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

6Then King Rehoboam consulted with the elders12:6 1Kg 4:2–19 who had served his father Solomon when he was alive, asking, “How do you advise me to respond to this people?”

7They replied, “Today if you will be a servant to this people and serve them, and if you respond to them by speaking kind words to them, they will be your servants forever.”12:7 2Ch 10:7; Pr 15:1

8But he rejected the advice of the elders who had advised him12:8 Lv 19:32 and consulted with the young men who had grown up with him and attended him.

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

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

11Although my father burdened you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with barbed whips.’”12:11 Lit with scorpions, also in v. 1412:10–11 Ex 1:13–14; 5:6–9; 2Ch 10:10–11

12So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day, as the king had ordered: “Return to me on the third day.”

13Then the king answered the people harshly. He rejected the advice the elders had given him

14and spoke to them according to the young men’s advice: “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke; my father disciplined you with whips, but I will discipline you with barbed whips.”

15The king did not listen to the people, because this turn of events came from the Lord12:15 Dt 2:30; 1Kg 12:24 to carry out his word, which the Lord had spoken through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam son of Nebat.12:15 1Kg 11:29–39

16When all Israel saw that the king had not listened to them, the people answered him:

18Then King Rehoboam sent Adoram,12:18 LXX reads Adoniram; 1Kg 4:6; 5:1412:18 2Sm 20:24; 1Kg 4:6; 5:14 who was in charge of forced labor, but all Israel stoned him to death. King Rehoboam managed to get into the chariot and flee to Jerusalem.

19Israel is still in rebellion against the house of David today.12:19 2Kg 21:17

29He set up one in Bethel,12:29 Gn 12:8; 28:19 and put the other in Dan.12:29 Jdg 18:29

30This led to sin;12:30 1Kg 13:34; 2Kg 17:21 the people walked in procession before one of the calves all the way to Dan.12:30 Some LXX mss read calves to Bethel and the other to Dan12:30 Ex 20:4–6; Dt 5:8–10

31Jeroboam also made shrines12:31 Lit a house on the high places12:31 1Kg 3:3; 11:7 and made priests from the ranks of the people who were not Levites.12:31 2Kg 17:32

32Jeroboam made a festival in the eighth month on the fifteenth day of the month, like the festival in Judah.12:32 Lv 23:33–34; Nm 29:12 He offered sacrifices on the altar; he made this offering in Bethel to sacrifice to the calves he had made. He also stationed the priests in Bethel for the high places he had made.12:32 2Ch 11:15

33He offered sacrifices on12:33 Or He went up to the altar he had set up in Bethel on the fifteenth day of the eighth month. He chose this month on his own.12:33 Nm 15:39 He made a festival for the Israelites, offered sacrifices on the altar, and burned incense.12:33 2Kg 23:15