1 Kings 12 in plain modern English. New Ground English Translation.

Rehoboam went to Shechem, because all of Israel had come to Shechem to make him king.

When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard about this — he was still in Egypt where he had fled from King Solomon — he returned from Egypt.

They sent for him and called him back. Then Jeroboam and the whole assembly of Israel came to Rehoboam and said,

"Your father made our labor brutal and his demands crushing. If you lighten the brutal labor and the crushing demands your father put on us, we'll serve you."

He told them, "Go away for three days, then come back to me." So the people left.

King Rehoboam consulted the older advisors who had served his father Solomon while he was still alive. "What do you advise?" he asked. "How should I respond to these people?"

They told him, "If you serve these people today — if you respond to them with good words — they will serve you forever."

But he rejected the advice the older advisors gave him and instead consulted the young men who had grown up with him and now served him.

He asked them, "What do you advise? How should we respond to these people who said to me, 'Lighten the demands your father put on us'?"

The young men who had grown up with him said, "This is what you should tell these people who said, 'Your father made our demands heavy, but you should make them lighter.' Tell them: 'My little finger is thicker than my father's waist.'"

"So tell them: 'My father loaded you with heavy demands? I'll make them even heavier. My father disciplined you with whips? I'll discipline you with scorpions.'"

On the third day, Jeroboam and all the people came back to Rehoboam, just as the king had said: "Come back to me in three days."

The king answered the people harshly. He rejected the advice the older advisors had given him

and spoke to them the way the young men had advised: "My father made your demands heavy — I'll make them even heavier. My father disciplined you with whips — I'll discipline you with scorpions."

The king refused to listen to the people. This turn of events came from Yahweh, to fulfill the word Yahweh had spoken through Ahijah from Shiloh to Jeroboam son of Nebat.

When all of Israel saw that the king refused to listen to them, the people answered the king: "What share do we have with David? We have no stake in Jesse's son! Head home, Israel! Take care of your own house, David!" So Israel went home.

But Rehoboam still ruled over the Israelites who lived in the towns of Judah.

King Rehoboam sent Adoniram, who was in charge of the forced labor, but all of Israel stoned him to death. King Rehoboam barely managed to jump into his chariot and flee to Jerusalem.

And Israel has been in rebellion against David's house to this day.

When all of Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they sent for him, brought him to the assembly, and made him king over all of Israel. No one followed David's house except the tribe of Judah alone.

When Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he assembled the entire house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin — one hundred and eighty thousand specially chosen fighters — to go to war against Israel and win the kingdom back for Rehoboam son of Solomon.

But a message from God came to Shemaiah, a man of God:

"Tell Rehoboam son of Solomon, king of Judah, and all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and the rest of the people:

'This is what Yahweh says: Do not go to war against your brothers, the people of Israel. Everyone go home, because this whole thing happened because of me.'" So they listened to Yahweh's word and turned back, just as Yahweh had told them.

Jeroboam fortified Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. He also went out from there and fortified Penuel.

Jeroboam thought to himself, "The way things are going, the kingdom will drift back to David's house.

If these people keep going up to make sacrifices at Yahweh's temple in Jerusalem, their hearts will eventually turn back to their master, Rehoboam king of Judah. They'll kill me and go back to Rehoboam king of Judah."

So the king came up with a plan. He made two golden calves and told the people, "You've been going up to Jerusalem long enough. Here are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt!"

He set up one calf in Bethel and placed the other in Dan.

And this became a cause of wrongdoing — the people went to worship before the one calf all the way up to Dan.

He also built shrines on the high places and appointed priests from all kinds of people who were not Levites.

And Jeroboam established a festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the festival in Judah, and he went up to the altar. He did the same in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves he had made. And he stationed the priests of the high places he had built in Bethel.

He went up to the altar he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day of the eighth month — a month he had chosen on his own — and he established a festival for the Israelites. He went up to the altar to burn offerings.