And Roboam came to Jerusalem, and gathered together all the house of Juda, and the tribe of Benjamin, a hundred fourscore thousand chosen men for war, to tight against the house of Israel, and to bring the kingdom again under Roboam the son of Solomon. But the word of the Lord came to Semeias the man of God, saying: Speak to Roboam the son of Solomon, the king of Juda, and to all the house of Juda, and Benjamin, and the rest of the people, saying: Thus saith the Lord: You shall not go up nor fight against your brethren the children of Israel: let every man return to his house, for this thing is from Me. They hearkened to the word of the Lord, and returned from their journey, as the Lord had commanded them. Jeroboam's Idolatry.—And Jeroboam built Sichem in mount Ephraim, and dwelt there, and going out from thence he built Phanuel. And Jeroboam said in his heart: Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David, if this people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem: and the heart of this people will turn to their lord Roboam the king of Juda, and they will kill me, and return to him. And finding out a device he made two golden calves,* and said to them: Go ye up no more to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt. And he set the one in Bethel, and the other in Dan :† and this thing became an occasion of sin: for the people went to adore the calf as far as Dan. And he made temples in the high places, and priests of the lowest of the people, who were not of the sons of Levi. And he appointed a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, after the manner of the feast that was celebrated in Juda. And going up to the altar, he did in like manner in Bethel, to sacrifice to the calves, which he had made: and he placed in Bethel priests of the high places, which he had made. And he went up to the altar, which he had built in Bethel, on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, which he had devised of his own heart and he ordained a feast to the children of Israel, and went upon the altar to burn incense. The Prophet of Bethel.-And behold there came a man of 3 Kings God out of Juda, by the word of the Lord, to Bethel, when XIII. 1-33, Jeroboam was standing upon the altar, and burning incense. * As Aaron had done. The people would still have a traditional remembrance of the gods of the Egyptians, who worshipped Apis under the form of a bull. + Bethel was a city of the tribe of Ephraim in the southern part of the do minions of Jeroboam, about six leagues from Jerusalem; Dan was in the extremity of his dominions to the north, in the confines of Syria. That is, the Feast of Tabernacles. And he cried out against the altar in the word of the Lord, and said: O altar, altar, thus saith the Lord: Behold a child shall be born to the house of David, Josias by name, and he shall immolate upon thee the priests of the high places, who now burn incense upon thee, and he shall burn men's bones upon thee. And he gave a sign the same day, saying: This shall be the sign, that the Lord hath spoken: Behold the altar shall be rent, and the ashes that are upon it shall be poured out. And when the king had heard the word of the man of God, which he had cried out against the altar in Bethel, he stretched forth his hand from the altar, saying: Lay hold on him. And his hand which he stretched forth against him withered and he was not able to draw it back again to him. The altar also was rent, and the ashes were poured out from the altar, according to the sign which the man of God had given before in the word of the Lord. And the king said to the man of God: Entreat the face of the Lord thy God, and pray for me, that my hand may be restored to me. And the man of God besought the face of the Lord; and the king's hand was restored to him, and it became as it was before. And the king said to the man of God: Come home with me to dine, and I will make thee presents. And the man of God answered the king: If thou wouldst give me half thy house I will not go with thee, nor eat bread nor drink water in this place for so it was enjoined me by the word of the Lord commanding me: Thou shalt not eat bread nor drink water, nor return by the same way that thou camest. So he departed by another way, and returned not by the way that he came into Bethel. Now a certain old prophet dwelt in Bethel, and his sons came to him and told him all the works that the man of God had done that day in Bethel and they told their father the words which he had spoken to the king. And their father said to him: What way went he? His sons showed him the way by which the man of God went, who came out of Juda. And he said to his sons: Saddle me the ass. And when they had saddled him, he got up, and went after the man of God, and found him sitting under a turpentine-tree: and he said to him: Art thou the man of God that camest from Juda? He answered: I am. And he said to him: Come home with me, to eat bread. But he said: I must not return, nor go with thee, neither will I eat bread nor drink water in this place: because the Lord spoke to me in the word of the Lord, saying: Thou shalt not eat bread and thou shalt not drink water there, nor return by the way thou wentest. He said to him: I also am a prophet like unto thee and an angel* spoke to me in the word of the Lord, saying: Bring him back with thee into thy house, that he may eat bread and drink water. He deceived him, and brought him back with him: so he ate bread and drank water in his house. And as they sat at table, the word of the Lord came to the prophet that brought him back. And he cried out to the man of God who came out of Juda, saying: Thus saith the Lord: Because thou hast not been obedient to the Lord, and hast not kept the commandment which the Lord thy God commandeth thee, and hast returned, and eaten bread and drunk water in the place wherein He commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat bread nor drink water, thy dead body shall not be brought into the sepulchre of thy fathers. And when he had eaten and drunk, he saddled his ass for the prophet, whom he had brought back. And when he was gone, a lion found him in the way, and killed him, and his body was cast in the way: and the ass stood by him, and the lion stood by the dead body. And behold, men passing by saw the dead body cast in the way, and the lion standing by the body. And they came and told it in the city, wherein that old prophet dwelt. And when that propbet, who had brought him back out of the way, heard of it, he said: It is the man of God, that was disobedient to the mouth of the Lord, and the Lord hath delivered him to the lion, and he hath torn him, and killed him according to the word of the Lord, which He spoke to him. And he said to his sons: Saddle me an ass. And when they had saddled, and he was gone, he found the dead body cast in the way, and the ass and the lion standing by the carcass: the lion had not eaten of the dead body, nor hurt the ass. And the prophet took up the body of the man of God, and laid it upon the ass, and going back brought it into the city of the old prophet, to mourn for him. And he laid his dead body in his own sepulchre : and they mourned over him, saying: Alas! alas! my brother. And when they had mourned over him, he said to his sons: When I am dead, bury me in the sepulchre wherein the man of God is buried: lay my bones beside his bones. For assuredly the word shall come to pass which he hath foretold in the word of the Lord against the altar that is in Bethel, and against * This old man of Bethel was indeed a prophet, but he sinned in thus deceiving the man of God: the more because he pretended a revelation for what he did. DOUAY BIBLE. all the temples of the high places, that are in the cities of Samaria. After these words Jeroboam came not back from his wicked way: but on the contrary he made of the meanest of the people priests of the high places: whosoever would, he filled his hand, and he was made a priest of the high places. SECT. LXXVI. ROBOAM STRENGTHENS HIMSELF IN HIS KINGDOM, AND 2 Par. XI. 5. Reign of Roboam.-And Roboam dwelt in Jerusalem, and 2 Par. XII. And the priests and Levites, that were in all Israel, came to him out of all their seats, leaving their suburbs and their possessions, and passing over to Juda and Jerusalem, because Jeroboam and his sons had cast them off from executing the priestly office to the Lord. And he made to himself priests for the high places, and for the devils, and for the calves which he had made. Moreover out of all the tribes of Israel, whosoever gave their heart to seek the Lord the God of Israel came into Jerusalem, to sacrifice their victims before the Lord the God of their fathers. And they strengthened the kingdom of Juda, and established Roboam the son of Solomon for three years: for they walked in the ways of David and of Solomon only three years. And when the kingdom of Roboam was strengthened and 1-16. fortified, he forsook the law of the Lord, and all Israel with him." And in the fifth year of the reign of Roboam, Sesacking of Egypt came up against Jerusalem (because they had sinned. against the Lord) with twelve hundred chariots, and threescore thousand horsemen and the people were without number that came with him out of Egpyt, to wit, Libyans, and Troglodites,† and Ethiopians. And he took the strongest cities in Juda, and came to Jerusalem. *So it says in the 3d Book of Kings (chap. xiv.): And Juda did evil in the sight of the Lord, and provoked Him above all that their fathers had done, in their sins which they committed. For they also built them altars, and statues, and groves upon every high hill and under every green tree. There were also the effeminate in the land, and they did according to all the abominations of the people whom the Lord had destroyed before the face of the children of Israel. They were a wandering tribe, who pitched their tents in the desert of Arabia. And Semeias the prophet came to Roboam, and to the princes of Juda, that were gathered together in Jerusalem, fleeing from Sesac, and he said to them: Thus saith the Lord: You have left Me, and I have left you in the hand of Sesac. And the princes of Israel and the king, being in a consternation, said: The Lord is just. And when the Lord saw that they were humbled, the word of the Lord came to Semeias, saying: Because they are humbled, I will not destroy them, and I will give them a little help, and My wrath shall not fall upon Jerusalem by the hand of Sesac. But yet they shall serve him, that they may know the difference between My service, and the service of a kingdom of the earth. So Sesac king of Egypt departed from Jerusalem, taking away the treasures of the house of the Lord, and of the king's house, and he took all with him, and the golden shields that Solomon had made; instead of which the king made brazen ones, and delivered them to the captains of the shield-bearers, who guarded the entrance of the palace. And when the king entered into the house of the Lord, the shield-bearers came and took them, and brought them back again to their armoury. But yet because they were humbled, the wrath of the Lord turned away from them, and they were not utterly destroyed: for even in Juda there were found good works. : King Roboam therefore was strengthened in Jerusalem, and reigned he was one and forty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the Lord chose out of all the tribes of Israel, to establish His name there: and the name of his mother was Naama an Ammonitess. But he did evil, and did not prepare his heart to seek the Lord. Now the acts of Roboam first and last are written in the books of Semeias the prophet, and of Addo the seer, and diligently recorded: and there was war between Roboam and Jeroboam all their days. And Roboam slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David. And Abia his son reigned in his stead. SECT. LXXVII. ABIA'S REIGN. HIS GREAT VICTORY. GOD'S JUDGMENT ON JEROBOAM. B.C. 958. 1-19. Abia. In the eighteenth year of king Jeroboam, Abia* reigned 2 Par. XIII. over Juda. Three years he reigned in Jerusalem, and his mother's name was Michaia, the daughter of Uriel of Gabaa. And there was war between Abia and Jeroboam. And when Abia had begun battle, and had with him * Or Abijab, also called Abiam in the 3d Book of Kings, chap. xv. |