6Then King Rehoboam consulted the older men, who had served Solomon, his father, and said, “How do you advise that I answer this people?” 7And they said, “If you will be a servant to this people this day, and answer them with good words, then they will be your servants forever”. 8But Rehoboam forsook the counsel which the old men had given him, and consulted the young men he had grown up with, and who now stood before him. 9And he asked them, “What advice do you give for answering the people, who have said, “Lighten the load which your father put upon us?” 10And these young men said, “This is what you say to these people who asked for a lighter work load, ‘My little finger shall be thicker than my father's thighs. 11And, now, whereas my father burdened you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke; my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions’”.

12So when Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam on the third day, 13King Rehoboam answered the people roughly, and forsook the old men's counsel; 14Answering them after the counsel of the young men, “My father made your yoke heavy, and I will add to your yoke; my father also chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions”. 15So the king did not listen to the people; for this turn of events was from the LORD, so that He might fulfill His word, which He spoke by Ahijah, the Shilonite, to Jeroboam, the son of Nebat. 16So when all (the ten tribes of) Israel saw that the king would not listen to them, they answered Rehoboam by saying, “What interest have we in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, O Israel; look after your own house, David!” So the ten tribes of Israel returned to their tents. 17But as for the children of Israel who dwelt in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam still ruled over them.

18Then King Rehoboam sent out Adoram (Adoniram), who supervised the forced labor; and all Israel stoned him to death. Then King Rehoboam quickly got in his chariot, and escaped to Jerusalem. 19So Israel rebelled against the house of David unto this day. 20And when all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they called him to their assembly, and made him king over all Israel; there was None that followed the house of David, except the tribe of Judah (which included the tribe of Benjamin).

21And when Rehoboam got back to Jerusalem, he assembled all the house of Judah, with the tribe of Benjamin, a hundred eighty thousand chosen men, who were warriors, to wage war against the house of Israel, to restore the entire kingdom to Rehoboam, son of Solomon. 22But the word of God came to Shemaiah, the man of God, saying, 23“Speak to Rehoboam, son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people, 24‘Thus says the LORD, “You shall not go up, nor fight against your brethren, the children of Israel. Return every man to his house; for this thing is from Me.”’” Therefore, they listened to the word of the LORD, and returned to their homes, in compliance with the word of the LORD.

25Then Jeroboam built Shechem in Mount Ephraim, and dwelt there; and went out and built Penuel. 26But Jeroboam did not trust the LORD’s promise to him and thought, “Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David: 27If the people go up to do sacrifice in the temple of the LORD at Jerusalem, then their heart shall return to Rehoboam, king of Judah, and they will kill me, and give their allegiance again to Rehoboam, king of Judah”. 28So the Jeroboam, on the advice of his counselors, made two calves of gold, and said to Israel, “It is too much for you to travel to Jerusalem; behold your gods, O Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt”. 29And he set the one calf idol in Bethel, and he put the other in Dan (at each end of his kingdom). 30And this thing became a sin; for the people went to worship before the one at Bethel, and others to Dan. 31And he built shrines on high places, and made priests of all sorts of people, who were not sons of Levi. 32And Jeroboam ordained a festival in on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the festival held in Judah, and he offered sacrifices upon the altar. This he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he had made; and he installed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made. 33So he offered upon the altar which he had made in Bethel the fifteenth day of the eighth month, a time which he had devised of his own heart, and ordained a festival to the children of Israel; and he offered sacrifices upon the altar, and burned incense.