The Kingdom Is Divided

After Solomon died, his son Rehoboam went to Shechem to be made king by all Israel. The people asked him to lighten the heavy yoke his father had laid on them, and Rehoboam told them to come back in three days. First he consulted the elders, who urged him to deal kindly with the people; then he consulted the young men who had grown up with him, who advised him to be even harsher. Rehoboam followed the young men's counsel and told the people he would be even sterner than his father. Seeing that the king would not listen, the ten tribes rebelled against the house of David and made Jeroboam king of Israel. Rehoboam tried to gather an army to fight, but Shemaiah the man of God brought the LORD's word forbidding them to fight, for this thing was from the LORD. Jeroboam, afraid that the people would return to Jerusalem to worship and so go back to Rehoboam, made two golden calves and set them up in Bethel and in Dan, leading the people into idolatry.