5 When
Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. 6 “Lord,”
he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.”
7 Jesus
said to him, “Shall I come and heal him?”
8 The
centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But
just say the word, and my servant will be healed. 9 For I
myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’
and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do
this,’ and he does it.”
10 When
Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Truly I tell
you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith. 11 I
say to you that many will come from the east and the west, and will take their
places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. 12 But
the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where
there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”
13 Then
Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! Let it be done just as you believed it
would.” And his servant was healed at that moment.
When
Jesus came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. 2 A
man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, “Lord, if you are willing,
you can make me clean.”
3 Jesus
reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!”
Immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy. 4 Then Jesus said
to him, “See that you don’t tell anyone. But go, show yourself to the priest
and offer the gift Moses commanded, as a testimony to them.”
Rehoboam
went to Shechem, for all Israel had gone there to make him king. 2 When
Jeroboam son of Nebat heard this (he was still in Egypt, where he had fled from
King Solomon), he returned from[a] Egypt. 3 So
they sent for Jeroboam, and he and the whole assembly of Israel went to
Rehoboam and said to him: 4 “Your father put a heavy yoke on
us, but now lighten the harsh labor and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will
serve you.”
5 Rehoboam
answered, “Go away for three days and then come back to me.” So the people went
away.
6 Then
King Rehoboam consulted the elders who had served his father Solomon during his
lifetime. “How would you advise me to answer these people?” he asked.
7 They
replied, “If today you will be a servant to these people and serve them and
give them a favorable answer, they will always be your servants.”
8 But
Rehoboam rejected the advice the elders gave him and consulted the young men
who had grown up with him and were serving him. 9 He asked
them, “What is your advice? How should we answer these people who say to me,
‘Lighten the yoke your father put on us’?”
10 The
young men who had grown up with him replied, “These people have said to you,
‘Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but make our yoke lighter.’ Now tell them,
‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist. 11 My
father laid on you a heavy yoke; I will make it even heavier. My father
scourged you with whips; I will scourge you with scorpions.’”
12 Three
days later Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam, as the king had
said, “Come back to me in three days.” 13 The king answered the
people harshly. Rejecting the advice given him by the elders, 14 he
followed the advice of the young men and said, “My father made your yoke heavy;
I will make it even heavier. My father scourged you with whips; I will scourge
you with scorpions.” 15 So the king did not listen to the
people, for this turn of events was from the Lord,
to fulfill the word the Lord had
spoken to Jeroboam son of Nebat through Ahijah the Shilonite.
16 When
all Israel saw that the king refused to listen to them, they answered the king:
“What
share do we have in David,
what part in Jesse’s son?
To your tents, Israel!
Look after your own house, David!”
So
the Israelites went home. 17 But as for the Israelites who were
living in the towns of Judah, Rehoboam still ruled over them.
18 King
Rehoboam sent out Adoniram,[b] who was in
charge of forced labor, but all Israel stoned him to death. King Rehoboam,
however, managed to get into his chariot and escape to Jerusalem. 19 So
Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day.
20 When
all the Israelites heard that Jeroboam had returned, they sent and called him
to the assembly and made him king over all Israel. Only the tribe of Judah
remained loyal to the house of David.
21 When
Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he mustered all Judah and the tribe of
Benjamin—a hundred and eighty thousand able young men—to go to war against
Israel and to regain the kingdom for Rehoboam son of Solomon.
22 But
this word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God: 23 “Say to
Rehoboam son of Solomon king of Judah, to all Judah and Benjamin, and to the
rest of the people, 24 ‘This is what the Lord says: Do not go up to fight against
your brothers, the Israelites. Go home, every one of you, for this is my
doing.’” So they obeyed the word of the Lord
and went home again, as the Lord
had ordered.
25 Then
Jeroboam fortified Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. From
there he went out and built up Peniel.[c]
26 Jeroboam
thought to himself, “The kingdom will now likely revert to the house of David. 27 If
these people go up to offer sacrifices at the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem, they will again give
their allegiance to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah. They will kill me and
return to King Rehoboam.”
28 After
seeking advice, the king made two golden calves. He said to the people, “It is
too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, Israel, who brought
you up out of Egypt.” 29 One he set up in Bethel, and the other
in Dan. 30 And this thing became a sin; the people came to
worship the one at Bethel and went as far as Dan to worship the other.[d]
31 Jeroboam
built shrines on high places and appointed priests from all sorts of people,
even though they were not Levites. 32 He instituted a festival
on the fifteenth day of the eighth mont the festival held in Judah, and offered
sacrifices on the altar. This he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves he
had made. And at Bethel he also installed priests at the high places he had
made. 33 On the fifteenth day of the eighth month, a month of
his own choosing, he offered sacrifices on the altar he had built at Bethel. So
he instituted the festival for the Israelites and went up to the altar to make
offerings.
