北方支派背叛罗波安
1罗波安前往示剑，因为以色列人都去了那里，要立他为王。 2尼八的儿子耶罗波安曾为了躲避所罗门王而逃往埃及，并一直住在那里。他听到消息后，便返回以色列。 3以色列人派人去请他，他就和以色列会众去见罗波安，说： 4“你父亲使我们负担沉重，求你减轻我们的负担吧，我们一定效忠你。”
5罗波安对他们说：“你们先回去，三天之后再来见我。”众人就离开了。
6罗波安王去征询曾服侍他父亲所罗门的老臣的意见，说：“你们认为我该怎样回复众民？” 7他们建议说：“现今王若像仆人一样服侍民众，对他们好言相待，他们会永远做王的仆人。”
8罗波安却没有采纳老臣的意见。他又去征询那些和他一起长大的青年臣僚的意见， 9说：“民众求我减轻我父亲加给他们的重担。你们认为我该怎样回复他们？”
10他们说：“民众说你父亲使他们负担沉重，请求你减轻他们的负担。你可以这样回复他们，‘我的小指头比我父亲的腰还粗。 11我父亲使你们负重担，我要使你们负更重的担子；我父亲用鞭子打你们，我要用刺鞭打你们。’”
12过了三天，耶罗波安和民众遵照罗波安王的话来见他。 13-14王没有采纳老臣的建议，而是照青年臣僚的建议，疾言厉色地对他们说：“我父亲使你们负重担，我要使你们负更重的担子！我父亲用鞭子打你们，我要用刺鞭打你们！” 15王不听民众的请求。这事是出于耶和华的旨意，为要应验祂借示罗人亚希雅先知对尼八的儿子耶罗波安说的话。
16以色列人见王不听他们的请求，就说：
“我们与大卫有何相干？
我们与耶西的儿子没有关系！
以色列人啊，各自回家吧！
大卫家啊，自己照顾自己吧！”
于是，以色列人各自回家了。 17但住在犹大城邑的以色列人仍受罗波安统治。 18罗波安王派劳役总管亚多兰去以色列人那里，以色列人却用石头打死了他，罗波安王连忙上车逃回耶路撒冷。 19从此，以色列人反叛大卫家，一直到今天。 20以色列人听说耶罗波安回来了，就请他到会众面前，拥立他做以色列人的王。只有犹大支派仍然效忠大卫家。
21罗波安回到耶路撒冷，从犹大和便雅悯支派召集了十八万精兵，要攻打以色列人，收复全国。 22然而，上帝对祂的仆人示玛雅说： 23“你去告诉所罗门的儿子犹大王罗波安和犹大、便雅悯支派的人以及其他民众， 24耶和华这样说，‘你们不要上去与以色列同胞交战，都回家吧！今日的景况是出于我的旨意。’”众人听从了耶和华的话，各自回家去了。
耶罗波安背弃上帝
25耶罗波安在以法莲山区修建示剑城，住在那里。他后来又去修建毗努伊勒。 26他心想：“国权恐怕会重归大卫家。 27若百姓去耶路撒冷，在耶和华的殿献祭，他们的心必重新归向他们的主——犹大王罗波安。他们会杀了我，然后投奔犹大王罗波安。” 28他征询臣僚的意见后，就铸造了两个金牛犊，对民众说：“以色列人啊，你们上耶路撒冷敬拜太麻烦了。这两个金牛犊就是领你们出埃及的神明。” 29他把一个金牛犊安置在伯特利，另一个安置在但。 30这使民众陷入罪中，因为他们开始到但去拜金牛犊。
31耶罗波安又在高岗上修建神庙，任命各样的人做祭司，他们并非利未人。 32耶罗波安规定每年八月十五日为节期，好像犹大的节期一样。他自己在伯特利的祭坛上向金牛犊献祭烧香，又派神庙的祭司在献祭中司职。 33在八月十五日，就是他私自为以色列人定为节期的日子，他在伯特利的祭坛上烧香。
Israel Rebels Against Rehoboam
1Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had gone there to make him king. 2When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard this (he was still in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon), he returned from12:2 Or he remained in Egypt. 3So they sent for Jeroboam, and he and the whole assembly of Israel went to Rehoboam and said to him: 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.”
5Rehoboam answered, “Go away for three days and then come back to me.” So the people went away.
6Then 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.
7They 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.”
8But Rehoboam rejected the advice the elders gave him and consulted the young men who had grown up with him and were serving him. 9He asked them, “What is your advice? How should we answer these people who say to me, ‘Lighten the yoke your father put on us’?”
10The young men who had grown up with him replied, “These people have said to you, ‘Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but make our yoke lighter.’ Now tell them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist. 11My 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.’ ”
12Three days later Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam, as the king had said, “Come back to me in three days.” 13The king answered the people harshly. Rejecting the advice given him by the elders, 14he 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.” 15So 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.
16When 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, Israel!
Look after your own house, David!”
So the Israelites went home. 17But as for the Israelites who were living in the towns of Judah, Rehoboam still ruled over them.
18King Rehoboam sent out Adoniram,12:18 Some Septuagint manuscripts and Syriac (see also 4:6 and 5:14); Hebrew Adoram 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. 19So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day.
20When 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.
21When Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he mustered all Judah and the tribe of Benjamin—a hundred and eighty thousand able young men—to go to war against Israel and to regain the kingdom for Rehoboam son of Solomon.
22But this word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God: 23“Say to Rehoboam son of Solomon king of Judah, to all Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people, 24‘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.
Golden Calves at Bethel and Dan
25Then Jeroboam fortified Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. From there he went out and built up Peniel.12:25 Hebrew Penuel, a variant of Peniel
26Jeroboam thought to himself, “The kingdom will now likely revert to the house of David. 27If 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.”
28After 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, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.” 29One he set up in Bethel, and the other in Dan. 30And this thing became a sin; the people came to worship the one at Bethel and went as far as Dan to worship the other.12:30 Probable reading of the original Hebrew text; Masoretic Text people went to the one as far as Dan
31Jeroboam built shrines on high places and appointed priests from all sorts of people, even though they were not Levites. 32He 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. 33On 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.
