Study Desk

Adoniram was in charge of the forced labor. When Rehoboam sent him to the people of Israel, they threw stones at him until he died. But King Rehoboam ran to his chariot and escaped to Jerusalem.

When Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he gathered one hundred eighty thousand of the best soldiers from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. As son of Solomon, Rehoboam wanted to fight the people of Israel to take back his kingdom.

But God spoke his word to Shemaiah, a man of God, saying,

So Jeroboam chose his own time for a festival for the Israelites—the fifteenth day of the eighth month. During that time he offered sacrifices on the altar he had built in Bethel. He set up a festival for the Israelites and offered sacrifices on the altar.

When King Jeroboam heard what the man of God said about the altar in Bethel, the king raised his hand from the altar and pointed at the man. "Take him!" he said. But when the king said this, his arm was paralyzed, and he could not move it.

Now an old prophet was living in Bethel. His sons came and told him what the man of God had done there that day. They also told their father what he had said to King Jeroboam.

The father asked, "Which road did he use when he left?" So his sons showed him the road the man of God from Judah had taken.

Then the prophet told his sons to put a saddle on his donkey. So they saddled the donkey, and he left.

While they were sitting at the table, the Lord spoke his word to the old prophet.

After the man of God finished eating and drinking, the prophet put a saddle on his donkey for him, and the man left.

As he was traveling home, a lion attacked and killed him. His body lay on the road, with the donkey and the lion standing nearby.

Then the prophet said to his sons, "Put a saddle on my donkey," which they did.

The prophet put the body on his donkey and carried it back to the city to have a time of sadness for him and to bury him.

The prophet buried the body in his own family grave, and they were sad for the man of God and said, "Oh, my brother."

After the prophet buried the body, he said to his sons, "When I die, bury me in this same grave. Put my bones next to his.

So Jeroboam said to his wife, "Go to Shiloh to see the prophet Ahijah. He is the one who said I would become king of Israel. But dress yourself so people won't know you are my wife.

I tore the kingdom away from David's family, and I gave it to you. But you are not like my servant David, who always obeyed my commands and followed me with all his heart. He did only what I said was right.

After they buried him, all Israel had a time of sadness for him, just as the Lord had said through his servant, the prophet Ahijah.

serving as king for twenty-two years. Then he died, and his son Nadab became king in his place.

Solomon's son Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king of Judah. His mother was Naamah from Ammon. Rehoboam ruled in Jerusalem for seventeen years. (The Lord had chosen that city from all the land of Israel as the place where he would be worshiped.)