1 King Rehoboam went to Shechem so the people could make him king. ️ 2 Jeroboam heard about this while he was in Egypt, so he came back home. ♂️➡️ 3 The people sent for Jeroboam, and he and all Israel went to talk to King Rehoboam. ️ 4 The people said to the king, “Your dad Solomon made us work too hard; please make it easy, and we will serve you.” 5 The king said, “Come back in three days,” so the people went away. ⏳♂️♀️ 6 King Rehoboam asked the old men who helped King Solomon, “What should I say to the people?” 7 The old men said, “Be kind and use good words; then they will serve you.” ️ 8 But Rehoboam did not listen to the old men; he asked the young men who grew up with him. ♂️ 9 Rehoboam said to the young men, “What should I say to the people?” ❓️ 10 The young men said, “Say you will be harder than your dad.” 11 They told him to say, “My dad was hard; I will be even more strict and use tough whips.” 12 Jeroboam and the people came back to the king on the third day, like the king said. 13 The king answered the people in a rough way; he did not use the kind words from the old men. ️❌ 14 He said the words from the young men: “I will be harder and more strict than my dad.” ⬆️ 15 The king did not listen to the people, and God let this happen to keep His word. ✋ 16 When the people saw the king did not listen, they said, “We have no share with David; let us go home,” and they went home. ️♂️♀️ 17 But Rehoboam still ruled the people who stayed in the towns of Judah. ️ 18 King Rehoboam sent Adoram to the people, but all Israel threw stones at him and he died; the king ran away fast in his cart to Jerusalem. ⚠️♂️ 19 So Israel said no to David’s family and did not follow them from then on. ✋ 20 All Israel made Jeroboam king; only the Judah family group stayed with David’s family. ↔️ 21 Rehoboam went to Jerusalem and got 180,000 strong men from Judah and Benjamin to fight Israel. ️⚔️ 22 But God spoke to Shemaiah, God’s man. 23 God said, “Tell Rehoboam, and Judah, and Benjamin, and the rest of the people…” ☝️ 24 “Do not fight your family; go home, because I made this happen,” and they listened and went home like God said. ️ 25 Jeroboam built up Shechem in the hill land of Ephraim and lived there; then he built Penuel. ️ 26 Jeroboam thought, “The people may go back to Rehoboam.” 27 He said, “If they go to God’s house in Jerusalem, they may turn back and kill me,” and he was scared. ⛪➡️ 28 So the king made two gold calves and said, “It is too far to go to Jerusalem; here are your gods,” which was bad. ✨❌ 29 He put one calf in Bethel and the other in Dan. 30 This was very wrong; people even went far to Dan to bow and pray to the calf. ♂️❌ 31 Jeroboam made altars on high hills and picked priests from all people, not from the Levi family. ️⛏️❌ 32 Jeroboam made a big party in the eighth month like the party in Judah; he burned gifts on the altar in Bethel for the calves and set up his priests. 33 On the fifteenth day of that month he went up to the altar he made in Bethel and burned more gifts; he picked this day by himself and made Israel do it too. ❌