Study Desk

After the king had consulted with his advisers, he made two golden calves. Then he said to the people, "It is too much trouble for you to go up to Jerusalem. Look, Israel, here are your gods who brought you up from the land of Egypt."

When the king heard what the prophet cried out against the altar in Bethel, Jeroboam, standing at the altar, extended his hand and ordered, "Seize him!" The hand he had extended shriveled up and he could not pull it back.

Now there was an old prophet living in Bethel. When his sons came home, they told their father everything the prophet had done in Bethel that day and all the words he had spoken to the king.

Their father asked them, "Which road did he take?" His sons showed him the road the prophet from Judah had taken.

He then told his sons, "Saddle the donkey for me." When they had saddled the donkey for him, he mounted it

So the prophet went back with him and ate and drank in his house.

When the prophet from Judah finished his meal, the old prophet saddled his visitor's donkey for him.

As the prophet from Judah was traveling, a lion attacked him on the road and killed him. His corpse was lying on the road, and the donkey and the lion just stood there beside it.

When the old prophet who had invited him to his house heard the news, he said, "It is the prophet who rebelled against the Lord . The Lord delivered him over to the lion and it ripped him up and killed him, just as the Lord warned him."

He told his sons, "Saddle my donkey," and they did so.

He put the corpse into his own tomb, and they mourned over him, saying, "Ah, my brother!"

After he buried him, he said to his sons, "When I die, bury me in the tomb where the prophet is buried; put my bones right beside his bones,

After this happened, Jeroboam still did not change his evil ways; he continued to appoint common people as priests at the high places. Anyone who wanted the job he consecrated as a priest.

Jeroboam told his wife, "Disguise yourself so that people cannot recognize you are Jeroboam's wife. Then go to Shiloh; Ahijah the prophet, who told me I would rule over this nation, lives there.

Jeroboam's wife did as she was told. She went to Shiloh and visited Ahijah. Now Ahijah could not see; he had lost his eyesight in his old age.

All Israel buried him and mourned for him, just as the Lord had predicted through his servant the prophet Ahijah.

The rest of the events of Jeroboam's reign, including the details of his battles and rule, are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Israel.

Jeroboam ruled for twenty-two years; then he passed away. His son Nadab replaced him as king.

Now Rehoboam son of Solomon ruled in Judah. He was forty-one years old when he became king and he ruled for seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city the Lord chose from all the tribes of Israel to be his home. His mother was an Ammonite woman named Naamah.

The rest of the events of Rehoboam's reign, including his accomplishments, are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Judah.