1 Kings 12

Rehoboam went to the town of Shechem, because all Israel had gone there to make him king.

1And Rehoboam went to Shechem: for all Israel were come to Shechem to make him king.

NoteShechem was a town in the central hill country, well north of Jerusalem, and a long-standing gathering place for the northern tribes. That Rehoboam had to travel there, rather than summon them to the capital, signals that his kingship over the north was something the tribes granted rather than something he simply inherited.

2Jeroboam son of Nebat heard about this while he was still in Egypt. He had run away there to get away from King Solomon, and he had been living in Egypt ever since.

2And it came to pass, when Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who was yet in Egypt, heard of it, (for he was fled from the presence of king Solomon, and Jeroboam dwelt in Egypt;)

NoteJeroboam had been one of Solomon's officials, put in charge of the forced-labor gangs from the northern tribes, before he rebelled and fled to Egypt (told earlier, in chapter 11). The people calling him back are calling back a known opponent of Solomon's policies.

3So they sent for Jeroboam. He and the whole assembly of Israel came and said to Rehoboam:

3That they sent and called him. And Jeroboam and all the congregation of Israel came, and spake unto Rehoboam, saying,

4"Your father laid a heavy load on us. So lighten the hard work your father demanded and the heavy load he put on us, and we will serve you."

4Thy father made our yoke grievous: now therefore make thou the grievous service of thy father, and his heavy yoke which he put upon us, lighter, and we will serve thee.

NoteThe "load" or "yoke" is the wooden bar laid across the necks of oxen to harness them to a plow. Applied to people it meant the burden of state demands: taxes in kind and, above all, conscripted labor gangs drafted to work on royal building projects.

5Rehoboam said to them, "Go away for three days, then come back to me." So the people left.

5And he said unto them, Depart yet for three days, then come again to me. And the people departed.

6King Rehoboam talked it over with the older men who had served his father Solomon while Solomon was alive. He asked, "What do you advise? How should I answer these people?"

6And king Rehoboam consulted with the old men, that stood before Solomon his father while he yet lived, and said, How do ye advise that I may answer this people?

7They told him, "If today you will be a servant to these people, and serve them, and answer them with kind words, then they will serve you always."

7And they spake unto him, saying, If thou wilt be a servant unto this people this day, and wilt serve them, and answer them, and speak good words to them, then they will be thy servants for ever.

NoteThere is a play on words here that the English can only half carry. The people had said "we will serve you" (verse 4); the older advisers tell the king that if he will first be a servant to them, they will be his servants for good.

8But he turned down the advice the older men gave him. Instead he talked it over with the young men who had grown up with him and who now served him.

8But he forsook the counsel of the old men, which they had given him, and consulted with the young men that were grown up with him, and which stood before him:

9He asked them, "What do you advise? How should we answer these people who said to me, 'Lighten the load your father put on us'?"

9And he said unto them, What counsel give ye that we may answer this people, who have spoken to me, saying, Make the yoke which thy father did put upon us lighter?

10The young men who had grown up with him said, "Here is what you should say to these people who told you, 'Your father made our load heavy, but you make it lighter.' Tell them, 'My little finger is thicker than my father's waist.

10And the young men that were grown up with him spake unto him, saying, Thus shalt thou speak unto this people that spake unto thee, saying, Thy father made our yoke heavy, but make thou it lighter unto us; thus shalt thou say unto them, My little finger shall be thicker than my father’s loins.

NoteA crude boast, not a description: "the smallest part of me outweighs the whole of my father." The Hebrew word rendered "waist" refers to the loins or hips, and the insult is coarser in the original than most translations show.

11My father loaded you down with a heavy load, but I will make your load heavier still. My father punished you with whips, but I will punish you with scorpions.'"

11And now whereas my father did lade you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke: my father hath chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.

Note"Scorpions" here is almost certainly not the animal but a name for a particular kind of whip, one weighted or barbed along its lashes, so that it tore rather than merely stung. The threat is a harsher instrument of the same kind, not a different creature.

12Three days later Jeroboam and all the people came back to Rehoboam, just as the king had told them: "Come back to me on the third day."

12So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam the third day, as the king had appointed, saying, Come to me again the third day.

13The king answered the people harshly. He turned down the advice the older men had given him,

13And the king answered the people roughly, and forsook the old men’s counsel that they gave him;

14and spoke to them the way the young men had advised. He said, "My father made your load heavy, but I will make your load heavier still. My father punished you with whips, but I will punish you with scorpions."

14And spake to them after the counsel of the young men, saying, My father made your yoke heavy, and I will add to your yoke: my father also chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.

15So the king did not listen to the people. This turn of events came from the LORD, so that he would carry out what he had said to Jeroboam son of Nebat through Ahijah from Shiloh.

15Wherefore the king hearkened not unto the people; for the cause was from the LORD, that he might perform his saying, which the LORD spake by Ahijah the Shilonite unto Jeroboam the son of Nebat.

NoteAhijah of Shiloh was a prophet who, in chapter 11, had met Jeroboam on the road, torn a new cloak into twelve pieces, and given him ten of them, saying he would rule ten of the tribes. Shiloh was the old northern sanctuary town where the tent of meeting had once stood.

16When all Israel saw that the king would not listen to them, the people answered him: "What share do we have in David? We have no part in the son of Jesse. To your tents, Israel! Look after your own house now, David!" So the Israelites went home.

16So when all Israel saw that the king hearkened not unto 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 house, David. So Israel departed unto their tents.

NoteThese lines are a formal declaration of secession, and possibly an old rallying cry. Calling David "the son of Jesse" names him by his father, without royal title, a deliberate slight. "To your tents" is a call to break camp and disperse: the assembly is over, and with it the union.

17But Rehoboam still ruled over the Israelites who lived in the towns of Judah.

17But as for the children of Israel which dwelt in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them.

18Then King Rehoboam sent out Adoram, the man in charge of the forced work crews, and all Israel threw stones at him until he died. King Rehoboam quickly climbed into his chariot and escaped to Jerusalem.

18Then king Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was over the tribute; and all Israel stoned him with stones, that he died. Therefore king Rehoboam made speed to get him up to his chariot, to flee to Jerusalem.

NoteAdoram (called Adoniram elsewhere) ran the very forced-labor system the north had just protested. Sending him was either a demand for submission or a serious misjudgement. Stoning was killing by the whole community acting together, rather than by an executioner, a crowd's verdict as much as an execution.

19So Israel has been in revolt against the family line of David from that time until now.

19So Israel rebelled against the house of David unto this day.

Note"From that time until now" is the writer speaking from his own day, long after these events, when the split between the two kingdoms was still the settled state of affairs.

20When all Israel heard that Jeroboam had come back, they sent for him to come to the assembly and made him king over all Israel. No one stayed with the house of David except the tribe of Judah.

20And it came to pass, when all Israel heard that Jeroboam was come again, that they sent and called him unto the congregation, and made him king over all Israel: there was none that followed the house of David, but the tribe of Judah only.

NoteThe bare statement that only Judah remained sits awkwardly beside the next verse, where Benjamin musters alongside Judah. The tension is in the Hebrew text itself; readers have explained it as counting Benjamin's small territory as absorbed into Judah, or as two accounts standing side by side. The text does not resolve it.

21When Rehoboam got to Jerusalem, he gathered the whole tribe of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin, 180,000 picked fighting men, to go to war against the house of Israel and win the kingdom back for Rehoboam son of Solomon.

21And when Rehoboam was come to Jerusalem, he assembled all the house of Judah, with the tribe of Benjamin, an hundred and fourscore thousand chosen men, which were warriors, to fight against the house of Israel, to bring the kingdom again to Rehoboam the son of Solomon.

NoteThe Hebrew word translated "thousand" can also mean a military unit or contingent of unspecified size, so the total may represent 180 units rather than 180,000 individual men. Large round figures in ancient battle reports are in any case often reckoned differently from a modern headcount.

22But the word of God came to Shemaiah, a man of God, that is, a prophet. God said:

22But the word of God came unto Shemaiah the man of God, saying,

23"Speak to Rehoboam son of Solomon, the king of Judah, and to everyone in Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people. Tell them

23Speak unto Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and unto all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the remnant of the people, saying,

24this is what the LORD says: 'Do not go up and fight against your relatives, the Israelites. Every one of you, go back home, because this is my doing.'" So they obeyed the word of the LORD and went back home, as the LORD had said.

24Thus saith the LORD, Ye shall not go up, nor fight against your brethren the children of Israel: return every man to his house; for this thing is from me. They hearkened therefore to the word of the LORD, and returned to depart, according to the word of the LORD.

25Then Jeroboam rebuilt Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. From there he went out and built up Penuel.

25Then Jeroboam built Shechem in mount Ephraim, and dwelt therein; and went out from thence, and built Penuel.

Note"Built" here means fortified and rebuilt as a stronghold, not founded from nothing; both towns already existed. Penuel lay east of the Jordan on the Jabbok river, guarding the routes on that side, while Shechem held the central highlands, Jeroboam is securing both halves of his territory.

26Jeroboam said to himself, "The kingdom could go back to the family of David.

26And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David:

27If these people go up to offer sacrifices at the house of the LORD in Jerusalem, their loyalty will turn back to their master, Rehoboam king of Judah. Then they will kill me and go back to Rehoboam king of Judah."

27If this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their lord, even unto Rehoboam king of Judah, and they shall kill me, and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah.

NoteBy the law observed in Jerusalem, Israelite men were to travel to the temple there three times a year for the major festivals. Jeroboam's problem is that his own subjects would be making regular pilgrimages into his rival's capital.

28So the king took advice and made two calves out of gold. He said to the people, "Going up to Jerusalem is too much for you. Here are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt."

28Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto 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.

NoteThe words he uses are almost exactly those spoken over the golden calf at Sinai in Exodus 32, and any early listener would have caught the echo. In the wider region a bull or calf figure often served as the pedestal on which an invisible god was pictured standing, rather than as the god itself, so what Jeroboam intended and what the writer accuses him of may not be the same thing.

29He set up one calf in Bethel and the other in Dan.

29And he set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan.

NoteBethel sat at the southern edge of Jeroboam's territory, a few hours' walk from Jerusalem; Dan was at the far northern edge. Both were old sanctuary sites with long histories of worship, so he was placing his shrines at the two ends of the kingdom and on ground people already regarded as holy.

30This became a sin, because the people traveled all the way to Dan to worship in front of one of the calves.

30And this thing became a sin: for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan.

NoteThe Hebrew of this verse is compressed and awkward, and its exact sense is disputed: it may mean that the people went as far as Dan to worship, or that they processed before the calf, all the way to Dan. Translations differ because the original is unclear.

31He also built shrines on the hilltops, and he made men priests who were not from the tribe of Levi, choosing them from among the ordinary people.

31And he made an house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi.

NoteA "high place" was an open-air shrine, usually on a hilltop or raised platform, with an altar and standing stones. Such shrines were ordinary throughout the region; the objection in this book is to their existing at all outside Jerusalem. Priesthood in Israel was restricted to one tribe, Levi, and was inherited; Jeroboam's appointing priests from outside it broke that rule. The Hebrew phrase behind "ordinary people" means "from the whole range of the people", the King James "the lowest of the people" reads a judgment into it that the words need not carry.

32Jeroboam set up a festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the festival held in Judah, and he offered sacrifices on the altar. He did this in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves he had made, and he put priests in Bethel for the hilltop shrines he had set up.

32And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the feast that is in Judah, and he offered upon the altar. So did he in Bethel, sacrificing unto the calves that he had made: and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made.

NoteThe festival kept in Judah on the fifteenth day of the *seventh* month was the autumn harvest festival, Booths or Tabernacles, the biggest of the year. Jeroboam's festival falls on the same day of the following month, near enough to substitute for it, deliberately different enough to be his own. The eighth month falls roughly in October–November.

33On the fifteenth day of the eighth month, a month he picked himself, he offered sacrifices on the altar he had built in Bethel. He set up a festival for the Israelites, offered sacrifices on the altar, and burned incense.

33So he offered upon the altar which he had made in Bethel the fifteenth day of the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart; and ordained a feast unto the children of Israel: and he offered upon the altar, and burnt incense.

Note"A month he picked himself" translates a phrase meaning he invented it out of his own mind, with no authority behind it. Note also that the king is performing the sacrifices and burning the incense in person, acts that in Jerusalem belonged to the priests.