The Kingdom Divides

When Solomon was dead, and his son Rehoboam, born of an Ammonite wife named Naamah, had succeeded him in the kingdom, the rulers of the people at once sent into Egypt and called Jeroboam back. When he had come to them at the city of Shechem, Rehoboam came there too, for it had been decided to proclaim him king there before the assembled Israelites. So the rulers of the people, together with Jeroboam, came to him and pleaded with him. They said that he ought to relax the servitude his father had imposed on them and be gentler than his father, because they had borne a heavy yoke; then they would be better disposed toward him and would accept their service gladly, won by his consideration rather than by fear. But Rehoboam told them to come back to him in three days, when he would give an answer to their request. This delay gave rise at once to suspicion, since he had not immediately given them the favorable answer they wanted; for they thought he ought to have given them a kind answer on the spot, especially since he was young. Still, they thought that his taking counsel about it, and not refusing them at once, gave them some good hope of success. [a]

Rehoboam now called his father’s friends and consulted them about what answer he should give the people. They gave him the advice that became friends, and men who knew the temper of such a crowd. They advised him to speak in a more popular way than suited the grandeur of a king, because in that way he would bind them to submit to him willingly, since subjects like it best when their kings are almost on their own level. But Rehoboam rejected this advice, so good and in general so useful (at least it was so at that time, when he was about to be made king); God himself, I suppose, caused what was most to his advantage to be condemned by him. So he called the young men who had been brought up with him, told them what advice the elders had given him, and told them to say what they thought he should do. They advised him to give the people the following answer (for neither their youth nor God himself let them see what was best): that his little finger would be thicker than his father’s loins; that if they had met with harsh treatment from his father, they would experience much rougher treatment from him; and that if his father had disciplined them with whips, they must expect him to do it with scorpions. The king was pleased with this advice and thought it suited the dignity of his rule to give them such an answer. So when the people had gathered on the third day to hear his answer, they were all in great expectation and listened intently for what the king would say, supposing they would hear something kind. But he passed over his friends and answered as the young men had counseled him. This was done by the will of God, so that what Ahijah had foretold might come to pass. [b]

The people were stung by these words, and were as grieved at them as if they had already felt what they threatened. They were furious with the king, and all cried out aloud, “After this day we have no tie with David or his descendants, not even of kinship!” And they said further, “We leave Rehoboam only the temple his grandfather built.” And they threatened to abandon him. They were so bitter, and held on to their anger so long, that when he sent Adoram, who was over the tribute, to calm them and make them milder and persuade them to forgive anything rash or hurtful in what he had said, they would not listen to it, but threw stones at him and killed him. When Rehoboam saw this, he thought the stones that had killed his servant were aimed at himself, and he feared he might suffer the ultimate punishment in earnest. So he immediately got into his chariot and fled to Jerusalem, where the tribe of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin made him king. But the rest of the people abandoned the sons of David from that day and appointed Jeroboam the ruler of their public affairs. At this Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, assembled a great gathering of the two tribes that submitted to him, and was ready to take a hundred and eighty thousand chosen men from the army and march against Jeroboam and his people, to force them by war to be his servants. But God forbade him through the prophet to go to war, for it was not right for brothers of the same country to fight one another. He also said that this revolt of the people was according to the purpose of God. So he did not go on with the expedition. Now I will relate first the actions of Jeroboam king of Israel; after that we will relate what is connected with them, the actions of Rehoboam king of the two tribes. In this way we will keep the good order of the history intact. [c]

When Jeroboam had built himself a palace in the city of Shechem, he lived there. He also built himself another at a city called Penuel. Now the Feast of Tabernacles was coming in a little while, and Jeroboam considered that if he allowed the people to go to worship God at Jerusalem and celebrate the festival there, they would probably repent of what they had done, be drawn by the temple and the worship of God performed there, and leave him and go over to their former king; and if so, he would risk losing his own life. So he devised this scheme. He made two golden heifers and built two little temples for them, one in the city of Bethel and the other in Dan, which is at the springs of the Lesser Jordan; and he put the heifers into the two little temples in those cities. When he had called together the ten tribes he ruled over, he made a speech to the people in these words: “I suppose, my countrymen, that you know this: every place has God in it, and there is no one fixed place where he is, but everywhere he hears and sees those who worship him. For this reason I do not think it right for you to make so long a journey to Jerusalem, which is an enemy’s city, to worship him. It was a man who built the temple. I too have made two golden heifers that bear the name of God. One I have consecrated in the city of Bethel and the other in Dan, so that those of you who live nearest those cities may go to them and worship God there. And I will appoint for you certain priests and Levites from among yourselves, so that you will have no need of the tribe of Levi or of the sons of Aaron. Let anyone among you who wants to be a priest bring to God a bull and a ram, as they say Aaron the first priest did also.” By saying this Jeroboam deceived the people, and led them to revolt from the worship of their forefathers and to break their laws. This was the beginning of the Hebrews’ miseries, and the reason they were defeated in war by foreigners and so fell into captivity. But we will tell of those things in their proper places later. [h]

When the feast came, in the seventh month, Jeroboam wanted to celebrate it himself in Bethel, as the two tribes celebrated it in Jerusalem. So he built an altar before the heifer and took it upon himself to be high priest. He went up to the altar with his own priests around him. But as he was about to offer the sacrifices and the burnt offerings in the sight of all the people, a prophet named Jadon, sent by God, came to him from Jerusalem. He stood in the middle of the crowd, within the king’s hearing, and addressing his words to the altar, he said: “God foretells that there will be a certain man of the family of David, Josiah by name, who will sacrifice on you the false priests who live at that time, and on you will burn the bones of these deceivers of the people, these impostors and wicked wretches. But so that this people may believe that these things will happen, I foretell a sign to them that will also happen. This altar will be broken to pieces at once, and all the fat of the sacrifices on it will be poured out on the ground.” When the prophet had said this, Jeroboam flew into a rage, stretched out his hand, and ordered them to seize him. But the hand he stretched out was weakened, and he could not draw it back to himself, for it had withered and hung down as if it were dead. The altar too was broken to pieces, and everything on it was poured out, as the prophet had foretold would happen. So the king understood that he was a truthful man with divine foreknowledge, and begged him to pray to God to restore his right hand. The prophet did pray to God to grant him that request. The king, his hand restored to its natural state, rejoiced at it and invited the prophet to dine with him. But Jadon said that he could not bear to come into his house, or to taste bread or water in this city, for God had forbidden him to do so, and also to go back by the way he had come; he said he was to return by another way. The king wondered at the man’s self-control, but was himself afraid, suspecting from what had been said to him that his affairs would change for the worse. [k]