And he said to them, What counsel give ye, that we may return an answer to this people who have spoken to me, saying, Make the yoke that thy father put upon us lighter?

And the young men that grew up with him spoke to him, saying, Thus shall thou say to this people that spoke to thee, saying, Thy father made our yoke heavy, but make thou it lighter to us; thus shall thou speak to them, My little f

And now whereas my father burdened you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke. My father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.

So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam the third day, as the king bade, saying, Come to me again the third day.

And the king answered the people roughly, and forsook the counsel of the old men which they had given him,

and spoke to them after the counsel of the young men, saying, My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke. My father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.

And when all Israel saw that the king did not hearken to them, the people answered the king, saying, What portion have we in David? Neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, O Israel. Now see to thine own hous

Then king Rehoboam sent Adoram who was over the men subject to task work. And all Israel stoned him to death with stones. And king Rehoboam made speed to get up to his chariot, to flee to Jerusalem.

And it came to pass, when all Israel heard that Jeroboam was returned, that they sent and called him to the congregation, and made him king over all Israel. There was none that followed the house of David, but only the tribe of Jud

And when Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, he assembled all the house of Judah, and the tribe of Benjamin, a hundred and eighty thousand chosen men, who were warriors, to fight against the house of Israel, to bring the kingdom again to R

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,

Thus says LORD, Ye shall not go up, nor fight against your brothers the sons of Israel. Return every man to his house, for this thing is of me. So they hearkened to the word of LORD, and returned and went their way according to the

Then Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill-country of Ephraim, and dwelt therein. And he went out from there, and built Penuel.

And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now the kingdom will return to the house of David.

If this people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of LORD at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will turn again to their lord, even to Rehoboam king of Judah. And they will kill me, and return to Rehoboam king of Judah.

Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold. And he said to them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

And he set the one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan.

And this thing became a sin, for the people went [to worship] before the one, even to Dan.

And he made houses of high places, and made priests from among all the people who were not of the sons of Levi.

And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like the feast that is in Judah, and he went up to the altar. So he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he had made. And he placed in B

And he went up to the altar which he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day in the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart. And he ordained a feast for the sons of Israel, and went up to the altar to

And, behold, there came a man of God out of Judah by the word of LORD to Bethel. And Jeroboam was standing by the altar to burn incense.

And he cried against the altar by the word of LORD, and said, O altar, altar, thus says LORD: Behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name. And upon thee shall he sacrifice the priests of the high places that b

And he gave a sign the same day, saying, This is the sign which LORD has spoken: Behold, the altar shall be rent, and the ashes that are upon it shall be poured out.

And it came to pass, when the king heard the saying of the man of God, which he cried against the altar in Bethel, that Jeroboam put forth his hand from the altar, saying, Lay hold on him. And his hand, which he put forth against h

The altar also was rent, and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign which the man of God had given by the word of LORD.

And the king answered and said to the man of God, Entreat now the favor of LORD thy God, and pray for me that my hand may be restored to me again. And the man of God entreated LORD, and the king's hand was restored to him again, an

And the king said to the man of God, Come home with me, and refresh thyself, and I will give thee a reward.

And the man of God said to the king, If thou will give me half thy house, I will not go in with thee, neither will I eat bread nor drink water in this place;

So he went another way, and returned not by the way that he came to Bethel.

Now there dwelt an old prophet in Bethel. And one of his sons came and told him all the works that the man of God had done that day in Bethel. The words which he had spoken to the king, they also told them to their father.

And their father said to them, What way did he go? Now his sons had seen what way the man of God went, who came from Judah.

And he said to his sons, Saddle the donkey for me. So they saddled him the donkey, and he rode on it.

And he went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak. And he said to him, Are thou the man of God who came from Judah? And he said, I am.

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

And he said, I may not return with thee, nor go in with thee. Neither will I eat bread nor drink water with thee in this place;

And he said to him, I also am a prophet as thou are. And a [heavenly] agent spoke to me by the word of LORD, saying, Bring him back with thee into thy house that he may eat bread and drink water. [But] he lied to him.

So he went back with him, and ate bread in his house, and drank water.

And it came to pass, as they sat at the table, that the word of LORD came to the prophet who brought him back.

And he cried out to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, Thus says LORD, Forasmuch as thou have been disobedient to the mouth of LORD, and have not kept the commandment which LORD thy God commanded thee,

but came back, and have eaten bread and drunk water in the place of which he said to thee, Eat no bread, and drink no water, thy body shall not come to the sepulcher of thy fathers.

And it came to pass, after he had eaten bread, and after he had drunk, that he saddled the donkey for him, [namely], for the prophet whom he had brought back.

And when he was gone, a lion met him by the way, and killed him. And his body was cast in the way, and the donkey stood by it. The lion also stood by the body.

And, behold, men passed by, and saw the body cast in the way, and the lion standing by the body. And they came and told it in the city where the old prophet dwelt.

And when the prophet who brought him back from the way heard of it, he said, It is the man of God who was disobedient to the mouth of LORD. Therefore LORD has delivered him to the lion, which has torn him, and slain him, according

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

And he went and found his body cast in the way, and the donkey and the lion standing by the body. The lion had not eaten the body, nor torn the donkey.

And the prophet took up the body of the man of God, and laid it upon the donkey, and brought it back. And he came to the city of the old prophet, to mourn, and to bury him.

And he laid his body in his own grave. And they mourned over him, [saying], Alas, my brother!

And it came to pass, after he had buried him, that he spoke to his sons, saying, When I am dead, then bury me in the sepulcher in which the man of God is buried. Lay my bones beside his bones.

For the saying which he cried by the word of LORD against the altar in Bethel, and against all the houses of the high places which are in the cities of Samaria, shall surely come to pass.

And this thing became sin to the house of Jeroboam, even to cut it off, and to destroy it from off the face of the earth.

And Jeroboam said to his wife, Arise, I pray thee, and disguise thyself that thou not be known to be the wife of Jeroboam, and get thee to Shiloh. Behold, there is Ahijah the prophet who spoke concerning me that I should be king ov

And take with thee ten loaves, and cakes, and a cruse of honey, and go to him. He will tell thee what shall become of the child.

And Jeroboam's wife did so, and arose, and went to Shiloh, and came to the house of Ahijah. Now Ahijah could not see, for his eyes were set because of his age.

And LORD said to Ahijah, Behold, the wife of Jeroboam comes to inquire of thee concerning her son, for he is sick. Thus and thus thou shall say to her, for it will be, when she comes in, that she will feign herself to be another wo

And it was so, when Ahijah heard the sound of her feet, as she came in at the door, that he said, Come in, thou wife of Jeroboam. Why feign thou thyself to be another? For I am sent to thee with heavy news.

Go, tell Jeroboam, Thus says LORD, the God of Israel: Forasmuch as I exalted thee from among the people, and made thee prince over my people Israel,

and rent the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it thee, and yet thou have not been as my servant David, who kept my commandments, and who followed me with all his heart to do only that which was right in my eyes,

but have done evil above all who were before thee, and have gone and made thee other gods, and molten images to provoke me to anger, and have cast me behind thy back,

therefore, behold, I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam every man-child, he who is shut up and he who is left at large in Israel, and will utterly sweep away the house of Jeroboam as a man sw

He who dies of Jeroboam in the city shall the dogs eat, and he who dies in the field shall the birds of the heavens eat, for LORD has spoken it.

Arise thou therefore, get thee to thy house. When thy feet enter into the city, the child shall die.

And all Israel shall mourn for him, and bury him, for he only of Jeroboam shall come to the grave, because in him there is found some good thing toward LORD, the God of Israel, in the house of Jeroboam.

For LORD will smite Israel as a reed is shaken in the water. And he will root up Israel out of this good land which he gave to their fathers, and will scatter them beyond the River because they have made their Asherim, provoking LO

And he will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, which he has sinned, and with which he has made Israel to sin.

And Jeroboam's wife arose, and departed, and came to Tirzah. As she came to the threshold of the house, the child died.

And all Israel buried him, and mourned for him, according to the word of LORD, which he spoke by his servant Ahijah the prophet.

And the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, how he warred, and how he reigned, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.

And the days which Jeroboam reigned were twenty-two years, and he slept with his fathers. And Nadab his son reigned in his stead.

And Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which LORD had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel to put his name

And Judah did that which was evil in the sight of LORD, and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins which they committed, above all that their fathers had done.

For they also built for them high places, and pillars, and Asherim, on every high hill, and under every green tree.

And there were also sodomites in the land. They did according to all the abominations of the nations which LORD drove out before the sons of Israel.

And it came to pass in the fifth year of king Rehoboam, that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem.

And he took away the treasures of the house of LORD, and the treasures of the king's house. He even took away all. And he took away all the shields of gold which Solomon had made.

And king Rehoboam made in their stead shields of brass, and committed them to the hands of the captains of the guard who kept the door of the king's house.

And it was so, that, as often as the king went into the house of LORD, the guard bore them, and brought them back into the guard-chamber.

Now the rest of the acts of Rehoboam, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam continually.

And Rehoboam slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. And his mother's name was Naamah the Ammonitess. And Abijah his son reigned in his stead.

He reigned three years in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Maacah the daughter of Abishalom [Absalom].

And he walked in all the sins of his father, which he had done before him. And his heart was not perfect with LORD his God as the heart of David his father.

Nevertheless for David's sake LORD his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem, to set up his son after him, and to establish Jerusalem,

because David did that which was right in the eyes of LORD, and did not turn aside from anything that he commanded him all the days of his life, except only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.

Now there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days of his life.

And the rest of the acts of Abijah, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? And there was war between Abijah and Jeroboam.

And Abijah slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David. And Asa his son reigned in his stead.

And in the twentieth year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Asa began to reign over Judah.

And he reigned forty-one years in Jerusalem. And his grandmother's name was Maacah the daughter of Abishalom [Absalom].

And Asa did that which was right in the eyes of LORD as David his father did.

And he put away the sodomites out of the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made.

And also he removed Maacah his grandmother from being queen because she had made an abominable image for an Asherah. And Asa cut down her image, and burnt it at the brook Kidron.

And he brought into the house of LORD the things that his father had dedicated, and the things that he himself had dedicated, silver, and gold, and vessels.

And there was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their days.

And Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah, and built Ramah, that he might not allow anyone to go out or come in to Asa king of Judah.

Then Asa took all the silver and the gold that were left in the treasures of the house of LORD, and the treasures of the king's house, and delivered them into the hand of his servants. And king Asa sent them to Ben-hadad, the son o

[There is] a league between me and thee, between my father and thy father. Behold, I have sent to thee a present of silver and gold. Go, break thy league with Baasha king of Israel, that he may depart from me.

And Ben-hadad hearkened to king Asa, and sent the captains of his armies against the cities of Israel, and smote Ijon, and Dan, and Abel-beth-maacah, and all Chinneroth, with all the land of Naphtali.

And it came to pass, when Baasha heard of it, that he left off building Ramah, and dwelt in Tirzah.