²⁰When 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.

²¹When 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.

²²But 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.

Golden Calves at Bethel and Dan

²⁵Then Jeroboam fortified Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. From there he went out and built up Peniel.

²⁶Jeroboam thought to himself, “The kingdom will now likely revert to the house of David.²⁷If 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.”

²⁸After 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.”²⁹One he set up in Bethel, and the other in Dan.³⁰And this thing became a sin; the people came to worship the one at Bethel and went as far as Dan to worship the other.

³¹Jeroboam built shrines on high places and appointed priests from all sorts of people, even though they were not Levites.³²He instituted a festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like 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.³³On 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.

The Man of God From Judah

13 By the word of the LORD a man of God came from Judah to Bethel, as Jeroboam was standing by the altar to make an offering.²By the word of the LORD he cried out against the altar: “Altar, altar! This is what the LORD says: ‘A son named Josiah will be born to the house of David. On you he will sacrifice the priests of the high places who make offerings here, and human bones will be burned on you.’”³That same day the man of God gave a sign: “This is the sign the LORD has declared: The altar will be split apart and the ashes on it will be poured out.”

⁴When King Jeroboam heard what the man of God cried out against the altar at Bethel, he stretched out his hand from the altar and said, “Seize him!” But the hand he stretched out toward the man shriveled up, so that he could not pull it back.⁵Also, the altar was split apart and its ashes poured out according to the sign given by the man of God by the word of the LORD.

⁶Then the king said to the man of God, “Intercede with the LORD your God and pray for me that my hand may be restored.” So the man of God interceded with the LORD, and the king’s hand was restored and became as it was before.

⁷The king said to the man of God, “Come home with me for a meal, and I will give you a gift.”

⁸But the man of God answered the king, “Even if you were to give me half your possessions, I would not go with you, nor would I eat bread or drink water here.⁹For I was commanded by the word of the LORD: ‘You must not eat bread or drink water or return by the way you came.’”¹⁰So he took another road and did not return by the way he had come to Bethel.

¹¹Now there was a certain old prophet living in Bethel, whose sons came and told him all that the man of God had done there that day. They also told their father what he had said to the king.¹²Their father asked them, “Which way did he go?” And his sons showed him which road the man of God from Judah had taken.¹³So he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” And when they had saddled the donkey for him, he mounted it¹⁴and rode after the man of God. He found him sitting under an oak tree and asked, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?”

“I am,” he replied.

¹⁵So the prophet said to him, “Come home with me and eat.”

¹⁶The man of God said, “I cannot turn back and go with you, nor can I eat bread or drink water with you in this place.¹⁷I have been told by the word of the LORD: ‘You must not eat bread or drink water there or return by the way you came.’”

¹⁸The old prophet answered, “I too am a prophet, as you are. And an angel said to me by the word of the LORD: ‘Bring him back with you to your house so that he may eat bread and drink water.’” (But he was lying to him.)¹⁹So the man of God returned with him and ate and drank in his house.

²⁰While they were sitting at the table, the word of the LORD came to the old prophet who had brought him back.²¹He cried out to the man of God who had come from Judah, “This is what the LORD says: ‘You have defied the word of the LORD and have not kept the command the LORD your God gave you.²²You came back and ate bread and drank water in the place where he told you not to eat or drink. Therefore your body will not be buried in the tomb of your ancestors.’”

²³When the man of God had finished eating and drinking, the prophet who had brought him back saddled his donkey for him.²⁴As he went on his way, a lion met him on the road and killed him, and his body was left lying on the road, with both the donkey and the lion standing beside it.²⁵Some people who passed by saw the body lying there, with the lion standing beside the body, and they went and reported it in the city where the old prophet lived.

²⁶When the prophet who had brought him back from his journey heard of it, he said, “It is the man of God who defied the word of the LORD. The LORD has given him over to the lion, which has mauled him and killed him, as the word of the LORD had warned him.”

²⁷The prophet said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me,” and they did so.²⁸Then he went out and found the body lying on the road, with the donkey and the lion standing beside it. The lion had neither eaten the body nor mauled the donkey.²⁹So the prophet picked up the body of the man of God, laid it on the donkey, and brought it back to his own city to mourn for him and bury him.³⁰Then he laid the body in his own tomb, and they mourned over him and said, “Alas, my brother!”

³¹After burying him, he said to his sons, “When I die, bury me in the grave where the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones.³²For the message he declared by the word of the LORD against the altar in Bethel and against all the shrines on the high places in the towns of Samaria will certainly come true.”

³³Even after this, Jeroboam did not change his evil ways, but once more appointed priests for the high places from all sorts of people. Anyone who wanted to become a priest he consecrated for the high places.³⁴This was the sin of the house of Jeroboam that led to its downfall and to its destruction from the face of the earth.

²⁶When he came to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples, but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he really was a disciple.²⁷But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. He told them how Saul on his journey had seen the Lord and that the Lord had spoken to him, and how in Damascus he had preached fearlessly in the name of Jesus.²⁸So Saul stayed with them and moved about freely in Jerusalem, speaking boldly in the name of the Lord.²⁹He talked and debated with the Hellenistic Jews, but they tried to kill him.³⁰When the believers learned of this, they took him down to Caesarea and sent him off to Tarsus.

³¹Then the church throughout Judea, Galilee and Samaria enjoyed a time of peace and was strengthened. Living in the fear of the Lord and encouraged by the Holy Spirit, it increased in numbers.

Aeneas and Dorcas

³²As Peter traveled about the country, he went to visit the Lord’s people who lived in Lydda.³³There he found a man named Aeneas, who was paralyzed and had been bedridden for eight years.³⁴“Aeneas,” Peter said to him, “Jesus Christ heals you. Get up and roll up your mat.” Immediately Aeneas got up.³⁵All those who lived in Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord.

³⁶In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (in Greek her name is Dorcas); she was always doing good and helping the poor.³⁷About that time she became sick and died, and her body was washed and placed in an upstairs room.³⁸Lydda was near Joppa; so when the disciples heard that Peter was in Lydda, they sent two men to him and urged him, “Please come at once!”

³⁹Peter went with them, and when he arrived he was taken upstairs to the room. All the widows stood around him, crying and showing him the robes and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was still with them.

⁴⁰Peter sent them all out of the room; then he got down on his knees and prayed. Turning toward the dead woman, he said, “Tabitha, get up.” She opened her eyes, and seeing Peter she sat up.⁴¹He took her by the hand and helped her to her feet. Then he called for the believers, especially the widows, and presented her to them alive.⁴²This became known all over Joppa, and many people believed in the Lord.⁴³Peter stayed in Joppa for some time with a tanner named Simon.

Psalm 132

132 LORD, remember David
    and all his self-denial.

²He swore an oath to the LORD,
    he made a vow to the Mighty One of Jacob:
³“I will not enter my house
    or go to my bed,
⁴I will allow no sleep to my eyes
    or slumber to my eyelids,
⁵till I find a place for the LORD,
    a dwelling for the Mighty One of Jacob.”

⁶We heard it in Ephrathah,
    we came upon it in the fields of Jaar:
⁷“Let us go to his dwelling place,
    let us worship at his footstool, saying,
⁸‘Arise, LORD, and come to your resting place,
    you and the ark of your might.
⁹May your priests be clothed with your righteousness;
    may your faithful people sing for joy.’”

¹⁰For the sake of your servant David,
    do not reject your anointed one.

¹¹The LORD swore an oath to David,
    a sure oath he will not revoke:
“One of your own descendants
    I will place on your throne.
¹²If your sons keep my covenant
    and the statutes I teach them,
then their sons will sit
    on your throne for ever and ever.”

¹³For the LORD has chosen Zion,
    he has desired it for his dwelling, saying,
¹⁴“This is my resting place for ever and ever;
    here I will sit enthroned, for I have desired it.
¹⁵I will bless her with abundant provisions;
    her poor I will satisfy with food.
¹⁶I will clothe her priests with salvation,
    and her faithful people will ever sing for joy.

¹⁷“Here I will make a horn grow for David
    and set up a lamp for my anointed one.
¹⁸I will clothe his enemies with shame,
    but his head will be adorned with a radiant crown.”

⁶Children’s children are a crown to the aged,
    and parents are the pride of their children.