the Lord that He spoke to him.”

and he went and found the corpse of the man of God thrown on the road with the donkey and the lion standing beside the corpse. The lion had not eaten the corpse or mauled the donkey.

So the prophet lifted the corpse of the man of God and laid it on the donkey and brought it back. The old prophet came into the city to mourn and bury him.

Then he laid the corpse in his own grave, and they mourned over him: “Oh, my brother!”

for the word that he cried out by a revelation from the Lord against the altar in Bethel and against all the shrines of the high places in the cities of Samaria is certain to happen.”

After all this Jeroboam did not repent of his evil way but again set up priests for the high places from every class of people. He ordained whoever so desired it, and they became priests of the high places.

This was the sin that caused the house of Jeroboam to be wiped out and annihilated from the face of the earth.

Jeroboam said to his wife, “Go disguise yourself, so they won’t know that you’re Jeroboam’s wife, and go to Shiloh. Ahijah the prophet is there; it was he who told about me becoming king over this people.

Take with you 10 loaves of bread, some cakes, and a jar of honey, and go to him. He will tell you what will happen to the boy.”

Jeroboam’s wife did that: she went to Shiloh and arrived at Ahijah’s house. Ahijah could not see; his gaze was fixed due to his age.

But the Lord had said to Ahijah, “Jeroboam’s wife is coming soon to ask you about her son, for he is sick. You are to say such and such to her. When she arrives, she will be disguised.”

tore the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it to you. But you were not like My servant David, who kept My commands and followed Me with all of his heart, doing only what is right in My eyes.

You behaved more wickedly than all who were before you. In order to provoke Me, you have proceeded to make for yourself other gods and cast images, but you have flung Me behind your back.

Because of all this, I am about to bring disaster on the house of Jeroboam:

I will eliminate all of Jeroboam’s males,
both slave and free, in Israel;
I will sweep away the house of Jeroboam
as one sweeps away dung until it is all gone!

Anyone who belongs to Jeroboam and dies in the city,
the dogs will eat,
and anyone who dies in the field,
the birds of the sky will eat,
for the Lord has said it!’

“As for you, get up and go to your house. When your feet enter the city, the boy will die.

All Israel will mourn for him and bury him. He alone out of Jeroboam’s house will be put in the family tomb, because out of the house of Jeroboam the Lord God of Israel found something good only in him.

For the Lord will strike Israel and the people will shake as a reed shakes in water. He will uproot Israel from this good soil that He gave to their ancestors. He will scatter them beyond the Euphrates because they made their Asherah poles, provoking the Lord.

He will give up Israel because of Jeroboam’s sins that he committed and caused Israel to commit.”

Then Jeroboam’s wife got up and left and went to Tirzah. As she was crossing the threshold of the house, the boy died.

He was buried, and all Israel mourned for him, according to the word of the Lord He had spoken through His servant Ahijah the prophet.

As for the rest of the events of Jeroboam’s reign, how he waged war and how he reigned, note that they are written in the Historical Record of Israel’s Kings.

The length of Jeroboam’s reign was 22 years. He rested with his fathers, and his son Nadab became king in his place.

They also built for themselves high places, sacred pillars, and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree;

In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt went to war against Jerusalem.

He seized the treasuries of the Lord’s temple and the treasuries of the royal palace. He took everything. He took all the gold shields that Solomon had made.

King Rehoboam made bronze shields in their place and committed them into the care of the captains of the royal escorts who guarded the entrance to the king’s palace.

There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam throughout their reigns.

Rehoboam rested with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. His mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonite. His son Abijam became king in his place.

Abijam walked in all the sins his father before him had committed, and he was not completely devoted to the Lord his God as his ancestor David had been.

But because of David, the Lord his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem to raise up his son after him and to establish Jerusalem.

For David did what was right in the Lord’s eyes, and he did not turn aside from anything He had commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.

There had been war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days of Rehoboam’s life.

The rest of the events of Abijam’s reign, along with all his accomplishments, are written in the Historical Record of Judah’s Kings. There was also war between Abijam and Jeroboam.

Abijam rested with his fathers and was buried in the city of David. His son Asa became king in his place.

He banished the male cult prostitutes from the land and removed all of the idols that his fathers had made.

He also removed his grandmother Maacah from being queen mother because she had made an obscene image of Asherah. Asa chopped down her obscene image and burned it in the Kidron Valley.

He brought his father’s consecrated gifts and his own consecrated gifts into the Lord’s temple: silver, gold, and utensils.

There was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel throughout their reigns.

Israel’s King Baasha went to war against Judah. He built Ramah in order to deny anyone access to Judah’s King Asa.

So Asa withdrew all the silver and gold that remained in the treasuries of the Lord’s temple and the treasuries of the royal palace and put it into the hands of his servants. Then King Asa sent them to Ben-hadad son of Tabrimmon son of Hezion king of Aram who lived in Damascus, saying,

“There is a treaty between me and you, between my father and your father. Look, I have sent you a gift of silver and gold. Go and break your treaty with Baasha king of Israel so that he will withdraw from me.”

Ben-hadad listened to King Asa and sent the commanders of his armies against the cities of Israel. He attacked Ijon, Dan, Abel-beth-maacah, all Chinnereth, and the whole land of Naphtali.

When Baasha heard about it, he quit building Ramah and stayed in Tirzah.

Then King Asa gave a command to everyone without exception in Judah, and they carried away the stones of Ramah and the timbers Baasha had built it with. Then King Asa built Geba of Benjamin and Mizpah with them.

The rest of all the events of Asa’s reign, along with all his might, all his accomplishments, and the cities he built, are written in the Historical Record of Judah’s Kings. But in his old age he developed a disease in his feet.

Then Asa rested with his fathers and was buried in the city of his ancestor David. His son Jehoshaphat became king in his place.

Nadab did what was evil in the Lord’s sight and followed the example of his father and the sin he had caused Israel to commit.

Then Baasha son of Ahijah of the house of Issachar conspired against Nadab, and Baasha struck him down at Gibbethon of the Philistines while Nadab and all Israel were besieging Gibbethon.

In the third year of Judah’s King Asa, Baasha killed Nadab and reigned in his place.

This was because Jeroboam had provoked the Lord God of Israel by the sins he had committed and had caused Israel to commit.

There was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel throughout their reigns.

He did what was evil in the Lord’s sight and followed the example of Jeroboam and the sin he had caused Israel to commit.

“Because I raised you up from the dust and made you ruler over My people Israel, but you have walked in the way of Jeroboam and have caused My people Israel to sin, provoking Me with their sins,

take note: I will sweep away Baasha and his house, and I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam son of Nebat:

Anyone who belongs to Baasha and dies in the city,
the dogs will eat,
and anyone who is his and dies in the field,
the birds of the sky will eat.”

The rest of the events of Baasha’s reign, along with all his accomplishments and might, are written in the Historical Record of Israel’s Kings.

Baasha rested with his fathers and was buried in Tirzah. His son Elah became king in his place.

Through the prophet Jehu son of Hanani the word of the Lord also came against Baasha and against his house because of all the evil he had done in the Lord’s sight, provoking Him with the work of his hands and being like the house of Jeroboam, and because Baasha had struck down the house of Jeroboam.

In the twenty-seventh year of Judah’s King Asa, Zimri went in, struck Elah down, killing him. Then Zimri became king in his place.

This happened because of all the sins of Baasha and those of his son Elah, which they committed and caused Israel to commit, provoking the Lord God of Israel with their worthless idols.

Omri along with all Israel marched up from Gibbethon and besieged Tirzah.

When Zimri saw that the city was captured, he entered the citadel of the royal palace and burned it down over himself. He died

because of the sin he committed by doing what was evil in the Lord’s sight and by following the example of Jeroboam and the sin he caused Israel to commit.

At that time the people of Israel were divided: half the people followed Tibni son of Ginath, to make him king, and half followed Omri.

However, the people who followed Omri proved stronger than those who followed Tibni son of Ginath. So Tibni died and Omri became king.

then he bought the hill of Samaria from Shemer for 150 pounds of silver, and he built up the hill. He named the city he built Samaria based on the name Shemer, the owner of the hill.

He followed the example of Jeroboam son of Nebat and in his sins that he caused Israel to commit, provoking the Lord God of Israel with their worthless idols.

The rest of the events of Omri’s reign, along with his accomplishments and the might he exercised, are written in the Historical Record of Israel’s Kings.

Omri rested with his fathers and was buried in Samaria. His son Ahab became king in his place.

Then, as if following the sin of Jeroboam son of Nebat were a trivial matter, he married Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and then proceeded to serve Baal and worship him.