I Kings 12, A Kingdom Divided

 Solomon has died.  Now there will be a fight for the throne. (The date is about 930 BC.)

I Kings 12: 1-5, Solomon's taxes

Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all the Israelites had gone there to make him king. When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard this (he was still in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon), he returned from Egypt.

So they sent for Jeroboam, and he and the whole assembly of Israel went to Rehoboam and said to him: "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."

Rehoboam answered, "Go away for three days and then come back to me." So the people went away.

Shechem, about thirty miles north of Jerusalem, is the same city whose prince raped Dinah, daughter of Jacob in Genesis 34. It has been a major city throughout the time of the judges and kings of Israel and is apparently a place where Rehoboam expects to be crowned king, after his father. It is 

Rehoboam inherits a wealthy and powerful kingdom.  He also inherits the arrogance that goes with that power and so he is about to destroy his inheritance.

This is the first we hear of the heavy tax burden Solomon used to create his wealth and power. It was surely involved in the numerous constructions projects in Jerusalem. 

Jeroboam has now returned from Egypt and is among those who make the request for a lighter yoke.

I Kings 12: 6-7, "Serve the people"

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.

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."

Solomon's council gives wise advice: "Be kind, reasonable, and consolidate your kingdom."

I Kings 12: 8-11, Young men weigh in

But Rehoboam rejected the advice the elders gave him and consulted the young men who had grown up with him and were serving him.

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'?"

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. 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.'"

Rehoboam's clique of wealthy young elites has different advice. These young men, who have grown up in Solomon's palace, recommend that Rehoboam come down hard on any question about easing taxes. 

I Kings 12: 12-15, A harsh response

Three days later Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam, as the king had said, "Come back to me in three days."

The king answered the people harshly. Rejecting the advice given him by the elders, 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."

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.

Rehoboam gives the harsh, hard response.  His attitude is "tone deaf" -- he is not listening to the people or to Solomon's elders. He will pay for his arrogance.

The writer of the scroll of Kings explains that this decision is fulfilling the earlier prophecy, given in the previous chapter.

I Kings 12: 16-19, "To your tents!"

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.

But as for the Israelites who were living in the towns of Judah, Rehoboam still ruled over them.

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. So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day.

Rehoboam's response is met with rebellion.  The rebellion echoes an earlier one of David's time (2 Samuel 20: 1-2) where the northern tribes had broken off from David for a short time. It appears that there has been a simmering unrest since those days two generations back.

The first person sent to quell the disturbance is killed. Rehoboam flees to Jerusalem and the ten northern tribes of Israel break off from Rehoboam.  This rebellion continues through the time of the author.

I Kings 12: 20, Jeroboam crowned

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.

Jeroboam, the charismatic leader that frightened Solomon, has managed to become leader of the rebellion.  So the Israelites, presumably still gathered at Shechem, crown Jeroboam king. Only Judah remains with Solomon's son, Rehoboam.

I Kings 12: 21-24, Intervention of Shemaiah

When Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he mustered the whole house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin--a hundred and eighty thousand fighting men--to make war against the house of Israel and to regain the kingdom for Rehoboam son of Solomon.

But this word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God: "Say to Rehoboam son of Solomon king of Judah, to the whole house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people, `This is what the LORD says: Do not go up to fight against your brothers, the Israelites. Go home, every one of you, for this is my doing.'" 

So they obeyed the word of the LORD and went home again, as the LORD had ordered.

Rehoboam's first plan is to muster out an army and reconquer Israel. But Shemaiah, a "man of God" intervenes.

This passage parallels 2 Chronicles 12.  In that passage (2 Chronicles 12: 15), Shemaiah is identified as a prophet who, with "Iddo the seer", records the history of Rehoboam's reign.

We see here that the tribe of Benjamin also supports Rehoboam, contrary to the earlier statement that only one tribe stayed with the king. Previously Benjamin had tended to be allied with Saul, opposed to the dynasty of David. Some suggest that Benjamin was divided, some going with Jeroboam, others staying with Rehoboam. Bible scholars have also raised questions about the tribe of Simeon as its territory was south of Judah and the tribe may been absorbed into Judah at some time.

I Kings 12: 25-27, What about the temple?

Then Jeroboam fortified Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. From there he went out and built up Peniel.

Jeroboam thought to himself, "The kingdom will now likely revert to the house of David. 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."

Jeroboam fortifies his domain. Shechem is in Ephraim; Peniel is apparently east of the Jordan.

After presumably worrying about military avenues of attacks, Jeroboam also worries about the religious practices of his people.

I Kings 12: 28-31, "Here are your gods"

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."

One he set up in Bethel, and the other in Dan. And this thing became a sin; the people went even as far as Dan to worship the one there. Jeroboam built shrines on high places and appointed priests from all sorts of people, even though they were not Levites.

Jeroboam sets up two idols in an attempt to keep his subjects from going to Jerusalem. The use of the golden calves is not explained (they may have represented other gods or may have been intended, like the cherubim, to be the seat of the invisible YHWH) but one is clearly reminded of Aaron's calf from Exodus 32.

Dan is in the northern part of the kingdom; Bethel is at the southern end, probably 10-15 miles from Jerusalem.

I Kings 12: 32-33, Festival

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. 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.

In order to promote his own kingdom and separate it from Jerusalem, Jeroboam creates a festival. The Feast of Booths, during which Solomon's temple was dedicated, occurred on the fifteenth day of the seventh month. Jeroboam seems to have initiated a competing festival on the  fifteenth day of the eighth month. It is possible that there may have already been a Canaanite festival at that time.