The Kingdom Divided

For when Solomon died in the fortieth year of his reign, his son Rehoboam succeeded to his father’s throne in the sixteenth year of his age, and part of the people took offense and revolted from him. They had asked that the very heavy tribute Solomon had laid on them be lightened. He rejected their pleas, and in this way he lost the goodwill of the whole people. So, by common consent, the government was given to Jeroboam. Jeroboam came from a family of middle rank and had for some time been in Solomon’s service. But when the king found out that the prophet Ahijah had promised him the rule of the Hebrews, he had resolved to have him secretly put to death. Out of fear of this, Jeroboam fled into Egypt and there married a wife of the royal family. When at last he heard of Solomon’s death, he returned to his native land and, as we have said, took the government at the people’s wish. [a]

Two tribes, however, Judah and Benjamin, had stayed under Rehoboam’s rule, and from them he made ready an army of thirty thousand men. But when the two armies advanced, the people were told by the word of God not to fight, because Jeroboam had received the kingdom by God’s appointment. So the army scorned the king’s command and scattered, and Jeroboam’s power grew. But Rehoboam held Jerusalem, where the people were used to offering sacrifice to God in the temple Solomon had built. So Jeroboam, afraid that their religious feeling might turn the people away from him, decided to fill their minds with superstition. He set up one golden calf at Bethel and another at Dan, so that the people could offer sacrifice to them. And passing over the tribe of Levi, he appointed priests from among the people. But rebuke followed this guilt, so hateful to God. After that there were frequent battles between the kings, and so each kept his kingdom on uncertain terms. Rehoboam died at the end of the seventeenth year of his reign.