1 Kings 12

All 33 verses in the Clear Bible Translation. Tap a verse to compare the KJV and read what it means.

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1. 1Rehoboam traveled to Shechem, because all of Israel had gathered there to make him king.
2. 2Jeroboam son of Nebat was still living in Egypt, where he had fled to escape King Solomon. When he heard the news,
3. 3the people sent for him. So Jeroboam and the whole assembly of Israel came to Rehoboam and said,
4. 4Your father made our burden heavy. Now, please lighten the heavy service and yoke he put on us, and we will serve you.
5. 5Rehoboam told them, "Give me three days, then come back." So the people left.
6. 6King Rehoboam went to the elders who had served as advisors to his father Solomon while he was alive. "What do you recommend?" he asked. "How should I answer these people?"
7. 7They told him, "If you serve these people today — if you treat them well and give them a kind answer — they'll be loyal to you forever."
8. 8But Rehoboam rejected the elders' advice. Instead, he turned to the young men he had grown up with, who now served as his attendants.
9. 9"What do you think?" he asked them. "How should I respond to these people who are asking me to lighten the burden my father put on them?"
10. 10The young men who had grown up with him said to him, "This is what you should say to the people who said to you, 'Your father made our yoke heavy, but make it lighter for us.' Tell them, 'My little finger will be thicker than my father's waist.'"
11. 11My father loaded you down with heavy burdens? I'll make them even heavier. My father disciplined you with whips? I'll discipline you with scorpions.'"
12. 12Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the 3rd day, as the king had appointed, for he had said, 'Come to me again on the 3rd day.'
13. 13The king answered the people harshly, ignoring the advice the elders had given him.
14. 14Instead, he followed the young men's advice and said, "My father loaded you down with heavy burdens? I'll make them even heavier. My father disciplined you with whips? I'll discipline you with scorpions."
15. 15So the king did not listen to the people, for the cause was from the LORD, that he might fulfill his word which the LORD spoke through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.
16. 16When all Israel saw that the king would not listen to them, the people responded to the king, saying, "What portion do we have in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, O Israel! Now look after your own house, David." So Israel went to their tents.
17. 17But Rehoboam still ruled over the Israelites who lived in the towns of Judah.
18. 18King Rehoboam then sent Adoram, who was in charge of the tribute, but all Israel stoned him to death. So King Rehoboam quickly got into his chariot to flee to Jerusalem.
19. 19From that day on, Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David.
20. 20When all of Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they summoned him to the assembly and made him king over all Israel. No one remained loyal to the house of David except the tribe of Judah alone.
21. 21When Rehoboam arrived back in Jerusalem, he assembled one hundred and eighty thousand chosen men from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, who were warriors, to fight against Israel and bring the kingdom back to Rehoboam, the son of Solomon.
22. 22But the word of God came to Shemaiah, the man of God, saying,
23. 23Go tell Rehoboam son of Solomon, king of Judah, and all the people of Judah and Benjamin, and the remnant of the people:
24. 24'This is what the LORD says: Do not march out to fight against your brothers, the people of Israel. Everyone go home, because I am the one who made this happen.'" They obeyed the word of the LORD and turned back, just as the LORD had commanded.
25. 25Jeroboam built up Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there; then he went out and built Penuel.
26. 26And Jeroboam thought to himself, 'Now the kingdom will return to the house of David.'
27. 27If these people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, their hearts will turn back to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah. They will kill me and return to Rehoboam king of Judah.
28. 28So the king took counsel and made two golden calves. He said to the people, "It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!"
29. 29He placed one calf in Bethel and the other in Dan.
30. 30This thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one, even as far as Dan.
31. 31Jeroboam constructed a house of worship on the high places and appointed priests from among the common people, who were not descendants of Levi.
32. 32Jeroboam also established a festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, similar to the festival in Judah, and he offered sacrifices on the altar. He did this in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves he had made, and he appointed priests for the high places he had set up there.
33. 33On the fifteenth day of the eighth month—a date he had invented on his own—he went up to the altar he had built in Bethel. He established this festival for the people of Israel, and he offered sacrifices and burned incense on the altar.