I Kings 14

2  Yerovam said to his wife, “Go and disguise yourself, so that you will not be recognized as Yerovam’s wife, and go to Shilo. The NaviAchiya lives there, the one who predicted that I would be king over this people.

3  Take with you ten loaves, some wafers, and a jug of honey, and go to him; he will tell you what will happen to the boy.”

4  Yerovam’s wife did so; she left and went to Shilo and came to the house of Achiya. Now Achiya could not see, for his eyes had become sightless with age;

5  but Hashem had said to Achiya, “Yerovam’s wife is coming to inquire of you concerning her son, who is sick. Speak to her thus and thus. When she arrives, she will be in disguise.”

6  Achiya heard the sound of her feet as she came through the door, and he said, “Come in, wife of Yerovam. Why are you disguised? I have a harsh message for you.

7  Go tell Yerovam: Thus said Hashem, the God of Yisrael: I raised you up from among the people and made you a ruler over My people Yisrael;

8  I tore away the kingdom from the House of David and gave it to you. But you have not been like My servant David, who kept My commandments and followed Me with all his heart, doing only what was right in My sight.

9  You have acted worse than all those who preceded you; you have gone and made for yourself other gods and molten images to vex Me; and Me you have cast behind your back.

10  Therefore I will bring disaster upon the House of Yerovam and will cut off from Yerovam every male, bond and free, in Yisrael. I will sweep away the House of Yerovam utterly, as dung is swept away.

11  Anyone belonging to Yerovam who dies in the town shall be devoured by dogs; and anyone who dies in the open country shall be eaten by the birds of the air; for Hashem has spoken.

12  As for you, go back home; as soon as you set foot in the town, the child will die.

14  Moreover, Hashem will raise up a king over Yisrael who will destroy the House of Yerovam, this day and even now.

15  “Hashem will strike Yisrael until it sways like a reed in water. He will uproot Yisrael from this good land that He gave to their fathers, and will scatter them beyond the Euphrates, because they have provoked Hashem by the sacred posts that they have made for themselves.

16  He will forsake Yisrael because of the sins that Yerovam committed and led Yisrael to commit.”

17  Yerovam’s wife got up and left, and she went to Tirtza. As soon as she stepped over the threshold of her house, the child died.

18  They buried him and all Yisrael lamented over him, in accordance with the word that Hashem had spoken through His servant the NaviAchiya.

19  The other events of Yerovam’s reign, how he fought and how he ruled, are recorded in the Annals of the Kings of Yisrael.

20  Yerovam reigned twenty-two years; then he slept with his fathers, and his son Nadav succeeded him as king.

21  Meanwhile, Rechovam son of Shlomo had become king in Yehuda. Rechovam was forty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned seventeen years in Yerushalayim—the city Hashem had chosen out of all the tribes of Yisrael to establish His name there. His mother’s name was Naamah the Amonitess.

22  Yehuda did what was displeasing to Hashem, and angered Him more than their fathers had done by the sins that they committed.

23  They too built for themselves shrines, pillars, and sacred posts on every high hill and under every leafy tree;

24  there were also male prostitutes in the land. [Yehuda] imitated all the abhorrent practices of the nations that Hashem had dispossessed before the Israelites.

25  In the fifth year of King Rechovam, King Shishak of Egypt marched against Yerushalayim

26  and carried off the treasures of the House of Hashem and the treasures of the royal palace. He carried off everything; he even carried off all the golden shields that Shlomo had made.

27  King Rechovam had bronze shields made instead, and he entrusted them to the officers of the guard who guarded the entrance to the royal palace.

28  Whenever the king went into the House of Hashem, the guards would carry them and then bring them back to the armory of the guards.

29  The other events of Rechovam’s reign, and all his actions, are recorded in the Annals of the Kings of Yehuda.

30  There was continual war between Rechovam and Yerovam.

31  Rechovam slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the City of David; his mother’s name was Naamah the Amonitess. His son Abijam succeeded him as king.