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CHAP. XIV. Roboam and Jeroboam. The Division of the

People.

On the death of Solomon his authority descended, at first unbroken, to his son Roboam. Jeroboam, however, who had been banished by Solomon, immediately returned to his country, and headed a deputation of the people to the young monarch, which went to claim exemption from the heavy taxes and service which had been exacted from them by Solomon. And they laid their grievances before him, saying: Thy father laid at grievous yoke upon us: now therefore do thou take off a little of the grievous service of thy father, and of his most heavy yoke, which he put upon us; and we will serve thee. And he said to them: Go till the third day, and come to me again. And when the people was gone, King Roboam took counsel with the old men, that stood before Solomon his father while he yet lived: and he said: What counsel do you give me, that I may answer this people? They said to him: If thou wilt yield to this people to-day, and condescend to them, and grant their petition, and wilt speak gentle words to them, they will be thy servants always. But he left the counsel of the old men, which they had given him; and consulted with the young men that had been brought up with him, and stood before him. And he said to them: What counsel do you give me, that I may answer this people, who have said to me: Make the yoke which thy father put upon us lighter? And the young men that had been brought up with him, said: Thus shalt thou speak to this people, who have spoken to thee, saying: Thy father made our yoke heavy; do thou ease us. Thou shalt say to them: My little finger is thicker than the back of my father. And now my father put a heavy yoke upon you; but I will add to your yoke: my father beat you with whips; but I will beat you with scorpions. So Jeroboam and all the people came to Roboam the third day, as the king had appointed, saying: Come to me again the third day. And the king answered the people roughly, leaving the counsel of the old men,

which they had given him. And he spoke to them according to the counsel of the young men, saying: My father made your yoke heavy; but I will add to your yoke my father beat you with whips; but I will beat you with scorpions.

Thus repulsed by the folly of the young prince, ten of the twelve tribes instantly set up Jeroboam for their king, and cast off their allegiance to Roboam. Juda and Benjamin alone remained faithful; but from the great numbers and remarkable bravery of the men of Juda, Roboam was still the most powerful monarch of the two. Jerusalem also, where was the seat of government and the temple of the Lord, continued in his possession, being situated in the territory of Juda. This last circumstance was, further, the cause of the wrath of God coming down upon Jeroboam and his family. God had promised him His divine protection, both for himself and his posterity, if he would serve Him with a true heart; but by his very first royal act Jeroboam turned away from God, and drew down the vengeance of God upon him. He was afraid that if the people of the ten tribes went up yearly to Jerusalem, as they had been accustomed, to offer sacrifice to the Lord, they would soon fall away from their allegiance to him, and return to be the servants of Roboam. Distrusting, therefore, the promises of God, he thought to secure his kingdom to himself by setting up false gods, and bidding the people worship them, instead of travelling every year to Jerusalem. He made two goiden images of calves, which were common objects of idolatrous honours among the Egyptians and Chanaanites; and setting up one of them in Dan and the other in Bethel, he proclaimed to his subjects that these were their true gods, who had brought them out of their ancient captivity in Egypt. At the same time, as the tribe of Levi remained attached to the temple in Jerusalem, he chose out a number of men of the lowest character, and made them priests to offer his idolatrous sacrifices; and appointed a great yearly national feast, similar to that which was celebrated in honour of the true God at Jerusalem.

CHAP. XV. The Disobedient Prophet.

THUS the children of Israel were divided into two kingdoms, and so they remained, almost always foes instead of friends, till both of them ceased to be any more an independent people. Those who remained under the rule of David's descendants were henceforth called the people of Juda, and their chief city was Jerusalem ; the other ten tribes were called the people of Israel, and their capital was Samaria.

Scarcely had Jeroboam commenced his idolatrous practices, when God denounced his crimes by the mouth of a prophet. There came a man of God out of Juda, by the word of the Lord, to Bethel, when Jeroboam was standing upon the altar, and burning incense. 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 them: What way went he? his sons shewed 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: 1 must not return, or 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. This indeed was a falsehood, rendered doubly wicked by its claim to be a divine revelation; but it proved a fatal temptation to the prophet to whom it was spoken, who sinned in being ready to disobey what he well knew to be a command from God on the first excuse that appeared plausible to him. He suffered himself to be persuaded by the old prophet, and went back with him, and ate and drank in his house.

And as they sat at table, the word of the Lord, who employs men to do His bidding, notwithstanding their own sins and infirmities, came to the prophet that brought the other back. And he cried out to the man

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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 commanded 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 prophet, 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 when 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 all the temples of the high places that are in the cities of Samaria.

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