Daily Text and Bible Reading: Tuesday, April 21 [Press play below]

11.1 But King Solomon loved many foreign women besides the daughter of Pharaoh: Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women.
11.2 They were from the nations about whom Jehovah had said to the Israelites: “You must not go in among them, and they should not come in among you, for they will surely incline your heart to follow their gods.” But Solomon clung to them and loved them.
11.3 And he had 700 wives who were princesses and 300 concubines, and his wives gradually inclined his heart.
11.4 In Solomon’s old age, his wives inclined his heart to follow other gods, and his heart was not complete with Jehovah his God like the heart of David his father.
11.5 And Solomon followed after Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and Milcom, the disgusting god of the Ammonites.
11.6 And Solomon did what was bad in the eyes of Jehovah, and he did not follow Jehovah completely as David his father had done.
11.7 It was then that Solomon built a high place to Chemosh, the disgusting god of Moab, on the mountain in front of Jerusalem and to Molech, the disgusting god of the Ammonites.
11.8 That was what he did for all his foreign wives who were making sacrificial smoke and sacrificing to their gods.
11.9 Jehovah became furious at Solomon, because his heart had inclined away from Jehovah the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice
11.10 and had warned him about this very thing, that he should not go after other gods. But he did not obey what Jehovah had commanded.
11.11 Jehovah now said to Solomon: “Because you have done this and you have not kept my covenant and my statutes as I commanded you, I will surely rip the kingdom away from you, and I will give it to one of your servants.
11.12 However, for the sake of your father David, I will not do it in your lifetime. I will rip it out of the hand of your son,
11.13 but I will not rip away the entire kingdom. One tribe I will give to your son, for the sake of David my servant and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen.”
11.14 Jehovah then raised up a resister against Solomon, Hadad the Edomite, of the royal family of Edom.
11.15 When David defeated Edom, Joab the chief of the army went up to bury the slain, and he tried to strike down every male in Edom.
11.16 (For Joab and all Israel stayed there for six months until he had done away with every male in Edom.)
11.17 But Hadad fled with some of his father’s Edomite servants, and they went to Egypt; Hadad was then a young boy.
11.18 So they set out from Midian and came to Paran. They took men with them from Paran and came to Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt, who gave him a house, assigned him a food allowance, and gave him land.
11.19 Hadad found favor in the eyes of Pharaoh, so much so that he gave him in marriage the sister of his own wife, Tahpenes the queen.
11.20 In time the sister of Tahpenes bore him a son, Genubath, and Tahpenes brought him up in the house of Pharaoh, and Genubath remained in the house of Pharaoh among the sons of Pharaoh.
11.21 Hadad heard in Egypt that David had been laid to rest with his forefathers and that Joab the chief of the army had died. So Hadad said to Pharaoh: “Send me away, so that I may go to my own land.”
11.22 But Pharaoh said to him: “What have you lacked with me that you now seek to go to your own land?” To this he said: “Nothing, but please send me away.”
11.23 God also raised up against Solomon another resister, Rezon the son of Eliada, who had fled from his lord, Hadadezer the king of Zobah.
11.24 He gathered men to himself and became chief of a marauder band when David defeated them. So they went to Damascus and settled there and began reigning in Damascus.
11.25 And he became a resister of Israel all the days of Solomon, adding to the harm done by Hadad, and he abhorred Israel while he reigned over Syria.
11.26 And there was Jeroboam the son of Nebat, an Ephraimite from Zeredah, a servant of Solomon’s whose mother’s name was Zeruah, a widow. He too began to rebel against the king.
11.27 This is why he rebelled against the king: Solomon had built the Mound and had closed up the gap of the City of David his father.
11.28 Now this Jeroboam was a capable man. When Solomon saw that the young man was a hard worker, he made him overseer over all the compulsory service of the house of Joseph.
11.29 During that time Jeroboam went out from Jerusalem, and the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite found him on the road. Ahijah was wearing a new garment, and the two of them were by themselves in the field.
11.30 Ahijah took hold of the new garment he was wearing and ripped it into 12 pieces.
11.31 Then he said to Jeroboam: “Take ten pieces for yourself, for this is what Jehovah the God of Israel says: ‘Here I am ripping the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and I will give you ten tribes.
11.32 But one tribe will remain his for the sake of my servant David and for the sake of Jerusalem, the city I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel.
11.33 I will do this because they have left me and are bowing down to Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, to Chemosh the god of Moab, and to Milcom the god of the Ammonites, and they have not walked in my ways by doing what is right in my eyes and observing my statutes and my judgments as his father David did.
11.34 But I will not take the entire kingdom out of his hand, and I will keep him as a chieftain for all the days of his life, for the sake of David my servant whom I chose, because he obeyed my commandments and my statutes.
11.35 But I will take the kingship out of the hand of his son and give it to you, that is, ten tribes.
11.36 To his son I will give one tribe, so that David my servant may always have a lamp before me in Jerusalem, the city that I have chosen for myself as the place to put my name.
11.37 I will take you, and you will reign over all that you desire, and you will become king over Israel.
11.38 And if you obey all that I command you and walk in my ways and do what is right in my eyes by obeying my statutes and my commandments, just as David my servant did, I will also be with you. I will build you a lasting house, just as I have built for David, and I will give you Israel.
11.39 And I will humiliate the offspring of David because of this, but not always.’”
11.40 So Solomon tried to put Jeroboam to death, but Jeroboam fled to Egypt, to Shishak the king of Egypt, and he remained in Egypt until Solomon’s death.
11.41 As for the rest of the history of Solomon, all that he did and his wisdom, is it not written in the book of the history of Solomon?
11.42 The length of Solomon’s reign in Jerusalem over all Israel was 40 years.
11.43 Then Solomon was laid to rest with his forefathers and was buried in the City of David his father; and his son Rehoboam became king in his place.

12.1 Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king.
12.2 As soon as Jeroboam the son of Nebat heard of it (he was still in Egypt because he had run off on account of King Solomon and was living in Egypt),
12.3 they sent for him. After that Jeroboam and all the congregation of Israel came to Rehoboam and said:
12.4 “Your father made our yoke harsh. But if you make the harsh service of your father easier and you lighten the heavy yoke he put on us, we will serve you.”
12.5 At this he said to them: “Go away for three days; then return to me.” So the people went away.
12.6 King Rehoboam then consulted with the older men who had served his father Solomon while he was alive, saying: “What advice would you give on how to reply to this people?”
12.7 They answered him: “If today you would become a servant to this people and submit to their request and give them a favorable answer, they will always be your servants.”
12.8 However, he rejected the advice that the older men gave him, and he consulted with the young men who had grown up with him and who were now his attendants.
12.9 He asked them: “What advice do you offer on how we should reply to this people who have said to me, ‘Make the yoke your father put on us lighter’?”
12.10 The young men who had grown up with him said to him: “This is what you should say to this people who have said to you, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you should make it lighter for us’; this is what you should tell them, ‘My little finger will be thicker than my father’s hips.
12.11 My father imposed a heavy yoke on you, but I will add to your yoke. My father punished you with whips, but I will punish you with scourges.’”
12.12 Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day, just as the king had said: “Return to me on the third day.”
12.13 But the king answered the people harshly, rejecting the advice that the older men had given him.
12.14 He spoke to them according to the advice of the young men, saying: “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke. My father punished you with whips, but I will punish you with scourges.”
12.15 So the king did not listen to the people, for this turn of events was caused by Jehovah, in order to carry out the word that Jehovah had spoken through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.
12.16 When all Israel saw that the king refused to listen to them, the people replied to the king: “What share do we have in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your gods, O Israel. Now look after your own house, O David!” With that Israel returned to their homes.
12.17 But Rehoboam continued to reign over the Israelites living in the cities of Judah.
12.18 Then King Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was in charge of those conscripted for forced labor, but all Israel stoned him to death. King Rehoboam managed to mount his chariot to flee to Jerusalem.
12.19 And the Israelites have been in revolt against the house of David down to this day.
12.20 As soon as all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they summoned him to the assembly and made him king over all Israel. None of the people followed the house of David except the tribe of Judah.
12.21 When Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he immediately congregated all the house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin, 180,000 trained warriors, to fight against the house of Israel in order to restore the kingship to Rehoboam the son of Solomon.
12.22 Then the word of the true God came to Shemaiah the man of the true God, saying:
12.23 “Say to Rehoboam the son of Solomon the king of Judah and to all the house of Judah and Benjamin and the rest of the people,
12.24 ‘This is what Jehovah says: “You must not go up and fight against your Israelite brothers. Each one of you must return to his house, for I have caused this to happen.”’” So they obeyed the word of Jehovah and went back home, as Jehovah had told them.
12.25 Jeroboam then built up Shechem in the mountainous region of Ephraim and lived there. From there he went out and built up Penuel.
12.26 Jeroboam said in his heart: “Now the kingdom will return to the house of David.
12.27 If this people continues to go up to offer sacrifices at the house of Jehovah in Jerusalem, the heart of this people will also return to their lord, King Rehoboam of Judah. Yes, they will kill me and return to King Rehoboam of Judah.”
12.28 After consultation, the king made two golden calves and said to the people: “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here is your God, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”
12.29 Then he placed one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan.
12.30 And this caused them to sin, and the people went as far as Dan to worship the one there.
12.31 And he made houses of worship on the high places and appointed priests from the people in general, those who were not Levites.
12.32 Jeroboam also established a festival in the eighth month, on the 15th day of the month, like the festival in Judah. On the altar that he made at Bethel, he sacrificed to the calves he had made, and at Bethel he assigned priests for the high places that he had made.
12.33 And he began to make offerings on the altar that he had made at Bethel on the 15th day in the eighth month, in the month that he had devised on his own; and he established a festival for the people of Israel, and he ascended the altar to make offerings and sacrificial smoke.