2Jeroboam the son of Nebat heard about it. He was still in Egypt, for he had run away from king Solomon, and Jeroboam was living in Egypt.
3They sent for him and called him. So Jeroboam and all the assembly of Israel came and spoke to Rehoboam. They said,
4"Your father made our yoke hard to bear. So now make the hard work your father gave us lighter, and lift the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you."
5He said to them, "Go away for three days, then come back to me." So the people went away.
6King Rehoboam asked advice from the old men who had served his father Solomon while he was still alive. He said, "What do you advise? How shall I answer these people?"
7They said to him, "If today you will be a servant to these people, and serve them, and answer them, and speak kind words to them, then they will be your servants for ever."
8But he turned away from the advice the old men had given him. He asked advice from the young men who had grown up with him and who served him.
9He said to them, "What advice do you give? How shall we answer these people who said to me, 'Make the yoke your father put on us lighter'?"
10The young men who had grown up with him said to him, "This is what you should say to these people who said to you, 'Your father made our yoke heavy, but you make it lighter for us.' This is what you should say to them: 'My little finger shall be thicker than my father's waist."
11"'My father loaded you with a heavy yoke, but I will make your yoke heavier still. My father punished you with whips, but I will punish you with scorpions.'"
12So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day, as the king had told them: "Come back to me on the third day."
13The king answered the people harshly. He turned away from the advice the old men had given him,
14and spoke to them as the young men had advised. He said, "My father made your yoke heavy, and I will make your yoke heavier still. My father punished you with whips, but I will punish you with scorpions."
15So the king did not listen to the people, for this turn of things came from the LORD. In this way he carried out the word the LORD had spoken through Ahijah of Shiloh to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.
16When all Israel saw that the king would not listen to them, the people answered the king: "What share do we have in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, Israel. Now look after your own house, David." So Israel went away to their tents.
18Then king Rehoboam sent out Adoram, who was in charge of the forced labour. All Israel threw stones at him until he died. King Rehoboam hurried to get into his chariot and flee to Jerusalem.
19So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day.
20When all Israel heard that Jeroboam had come back, they sent and called him to the assembly, and made him king over all Israel. No one followed the house of David except the tribe of Judah only.
21When Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, he gathered all the house of Judah, with the tribe of Benjamin, a hundred and eighty thousand chosen fighting men, to make war against the house of Israel and bring the kingdom back to Rehoboam the son of Solomon.
22But the word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God. It said,
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. Say to them,"
24"This is what the LORD says: You shall not go up or fight against your brothers, the people of Israel. Let every man go back to his house, for this thing is from me." So they listened to the word of the LORD and turned back and went home, as the LORD had said.
25Then Jeroboam built up Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and lived there. He went out from there and built Penuel.
26Jeroboam said in his heart, "Now the kingdom will go back to the house of David."
27"If these people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, then their hearts will turn back to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah. They will kill me and go back to Rehoboam king of Judah."
28So the king took advice, and made two calves of gold. He said to the people, "It is too far for you to go up to Jerusalem. Look, Israel, here are your gods, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt."
30This thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one, even as far as Dan.
31He made a house of high places, and made priests from among ordinary people, who were not sons of Levi.
32Jeroboam appointed a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like the feast that is in Judah, and he offered sacrifices on the altar. He did this in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves he had made. In Bethel he also set up the priests of the high places he had made.
33So he offered sacrifices on the altar he had made in Bethel, on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, the month he had chosen out of his own heart. He appointed a feast for the people of Israel, and he offered sacrifices on the altar and burned incense.