Day 152 of 730

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

²It happened, when Jeroboam the son of Nebat heard of it (for he was yet in Egypt, where he had fled from the presence of king Solomon, and Jeroboam lived in Egypt,

³and they sent and called him), that Jeroboam and all the assembly of Israel came, and spoke to Rehoboam, saying,

⁴"Your father made our yoke grievous: now therefore make you the grievous service of your father, and his heavy yoke which he put on us, lighter, and we will serve you."

⁵He said to them, "Depart for three days, then come back to me." The people departed.

⁶King Rehoboam took counsel with the old men, who had stood before Solomon his father while he yet lived, saying, "What counsel do you give me to return answer to this people?"

⁷They spoke to him, saying, "If you will be a servant to this people this day, and will serve them, and answer them, and speak good words to them, then they will be your servants forever."

⁸But he forsook the counsel of the old men which they had given him, and took counsel with the young men who had grown up with him, who stood before him.

⁹He said to them, "What counsel do you give, that we may return answer to this people, who have spoken to me, saying, 'Make the yoke that your father put on us lighter?'"

¹⁰The young men who had grown up with him spoke to him, saying, "Thus you shall tell this people who spoke to you, saying, 'Your father made our yoke heavy, but make it lighter to us;' you shall say to them, 'My little finger is thicker than my father's waist.

¹¹Now 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.'"

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

¹³The king answered the people roughly, and forsook the counsel of the old men which they had given him,

¹⁴and spoke to them according to 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."

¹⁵So the king did not listen to the people; for it was a thing brought about of the Lord, that he might establish his word, which the Lord spoke by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.

¹⁶When all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king, saying, "What portion have we in David? Neither do we have an inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, Israel! Now see to your own house, David." So Israel departed to their tents.

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

¹⁸Then king Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was over the men subject to forced labor; and all Israel stoned him to death with stones. King Rehoboam made speed to get him up to his chariot, to flee to Jerusalem.

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

²⁰It happened, 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 who followed the house of David, but the tribe of Judah only.

²¹When Rehoboam had come 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 Rehoboam the son of Solomon.

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

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, saying,

²⁴'Thus says the Lord, "You shall not go up, nor fight against your brothers, the children of Israel. Everyone return to his house; for this thing is of me."'" So they listened to the word of the Lord, and returned and went their way, according to the word of the Lord.

²⁵Then Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and lived in it; and he went out from there, and built Penuel.

²⁶Jeroboam said in his heart, "Now the kingdom will return to the house of David.

²⁷If this people goes up to offer sacrifices in the house of the 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."

²⁸Whereupon 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. Look and see your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt!"

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

³⁰This thing became a sin; for the people went to worship before the one, even to Dan.

³¹He made houses of high places, and made priests from among all the people, who were not of the sons of Levi.

³²Jeroboam 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; he did so in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he had made: and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places that he had made.

³³He 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 children of Israel, and went up to the altar, to burn incense.

¹Behold, there came a man of God out of Judah by the word of the Lord to Beth El: and Jeroboam was standing by the altar to burn incense.

²He cried against the altar by the word of the Lord, and said, "Altar, altar, thus says the Lord: 'Behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name. On you he shall sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and they will burn men's bones on you.'"

³He gave a sign the same day, saying, "This is the sign which the Lord has spoken: Behold, the altar will be split apart, and the ashes that are on it will be poured out."

⁴It happened, when the king heard the saying of the man of God, which he cried against the altar in Bethel, that Jeroboam put out his hand from the altar, saying, "Seize him!" His hand, which he put out against him, dried up, so that he could not draw it back again to himself.

⁵The altar also was split apart, and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign which the man of God had given by the word of the Lord.

⁶The king answered the man of God, "Now entreat the favor of the Lord your God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored me again." The man of God entreated the Lord, and the king's hand was restored him again, and became as it was before.

⁷The king said to the man of God, "Come home with me, and refresh yourself, and I will give you a reward."

⁸The man of God said to the king, "Even if you gave me half of your house, I would not go in with you, neither would I eat bread nor drink water in this place;

⁹for so was it commanded me by the word of the Lord, saying, 'You shall eat no bread, nor drink water, neither return by the way that you came.'"

¹⁰So he went another way, and did not return by the way that he came to Bethel.

¹¹Now there lived 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. They also told their father the words which he had spoken to the king.

¹²Their father said to them, "Which way did he go?" Now his sons had seen which way the man of God went, who came from Judah.

¹³He said to his sons, "Saddle the donkey for me." So they saddled the donkey for him; and he rode on it.

¹⁴He went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak. He said to him, "Are you the man of God who came from Judah?" He said, "I am."

¹⁵Then he said to him, "Come home with me, and eat bread."

¹⁶He said, "I may not return with you, nor go in with you; neither will I eat bread nor drink water with you in this place.

¹⁷For it was said to me by the word of the Lord, 'You shall eat no bread nor drink water there, nor turn again to go by the way that you came.'"

¹⁸He said to him, "I also am a prophet as you are; and an angel spoke to me by the word of the Lord, saying, 'Bring him back with you into your house, that he may eat bread and drink water.'" He lied to him.

¹⁹So he went back with him, and ate bread in his house, and drank water.

²⁰It happened, as they sat at the table, that the word of the Lord came to the prophet who brought him back;

²¹and he cried to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, "Thus says the Lord, 'Because you have been disobedient to the mouth of the Lord, and have not kept the commandment which the Lord your God commanded you,

²²but came back, and have eaten bread and drunk water in the place of which he said to you, "Eat no bread, and drink no water"; your body shall not come to the tomb of your fathers.'"

²³It happened, after he had eaten bread, and after he had drunk, that he saddled the donkey for the prophet whom he had brought back.

²⁴When he had gone, a lion met him by the way, and killed him. His body was cast in the way, and the donkey stood by it. The lion also stood by the body.

²⁵Behold, 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 lived.

²⁶When 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 the Lord. Therefore the Lord has delivered him to the lion, which has mauled him and slain him, according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke to him."

²⁷He spoke to his sons, saying, "Saddle the donkey for me." They saddled it.

²⁸He 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 mauled the donkey.

²⁹The prophet took up the body of the man of God, and laid it on the donkey, and brought it back. He came to the city of the old prophet to mourn, and to bury him.

³⁰He laid his body in his own grave; and they mourned over him, saying, "Alas, my brother!"

³¹It happened, after he had buried him, that he spoke to his sons, saying, "When I am dead, then bury me in the tomb in which the man of God is buried. Lay my bones beside his bones.

³²For the saying which he cried by the word of the Lord against the altar in Bethel, and against all the houses of the high places which are in the cities of Samaria, will surely happen."

³³After this thing Jeroboam did not return from his evil way, but again made priests of the high places from among all the people. Whoever wanted to, he consecrated him, that there might be priests of the high places.

³⁴This thing became sin to the house of Jeroboam, even to cut it off, and to destroy it from off the surface of the earth.

¹Why do the nations rage, and the peoples plot a vain thing?

²The kings of the earth take a stand, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against his Anointed, saying,

³"Let's break their bonds apart, and cast their cords from us."

⁴He who sits in the heavens will laugh. The Lord will have them in derision.

⁵Then he will speak to them in his anger, and terrify them in his wrath:

⁶"Yet I have set my king on my holy hill of Zion."

⁷I will tell of the decree. The Lord said to me, "You are my son. Today I have become your father.

⁸Ask of me, and I will give the nations for your inheritance, the uttermost parts of the earth for your possession.

⁹You shall rule them with a rod of iron. You shall dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel."

¹⁰Now therefore be wise, you kings. Be instructed, you judges of the earth.

¹¹Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling.

¹²Kiss the son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, for his wrath will soon be kindled. Blessed are all those who take refuge in him.

¹The wicked flee when no one pursues; but the righteous are as bold as a lion.

²In rebellion, a land has many rulers, but order is maintained by a man of understanding and knowledge.

³A needy man who oppresses the poor is like a driving rain which leaves no crops.

⁴Those who forsake the Law praise the wicked; but those who keep the Law contend with them.

⁵Evil men do not understand justice; but those who seek the Lord understand it fully.

⁶Better is the poor who walks in his integrity, than he who is perverse in his ways, and he is rich.

⁷Whoever keeps the Law is a wise son; but he who is a companion of gluttons shames his father.

⁸He who increases his wealth by excessive interest gathers it for one who has pity on the poor.

⁹He who turns away his ear from hearing the Law, even his prayer is an abomination.

¹⁰Whoever causes the upright to go astray in an evil way, he will fall into his own trap; but the blameless will inherit good.

¹¹The rich man is wise in his own eyes; but the poor who has understanding sees through him.

¹²When the righteous triumph, there is great glory; but when the wicked rise, men hide themselves.

¹³He who conceals his sins doesn't prosper, but whoever confesses and renounces them finds mercy.

¹⁴Blessed is the man who always fears; but one who hardens his heart falls into trouble.

¹⁵As a roaring lion or a charging bear, so is a wicked ruler over helpless people.

¹⁶A tyrannical ruler lacks judgment. One who hates ill-gotten gain will have long days.

¹⁷A man who is tormented by life blood will be a fugitive until death; no one will support him.

¹⁸Whoever walks blamelessly is kept safe; but one with perverse ways will fall suddenly.

¹⁹One who works his land will have an abundance of food; but one who chases fantasies will have his fill of poverty.

²⁰A faithful man is rich with blessings; but one who is eager to be rich will not go unpunished.

²¹To show partiality is not good; yet a man will do wrong for a piece of bread.

²²A stingy man hurries after riches, and doesn't know that poverty waits for him.

²³One who rebukes a man will afterward find more favor than one who flatters with the tongue.

²⁴Whoever robs his father or his mother, and says, "It's not wrong." He is a partner with a destroyer.

²⁵One who is greedy stirs up strife; but one who trusts in the Lord will prosper.

²⁶One who trusts in himself is a fool; but one who walks in wisdom is kept safe.

²⁷One who gives to the poor has no lack; but one who closes his eyes will have many curses.

²⁸When the wicked rise, men hide themselves; but when they perish, the righteous thrive.