Rebellion against Rehoboam

¹Then Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had gone there to make him king.

²When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard about this, he was stillin Egypt where he had fled from King Solomon and had been living ever since.

³So they sent for Jeroboam, and he and the whole assembly of Israel came to Rehoboam and said,

⁴“Your father put a heavy yoke on us. But now you must lighten the burden of your father’s service and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you.”

⁵Rehoboam answered, “Go away for three days and then return to me.” So the people departed.

⁶Then King Rehoboam consulted with the elders who had served his father Solomon during his lifetime. “How do you advise me to respond to these people?” he asked.

⁷They replied, “If you will be a servant to these people and serve them this day, and if you will respond by speaking kind words to them, they will be your servants forever.”

⁸But Rehoboam rejected the advice of the elders; instead, he consulted the young men who had grown up with him and served him.

⁹He asked them, “What message do you advise that we send back to these people who have spoken to me, saying, ‘Lighten the yoke your father put on us’?”

¹⁰The young men who had grown up with him replied, “This is how you should answer these people who said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you must make it lighter.’ This is what you should tell them: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist!

¹¹Whereas my father burdened you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke. Whereas my father scourged you with whips, I will scourge you with scorpions.’”

¹²After three days, Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam, since the king had said, “Come back to me on the third day.”

¹³And the king answered the people harshly. He rejected the advice of the elders

¹⁴and spoke to them as the young men had advised, saying, “Whereas my father made your yoke heavy, I will add to your yoke. Whereas my father scourged you with whips, I will scourge you with scorpions.”

¹⁵So the king did not listen to the people, and indeed this turn of events was from the LORD, to fulfill the word He had spoken to Jeroboam son of Nebat through Ahijah the Shilonite.

The Kingdom Divided

¹⁶When all Israel saw that the king had refused to listen to them, they answered the king:“What portion do we have in David,and what inheritance in the son of Jesse?To your tents, O Israel!Look now to your own house, O David!”So the Israelites went home,

¹⁷but Rehoboam still reigned over the Israelites living in the cities of Judah.

¹⁸Then King Rehoboam sent out Adoram,who was in charge of the forced labor, but all Israel stoned him to death. And King Rehoboam mounted his chariot in haste and escaped to Jerusalem.

¹⁹So to this day Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David.

Shemaiah’s Prophecy

²⁰When all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they summoned him to the assembly and made him king over all Israel. Only the tribe of Judah followed the house of David.

²¹And when Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he mobilized the whole house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin—180,000 chosen warriors—to fight against the house of Israel and restore the kingdom to Rehoboam son of Solomon.

²²But the word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God:

²³“Tell Rehoboam son of Solomon king of Judah, all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and the rest of the people

²⁴that this is what the LORD says: ‘You are not to go up and fight against your brothers, the Israelites. Each of you must return home, for this is My doing.’”So they listened to the word of the LORD and turned back according to the word of the LORD.

Jeroboam’s Idolatry

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

²⁶Jeroboam said in his heart, “Now the kingdom might revert to the house of David.

²⁷If these people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, their hearts will return to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah; then they will kill me and return to Rehoboam king of Judah.”

²⁸After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves and said to the people,“Going up to Jerusalem is too much for you. Here, O Israel, are your gods, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”

²⁹One calf he set up in Bethel, and the other in Dan.

³⁰And this thing became a sin; the people walked as far as Dan to worship before one of the calves.

³¹Jeroboam also built shrines on the high places and appointed from every class of people priests who were not Levites.

³²And Jeroboam ordained a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month,like the feast that was in Judah, and he offered sacrifices on the altar; he made this offering in Bethel to sacrifice to the calves he had set up, and he installed priests in Bethel for the high places he had set up.

³³On the fifteenth day of the eighth month, a month of his own choosing, Jeroboam offered sacrifices on the altar he had set up in Bethel. So he ordained a feast for the Israelites, offered sacrifices on the altar, and burned incense.

Rebellion against Rehoboam

¹Then Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had gone there to make him king.

²When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard about this, he returned from Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon.

³So they sent for Jeroboam, and he and all Israel came to Rehoboam and said,

⁴“Your father put a heavy yoke on us. But now you must lighten the burden of your father’s service and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you.”

⁵Rehoboam answered, “Come back to me in three days.” So the people departed.

⁶Then King Rehoboam consulted with the elders who had served his father Solomon during his lifetime. “How do you advise me to respond to these people?” he asked.

⁷They replied, “If you will be kind to these people and please them by speaking kind words to them, they will be your servants forever.”

⁸But Rehoboam rejected the advice of the elders; instead, he consulted the young men who had grown up with him and served him.

⁹He asked them, “What message do you advise that we send back to these people who have spoken to me, saying, ‘Lighten the yoke your father put on us’?”

¹⁰The young men who had grown up with him replied, “This is how you should answer these people who said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you must make it lighter.’ This is what you should tell them: ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist!

¹¹Whereas my father burdened you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke. Whereas my father scourged you with whips, I will scourge you with scorpions.’”

¹²After three days, Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam, since the king had said, “Come back to me on the third day.”

¹³And the king answered them harshly. King Rehoboam rejected the advice of the elders

¹⁴and spoke to them as the young men had advised, saying, “Whereas my father made your yoke heavy,I will add to your yoke. Whereas my father scourged you with whips, I will scourge you with scorpions.”

¹⁵So the king did not listen to the people, and indeed this turn of events was from God, in order that the LORD might fulfill the word that He had spoken through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam son of Nebat.

The Kingdom Divided

¹⁶When all Israel saw that the king had refused to listen to them, they answeredthe king:“What portion do we have in David,and what inheritance in the son of Jesse?To your tents, O Israel!Look now to your own house, O David!”So all the Israelites went home,

¹⁷but Rehoboam still reigned over the Israelites living in the cities of Judah.

¹⁸Then King Rehoboam sent out Hadoram,who was in charge of the forced labor, but the Israelites stoned him to death. And King Rehoboam mounted his chariot in haste and escaped to Jerusalem.

¹⁹So to this day Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David.

Land Division West of the Jordan

¹Now these are the portions that the Israelites inherited in the land of Canaan, as distributed by Eleazar the priest, Joshua son of Nun, and the heads of the families of the tribes of Israel.

²Their inheritance was assigned by lot for the nine and a half tribes, as the LORD had commanded through Moses.

³For Moses had given the inheritance east of the Jordan to the other two and a half tribes. But he granted no inheritance among them to the Levites.

⁴The descendants of Joseph became two tribes, Manasseh and Ephraim. And no portion of the land was given to the Levites, except for cities in which to live, along with pasturelands for their flocks and herds.

⁵So the Israelites did as the LORD had commanded Moses, and they divided the land.

Caleb Requests Hebron

⁶Then the sons of Judah approached Joshua at Gilgal, and Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite said to him, “You know what the LORD said to Moses the man of God at Kadesh-barnea about you and me.

⁷I was forty years old when Moses the servant of the LORD sent me from Kadesh-barnea to spy out the land, and I brought back to him an honest report.

⁸Although my brothers who went with me made the hearts of the people melt with fear, I remained loyal to the LORD my God.

⁹On that day Moses swore to me, saying, ‘Surely the land on which you have set foot will be an inheritance to you and your children forever, because you have wholly followed the LORD my God.’

¹⁰Now behold, as the LORD promised, He has kept me alive these forty-five years since He spoke this word to Moses, while Israel wandered in the wilderness. So here I am today, eighty-five years old,

¹¹still as strong today as I was the day Moses sent me out. As my strength was then, so it is now for war, for going out, and for coming in.

¹²Now therefore give me this hill country that the LORD promised me on that day, for you yourself heard then that the Anakim were there, with great and fortified cities. Perhaps with the LORD’s help I will drive them out, as the LORD has spoken.”

¹³Then Joshua blessed Caleb son of Jephunneh and gave him Hebron as his inheritance.

¹⁴Therefore Hebron belongs to Caleb son of Jephunneh the Kenizzite as an inheritance to this day, because he wholly followed the LORD, the God of Israel.

¹⁵(Hebron used to be called Kiriath-arba, after Arba, the greatest man among the Anakim.)Then the land had rest from war.

Give Thanks to the LORD, for He Is Good

¹Hallelujah!Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good;His loving devotion endures forever.

²Who can describe the mighty acts of the LORDor fully proclaim His praise?

³Blessed are those who uphold justice,who practice righteousness at all times.

⁴Remember me, O LORD, in Your favor to Your people;visit me with Your salvation,

⁵that I may see the prosperity of Your chosen ones,and rejoice in the gladness of Your nation,and give glory with Your inheritance.

⁶We have sinned like our fathers;we have done wrong and acted wickedly.

⁷Our fathers in Egypt did not grasp Your wondersor remember Your abundant kindness;but they rebelled by the sea,there at the Red Sea.

⁸Yet He saved them for the sake of His name,to make His power known.

⁹He rebuked the Red Sea, and it dried up;He led them through the depths as through a desert.

¹⁰He saved them from the hand that hated them;He redeemed them from the hand of the enemy.

¹¹The waters covered their foes;not one of them remained.

¹²Then they believed His promisesand sang His praise.

¹³Yet they soon forgot His worksand failed to wait for His counsel.

¹⁴They craved intensely in the wildernessand tested God in the desert.

¹⁵So He granted their request,but sent a wasting disease upon them.

¹⁶In the camp they envied Moses,as well as Aaron, the holy one of the LORD.

¹⁷The earth opened up and swallowed Dathan;it covered the assembly of Abiram.

¹⁸Then fire blazed through their company;flames consumed the wicked.

¹⁹At Horebthey made a calfand worshiped a molten image.

²⁰They exchanged their Gloryfor the image of a grass-eating ox.

²¹They forgot God their Savior,who did great things in Egypt,

²²wondrous works in the land of Ham,and awesome deeds by the Red Sea.

²³So He said He would destroy them—had not Moses His chosen onestood before Him in the breachto divert His wrath from destroying them.

²⁴They despised the pleasant land;they did not believe His promise.

²⁵They grumbled in their tentsand did not listen to the voice of the LORD.

²⁶So He raised His hand and sworeto cast them down in the wilderness,

²⁷to dispersetheir offspring among the nationsand scatter them throughout the lands.

²⁸They yoked themselves to Baal of Peorand ate sacrifices offered to lifeless gods.

²⁹So they provoked the LORD to anger with their deeds,and a plague broke out among them.

³⁰But Phinehas stood and intervened,and the plague was restrained.

³¹It was credited to him as righteousnessfor endless generations to come.

³²At the waters of Meribahthey angered the LORD,and trouble came to Moses because of them.

³³For they rebelled against His Spirit,and Moses spoke rashly with his lips.

³⁴They did not destroy the peoplesas the LORD had commanded them,

³⁵but they mingled with the nationsand adopted their customs.

³⁶They worshiped their idols,which became a snare to them.

³⁷They sacrificed their sonsand their daughters to demons.

³⁸They shed innocent blood—the blood of their sons and daughters,whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan,and the land was polluted with blood.

³⁹They defiled themselves by their actionsand prostituted themselves by their deeds.

⁴⁰So the anger of the LORD burned against His people,and He abhorred His own inheritance.

⁴¹He delivered them into the hand of the nations,and those who hated them ruled over them.

⁴²Their enemies oppressed themand subdued them under their hand.

⁴³Many times He rescued them,but they were bent on rebellionand sank down in their iniquity.

⁴⁴Nevertheless He heard their cry;He took note of their distress.

⁴⁵And He remembered His covenant with them,and relented by the abundance of His loving devotion.

⁴⁶He made them objects of compassionto all who held them captive.

⁴⁷Save us, O LORD our God,and gather us from the nations,that we may give thanks to Your holy name,that we may glory in Your praise.

⁴⁸Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel,from everlasting to everlasting.Let all the people say, “Amen!”Hallelujah!