Taken from the HOLY BIBLE: NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION (C) 1978 by the New York Bible Society, used by permission of Zondervan Bible Publishers. JEROBOAM 1KI 11:28 Now Jeroboam was a man of standing, and when Solomon saw how well the young man did his work, he put him in charge of the whole labor force of the house of Joseph. 1KI 11:29 About that time Jeroboam was going out of Jerusalem, and Ahijah the prophet of Shiloh met him on the way, wearing a new cloak. The two of them were alone out in the country, 1KI 11:30 and Ahijah took hold of the new cloak he was wearing and tore it into twelve pieces. 1KI 11:31 Then he said to Jeroboam, "Take ten pieces for yourself, for this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'See, I am going to tear the kingdom out of Solomon's hand and give you ten tribes. 1KI 11:32 But for the sake of my servant David and the city of Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, he will have one tribe. 1KI 11:33 I will do this because they have forsaken me and worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Molech the god of the Ammonites, and have not walked in my ways, nor done what is right in my eyes, nor kept my statutes and laws as David, Solomon's father, did. 1KI 11:34 "'But I will not take the whole kingdom out of Solomon's hand; I have made him ruler all the days of his life for the sake of David my servant, whom I chose and who observed my commands and statutes. 1KI 11:35 I will take the kingdom from his son's hands and give you ten tribes. 1KI 11:36 I will give one tribe to his son so that David my servant may always have a lamp before me in Jerusalem, the city where I chose to put my Name. 1KI 11:37 However, as for you, I will take you, and you will rule over all that your heart desires; you will be king over Israel. 1KI 11:38 If you do whatever I command you and walk in my ways and do what is right in my eyes by keeping my statutes and commands, as David my servant did, I will be with you. I will build you a dynasty as enduring as the one I built for David and will give Israel to you. 1KI 11:39 I will humble David's descendants because of this, but not forever.'" 1KI 11:40 Solomon tried to kill Jeroboam, but Jeroboam fled to Egypt, to Shishak the king, and stayed there until Solomon's death. 1KI 12:1 Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all the Israelites had gone there to make him king. 1KI 12:2 When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard this (he was still in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon), he returned from Egypt. 1KI 12:3 So they sent for Jeroboam, and he and the whole assembly of Israel went to Rehoboam and said to him: 1KI 12:4 "Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but now lighten the harsh labor and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you." 1KI 12:5 Rehoboam answered, "Go away for three days and then come back to me." So the people went away. 1KI 12:6 Then King Rehoboam consulted the elders who had served his father Solomon during his lifetime. "How would you advise me to answer these people?" he asked. 1KI 12:7 They replied, "If today you will be a servant to these people and serve them and give them a favorable answer, they will always be your servants." 1KI 12:8 But Rehoboam rejected the advice the elders gave him and consulted the young men who had grown up with him and were serving him. 1KI 12:9 He asked them, "What is your advice? How should we answer these people who say to me, 'Lighten the yoke your father put on us'?" 1KI 12:10 The young men who had grown up with him replied, "Tell these people who have said to you, 'Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but make our yoke lighter'--tell them, 'My little finger is thicker than my father's waist. 1KI 12:11 My father laid on you a heavy yoke; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.'" 1KI 12:12 Three days later Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam, as the king had said, "Come back to me in three days." 1KI 12:13 The king answered the people harshly. Rejecting the advice given him by the elders, 1KI 12:14 he followed the advice of the young men and said, "My father made your yoke heavy; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions." 1KI 12:15 So the king did not listen to the people, for this turn of events was from the LORD, to fulfill the word the LORD had spoken to Jeroboam son of Nebat through Ahijah the Shilonite. NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION (C) 1973, 1978, 1984 INTERNATIONAL BIBLE SOCIETY 1KI 12:16 When all Israel saw that the king refused to listen to them, they answered the king: "What share do we have in David, what part in Jesse's son? To your tents, O Israel! Look after your own house, O David!" So the Israelites went home. 1KI 12:17 But as for the Israelites who were living in the towns of Judah, Rehoboam still ruled over them. 1KI 12:18 King Rehoboam sent out Adoniram, who was in charge of forced labor, but all Israel stoned him to death. King Rehoboam, however, managed to get into his chariot and escape to Jerusalem. 1KI 12:19 So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day. 1KI 12:20 When all the Israelites heard that Jeroboam had returned, they sent and called him to the assembly and made him king over all Israel. Only the tribe of Judah remained loyal to the house of David. 1KI 12:25 Then Jeroboam fortified Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. From there he went out and built up Peniel. 1KI 12:26 Jeroboam thought to himself, "The kingdom will now likely revert to the house of David. 1KI 12:27 If these people go up to offer sacrifices at the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem, they will again give their allegiance to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah. They will kill me and return to King Rehoboam." 1KI 12:28 After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves. He said to the people, "It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt." 1KI 12:29 One he set up in Bethel, and the other in Dan. 1KI 12:30 And this thing became a sin; the people went even as far as Dan to worship the one there. 1KI 12:31 Jeroboam built shrines on high places and appointed priests from all sorts of people, even though they were not Levites. 1KI 12:32 He instituted a festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the festival held in Judah, and offered sacrifices on the altar. This he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves he had made. And at Bethel he also installed priests at the high places he had made. 1KI 12:33 On the fifteenth day of the eighth month, a month of his own choosing, he offered sacrifices on the altar he had built at Bethel. So he instituted the festival for the Israelites and went up to the altar to make offerings. 1KI 13:1 By the word of the LORD a man of God came from Judah to Bethel, as Jeroboam was standing by the altar to make an offering. 1KI 13:2 He cried out against the altar by the word of the LORD: "O altar, altar! This is what the LORD says: 'A son named Josiah will be born to the house of David. On you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places who now make offerings here, and human bones will be burned on you.'" 1KI 13:3 That same day the man of God gave a sign: "This is the sign the LORD has declared: The altar will be split apart and the ashes on it will be poured out." 1KI 13:4 When King Jeroboam heard what the man of God cried out against the altar at Bethel, he stretched out his hand from the altar and said, "Seize him!" But the hand he stretched out toward the man shriveled up, so that he could not pull it back. 1KI 13:5 Also, the altar was split apart and its ashes poured out according to the sign given by the man of God by the word of the LORD. 1KI 13:6 Then the king said to the man of God, "Intercede with the LORD your God and pray for me that my hand may be restored." So the man of God interceded with the LORD, and the king's hand was restored and became as it was before. 1KI 13:7 The king said to the man of God, "Come home with me and have something to eat, and I will give you a gift." 1KI 13:8 But the man of God answered the king, "Even if you were to give me half your possessions, I would not go with you, nor would I eat bread or drink water here. 1KI 13:9 For I was commanded by the word of the LORD: 'You must not eat bread or drink water or return by the way you came.'" 1KI 13:10 So he took another road and did not return by the way he had come to Bethel. 1KI 13:33 Even after this, Jeroboam did not change his evil ways, but once more appointed priests for the high places from all sorts of people. Anyone who wanted to become a priest he consecrated for the high places. 1KI 13:34 This was the sin of the house of Jeroboam that led to its downfall and to its destruction from the face of the earth. NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION (C) 1973, 1978, 1984 INTERNATIONAL BIBLE SOCIETY 1KI 14:1 At that time Abijah son of Jeroboam became ill, 1KI 14:2 and Jeroboam said to his wife, "Go, disguise yourself, so you won't be recognized as the wife of Jeroboam. Then go to Shiloh. Ahijah the prophet is there--the one who told me I would be king over this people. 1KI 14:3 Take ten loaves of bread with you, some cakes and a jar of honey, and go to him. He will tell you what will happen to the boy." 1KI 14:4 So Jeroboam's wife did what he said and went to Ahijah's house in Shiloh. Now Ahijah could not see; his sight was gone because of his age. 1KI 14:5 But the LORD had told Ahijah, "Jeroboam's wife is coming to ask you about her son, for he is ill, and you are to give her such and such an answer. When she arrives, she will pretend to be someone else." 1KI 14:6 So when Ahijah heard the sound of her footsteps at the door, he said, "Come in, wife of Jeroboam. Why this pretense? I have been sent to you with bad news. 1KI 14:7 Go, tell Jeroboam that this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: 'I raised you up from among the people and made you a leader over my people Israel. 1KI 14:8 I tore the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it to you, but you have not been like my servant David, who kept my commands and followed me with all his heart, doing only what was right in my eyes. 1KI 14:9 You have done more evil than all who lived before you. You have made for yourself other gods, idols made of metal; you have provoked me to anger and thrust me behind your back. 1KI 14:10 "'Because of this, I am going to bring disaster on the house of Jeroboam. I will cut off from Jeroboam every last male in Israel--slave or free. I will burn up the house of Jeroboam as one burns dung, until it is all gone. 1KI 14:11 Dogs will eat those belonging to Jeroboam who die in the city, and the birds of the air will feed on those who die in the country. The LORD has spoken!' 1KI 14:12 "As for you, go back home. When you set foot in your city, the boy will die. 1KI 14:13 All Israel will mourn for him and bury him. He is the only one belonging to Jeroboam who will be buried, because he is the only one in the house of Jeroboam in whom the LORD, the God of Israel, has found anything good. 1KI 14:14 "The LORD will raise up for himself a king over Israel who will cut off the family of Jeroboam. This is the day! What? Yes, even now. 1KI 14:15 And the LORD will strike Israel, so that it will be like a reed swaying in the water. He will uproot Israel from this good land that he gave to their forefathers and scatter them beyond the River, because they provoked the LORD to anger by making Asherah poles. 1KI 14:16 And he will give Israel up because of the sins Jeroboam has committed and has caused Israel to commit." 1KI 14:17 Then Jeroboam's wife got up and left and went to Tirzah. As soon as she stepped over the threshold of the house, the boy died. 1KI 14:18 They buried him, and all Israel mourned for him, as the LORD had said through his servant the prophet Ahijah. 1KI 14:19 The other events of Jeroboam's reign, his wars and how he ruled, are written in the book of the annals of the kings of Israel. 1KI 14:20 He reigned for twenty-two years and then rested with his fathers. And Nadab his son succeeded him as king. 1KI 14:30 There was continual warfare between Rehoboam and Jeroboam. 1KI 15:6 There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam throughout Abijah's lifetime. 1KI 15:7 As for the other events of Abijah's reign, and all he did, are they not written in the book of the annals of the kings of Judah? There was war between Abijah and Jeroboam. 1KI 16:2 "I lifted you up from the dust and made you leader of my people Israel, but you walked in the ways of Jeroboam and caused my people Israel to sin and to provoke me to anger by their sins. 1KI 16:26 He walked in all the ways of Jeroboam son of Nebat and in his sin, which he had caused Israel to commit, so that they provoked the LORD, the God of Israel, to anger by their worthless idols. 1KI 16:31 He not only considered it trivial to commit the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, but he also married Jezebel daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and began to serve Baal and worship him. 2CH 10:12 Three days later Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam, as the king had said, "Come back to me in three days." 2CH 10:13 The king answered them harshly. Rejecting the advice of the elders, 2CH 10:14 he followed the advice of the young men and said, "My father made your yoke heavy; I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions." NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION (C) 1973, 1978, 1984 INTERNATIONAL BIBLE SOCIETY 2CH 10:15 So the king did not listen to the people, for this turn of events was from God, to fulfill the word the LORD had spoken to Jeroboam son of Nebat through Ahijah the Shilonite. 2CH 10:16 When all Israel saw that the king refused to listen to them, they answered the king: "What share do we have in David, what part in Jesse's son? To your tents, O Israel! Look after your own house, O David!" So all the Israelites went home. 2CH 10:17 But as for the Israelites who were living in the towns of Judah, Rehoboam still ruled over them. 2CH 10:18 King Rehoboam sent out Adoniram, who was in charge of forced labor, but the Israelites stoned him to death. King Rehoboam, however, managed to get into his chariot and escape to Jerusalem. 2CH 10:19 So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day. 2CH 11:1 When Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he mustered the house of Judah and Benjamin--a hundred and eighty thousand fighting men--to make war against Israel and to regain the kingdom for Rehoboam. 2CH 11:2 But this word of the LORD came to Shemaiah the man of God: 2CH 11:3 "Say to Rehoboam son of Solomon king of Judah and to all the Israelites in Judah and Benjamin, 2CH 11:4 'This is what the LORD says: Do not go up to fight against your brothers. Go home, every one of you, for this is my doing.'" So they obeyed the words of the LORD and turned back from marching against Jeroboam. 2CH 11:14 The Levites even abandoned their pasturelands and property, and came to Judah and Jerusalem because Jeroboam and his sons had rejected them as priests of the LORD. 2CH 13:1 In the eighteenth year of the reign of Jeroboam, Abijah became king of Judah, 2CH 13:2 and he reigned in Jerusalem three years. His mother's name was Maacah, a daughter of Uriel of Gibeah. There was war between Abijah and Jeroboam. 2CH 13:3 Abijah went into battle with a force of four hundred thousand able fighting men, and Jeroboam drew up a battle line against him with eight hundred thousand able troops. 2CH 13:4 Abijah stood on Mount Zemaraim, in the hill country of Ephraim, and said, "Jeroboam and all Israel, listen to me! 2CH 13:5 Don't you know that the LORD, the God of Israel, has given the kingship of Israel to David and his descendants forever by a covenant of salt? 2CH 13:6 Yet Jeroboam son of Nebat, an official of Solomon son of David, rebelled against his master. 2CH 13:7 Some worthless scoundrels gathered around him and opposed Rehoboam son of Solomon when he was young and indecisive and not strong enough to resist them. 2CH 13:8 "And now you plan to resist the kingdom of the LORD, which is in the hands of David's descendants. You are indeed a vast army and have with you the golden calves that Jeroboam made to be your gods. 2CH 13:9 But didn't you drive out the priests of the LORD, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites, and make priests of your own as the peoples of other lands do? Whoever comes to consecrate himself with a young bull and seven rams may become a priest of what are not gods. 2CH 13:10 "As for us, the LORD is our God, and we have not forsaken him. The priests who serve the LORD are sons of Aaron, and the Levites assist them. 2CH 13:11 Every morning and evening they present burnt offerings and fragrant incense to the LORD. They set out the bread on the ceremonially clean table and light the lamps on the gold lampstand every evening. We are observing the requirements of the LORD our God. But you have forsaken him. 2CH 13:12 God is with us; he is our leader. His priests with their trumpets will sound the battle cry against you. Men of Israel, do not fight against the LORD, the God of your fathers, for you will not succeed." 2CH 13:13 Now Jeroboam had sent troops around to the rear, so that while he was in front of Judah the ambush was behind them. 2CH 13:14 Judah turned and saw that they were being attacked at both front and rear. Then they cried out to the LORD. The priests blew their trumpets 2CH 13:15 and the men of Judah raised the battle cry. At the sound of their battle cry, God routed Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah. 2CH 13:16 The Israelites fled before Judah, and God delivered them into their hands. 2CH 13:17 Abijah and his men inflicted heavy losses on them, so that there were five hundred thousand casualties among Israel's able men. NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION (C) 1973, 1978, 1984 INTERNATIONAL BIBLE SOCIETY 2CH 13:18 The men of Israel were subdued on that occasion, and the men of Judah were victorious because they relied on the LORD, the God of their fathers. 2CH 13:19 Abijah pursued Jeroboam and took from him the towns of Bethel, Jeshanah and Ephron, with their surrounding villages. 2CH 13:20 Jeroboam did not regain power during the time of Abijah. And the LORD struck him down and he died. 2CH 13:21 But Abijah grew in strength. He married fourteen wives and had twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters. 2CH 13:22 The other events of Abijah's reign, what he did and what he said, are written in the annotations of the prophet Iddo. Bible Bulletin Board internet: www.biblebb.com modem: 609-324-9187 Box 318 Columbus, NJ 08022 ....online since 1986 Sysop/Webmaster: Tony Capoccia