Study Desk

So King Solomon became greater than all the kings of the earth in wealth and wisdom.

And they were bringing, everyone, a gift: articles of silver and gold, garments, weapons, balsam oil, horses, and mules, so much year by year.

So Solomon did what was evil in the sight of the LORD, and did not follow the LORD fully, as his father David had done.

So the LORD said to Solomon, "Since you have done this, and you have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will certainly tear the kingdom away from you, and will give it to your servant.

Now Hadad found great favor in the sight of Pharaoh, so that he gave him in marriage the sister of his own wife, the sister of Tahpenes the queen.

But when Hadad heard in Egypt that David lay down with his fathers and that Joab the commander of the army was dead, Hadad said to Pharaoh, "Let me go, so that I may go to my own country."

So he was an adversary to Israel all the days of Solomon, along with the harm that Hadad inflicted; and he felt disgust for Israel and reigned over Aram.

'But to his son I will give one tribe, so that My servant David may always have a lamp before Me in Jerusalem, the city where I have chosen for Myself to put My name.

'So I will oppress the descendants of David for this, but not always.'"

So the time that Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel was forty years.

Then he said to them, "Depart for three days, then return to me." So the people departed.

He said to them, "What advice do you give, so that we may answer this people who have spoken to me, saying, 'Lighten the yoke which your father put on us'?"

So the king did not listen to the people; because it was a turn of events from the LORD, in order to establish His word which the LORD spoke through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.

When all Israel saw that the king had not listened to them, the people replied to the king, saying, "What share do we have in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse; To your tents, Israel! Now look after your own house, David!" So Israel went away to their tents.

So Israel has broken with the house of David to this day.

'This is what the LORD says: "You shall not go up nor fight against your relatives the sons of Israel; return, every man to his house, for this thing has come from Me."'" So they listened to the word of the LORD, and returned to go their way in accordance with the word of the LORD.

So the king consulted, and he made two golden calves; and he said to the people, "It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem; behold your gods, Israel, that brought you up from the land of Egypt."

Jeroboam also instituted a feast in the eighth month on the fifteenth day of the month, like the feast that is in Judah, and he went up to the altar. So he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves which he had made. And he stationed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made.

And the king responded and said to the man of God, "Please appease the LORD your God and pray for me, so that my hand may be restored to me." So the man of God appeased the LORD, and the king's hand was restored to him, and it became as it was before.

"For so it was commanded me by the word of the LORD, saying, 'You shall not eat bread nor drink water, nor return by the way that you came.'"