And the queen of Sheba had heard of Solomon's fame in connection with the name of Jehovah, and she came to test him with hard questions.

And she came to Jerusalem with a very large retinue, with camels bearing spices and with very much gold and precious stones. And when she came to Solomon, she spoke all that was on her heart to him.

And Solomon answered every matter of hers; there was nothing hidden from the king that he did not answer her.

And when the queen of Sheba saw all the wisdom of Solomon and the house that he had built

And the food of his table and the seating of his servants and the service and apparel of his ministers and his cupbearers and his burnt offerings that he offered up at the house of Jehovah, there was no more spirit in her.

And she said to the king, The word that I heard in my land concerning your deeds and your wisdom is true,

But I did not believe the words until I came and my own eyes saw. And indeed the half was not told to me; your wisdom and prosperity far exceed the report that I heard.

Happy are your men! Happy are these your servants, who attend you continually and hear your wisdom!

Blessed be Jehovah your God, who has delighted in you and set you upon the throne of Israel. Because Jehovah loves Israel forever, He has made you king to execute justice and righteousness.

And she gave the king a hundred and twenty talents of gold and a very great store of spices and some precious stones; never again did so great an abundance of spices come as that which the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.

Moreover Hiram's fleet, which carried gold from Ophir, brought a great many almug trees and precious stones.

And the king made of the almug trees a banister for the house of Jehovah and for the king's house, and lyres and harps for the singers; such almug trees have not come nor have been seen again to this day.

And King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all that she desired, whatever she asked for, besides that which King Solomon gave her from his bounty. And she returned and went to her own land, she and her servants.

Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred sixty-six talents of gold,

Besides that which came through the traders and through the traffic of the merchants and through all the kings of Arabia and the governors of the land.

And King Solomon made two hundred large shields of beaten gold; he put six hundred shekels of gold upon each large shield.

And he made three hundred smaller shields of beaten gold; he put three minas of gold upon each smaller shield. And the king put them in the Lebanon Forest House.

And the king made a large ivory throne and overlaid it with the finest gold.

The throne had six steps, and the top of the throne was rounded at its back; and there were armrests on either side next to the place of the seat, and two lions stood next to the armrests.

And twelve lions stood there upon the six steps on either side. Nothing like it had ever been made in any kingdom.

And all King Solomon's drinking vessels were of gold, and all the vessels of the Lebanon Forest House were of pure gold; none were of silver, which was not considered as anything in the days of Solomon.

For the king had at sea a fleet from Tarshish as well as Hiram's fleet. Once every three years the fleet from Tarshish came bearing gold and silver and ivory and apes and peacocks.

And King Solomon excelled all the kings of the earth in wealth and in wisdom.

And all the earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put in his heart.

And they each brought their tribute, vessels of silver and vessels of gold, and robes and weapons and spices, horses and mules, so much year by year.

And Solomon gathered chariots and horsemen together; and he had a thousand four hundred chariots and twelve thousand horsemen, which he stationed in the chariot cities and with the king at Jerusalem.

And the king caused silver to be as plentiful as stones in Jerusalem; and cedars, like the sycamores that are in the lowlands.

And the horses that Solomon had came from Egypt and from Kue; the king's traders bought them from Kue at a fixed price.

A chariot could be imported from Egypt for six hundred shekels of silver and a horse for a hundred and fifty shekels, and thus they brought them out to all the kings of the Hittites and the kings of Syria by their own means.

But King Solomon  ¹loved many foreign women in addition to Pharaoh's daughter — Moabite, Ammonite, Edomite, Sidonian, and Hittite women,

From among the nations concerning which Jehovah had said to the children of Israel, You shall not go among them, nor shall they come among you, for they will surely turn your heart after their gods. Solomon clung to these in love.

And he had seven hundred princess wives and three hundred concubines, and his wives turned his heart away.

And when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart after other gods; and his heart was not perfect toward Jehovah his God like the heart of David his father.

And Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and after Milcom the detestable thing of the Ammonites.

And Solomon did what was evil in the sight of Jehovah and did not fully follow Jehovah as David his father had done.

Then Solomon built a  ¹high place to Chemosh the detestable thing of Moab in the mountain that is before Jerusalem and to Molech the detestable thing of the children of Ammon.

And so he did for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and offered sacrifices to their gods.

 ¹So Jehovah became angry with Solomon because his heart turned away from Jehovah the God of Israel, who had appeared to him twice,

And who had commanded him concerning this very matter, not to go after other gods; but he did not keep that which Jehovah had commanded.

And Jehovah said to Solomon, Because you have done this and have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant.

However I will not do it in your days, because of David your father; I will tear it out of your son's hand.

But I will not tear the whole kingdom away from you; I will give  ¹one tribe to your son because of David My servant and because of Jerusalem, which I have chosen.

And Jehovah raised up an adversary to Solomon, Hadad the Edomite; he was of the king's seed in Edom.

Now when David was in Edom and Joab the captain of the army went up to bury the slain, he struck down all the males in Edom;

For Joab and all Israel remained there for six months, until he had cut down every male in Edom.

But Hadad fled, he and some Edomite men from among his father's servants with him, and went into Egypt; and Hadad was a young boy then.

Thus they arose from Midian and went to Paran, and they took men from Paran with them and went to Egypt, to Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, who gave him a house and appointed him a portion of food and gave him land.

And Hadad found so much favor in the sight of Pharaoh that Pharaoh gave him the sister of his wife, the sister of Tahpenes the queen, as his wife.

And the sister of Tahpenes bore him Genubath his son, and Tahpenes weaned him in Pharaoh's house, and Genubath was in Pharaoh's house among Pharaoh's sons.

And when Hadad heard in Egypt that David slept with his fathers and that Joab the captain of the army was dead, Hadad said to Pharaoh, Let me depart that I may go to my own land.

But Pharaoh said to him, But what have you lacked while with me that now you are seeking to go to your own land? And he said, Nothing; only let me depart.

And God raised up another adversary to him, Rezon the son of Eliada, who had fled from his lord, Hadadezer the king of Zobah.

And he gathered men to himself and became the captain of the band when David slew those of Zobah; and they went to Damascus and dwelt there; and they reigned in Damascus.

And he was an adversary to Israel all the days of Solomon in addition to the evil that Hadad did; and he abhorred Israel and reigned over Syria.

And Jeroboam the son of Nebat, an Ephraimite of Zeredah, a servant of Solomon, whose mother's name was Zeruah, also a widow, lifted up his hand against the king.

And this was the reason he lifted up his hand against the king: Solomon was building the  ¹Millo, closing up the breach of the city of David his father.

And the man Jeroboam was an able man; and Solomon saw that the young man was industrious, so he set him over all the forced labor of the house of Joseph.

And at that time Jeroboam went forth from Jerusalem, and the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite found him on the way. And  ¹Ahijah was wearing a new garment, and the two of them were alone in the field.

And Ahijah laid hold of the new garment that was on him and tore it into twelve pieces.

And he said to Jeroboam, Take ten pieces for yourself; for thus says Jehovah the God of Israel, I am now tearing the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon and giving the ten tribes to you

(But the one tribe will be his because of My servant David and because of Jerusalem, the city that I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel),

Because they have forsaken Me and have worshipped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and Chemosh the god of Moab and Milcom the god of the children of Ammon and have not walked in My ways by doing what is upright in My sight and by keeping My statutes and My ordinances as David his father did.

But I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand, but I will make him leader all the days of his life because of David My servant, whom I chose and who kept My commandments and My statutes.

Yet I will take the kingdom out of his son's hand and will give it to you, that is, the ten tribes;

And to his son I will give one tribe, that My servant David may have a lamp always before Me in Jerusalem, the city where I have chosen to put My name.

And I will take you, and you will reign according to all that your soul desires; and you will be king over Israel.

And if you listen to all that I command you and walk in My ways and do what is upright in My sight by keeping My statutes and My commandments, as David My servant did, I will be with you and will build you a sure house, as I built for David; and I will give you Israel.

And I will afflict the seed of David because of this, but not forever.

Solomon therefore sought to kill Jeroboam, but Jeroboam rose up and fled into Egypt to Shishak the king of Egypt; and he was in Egypt until the death of Solomon.

And the rest of the acts of Solomon and all that he did as well as his wisdom, are they not written in the book of the acts of Solomon?

And the time that Solomon reigned in Jerusalem over all Israel was forty years.

And Solomon  ¹slept with his fathers and was buried in the city of David his father.

And Rehoboam his son reigned in his place.

Then Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king.

And when Jeroboam the son of Nebat heard of it (for he was still in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon; and Jeroboam dwelt in Egypt;

And they sent word to him and called him), Jeroboam and all the congregation of Israel came and spoke to Rehoboam, saying,

Your father made our  ¹yoke hard. Now therefore make the hard service of your father and his heavy yoke that he put upon us lighter, and we will serve you.

And he said to them, Go away for another three days, then return to me. And the people went away.

Then King Rehoboam took counsel with the elders who attended Solomon his father while he was alive, saying, What counsel do you give me to return as an answer to this people?

And they spoke to him, saying, If today you will be a servant to this people and serve them and answer them and speak good words to them, then they will be your servants always.

But he forsook the counsel of the elders with which they counseled him and took counsel with the young men who had grown up with him, who attended him.

And he said to them, What counsel do you give me that we may return an answer to this people who have spoken to me, saying, Lighten the yoke that your father put upon us?

And the young men who grew up with him spoke to him, saying, Thus shall you say to this people who have spoken to you, saying, Your father made our yoke heavy, but you must make it lighter on us; thus shall you speak to them, My little finger is thicker than my father's loins.

And now, whereas my father laid a heavy yoke upon you, I will increase your yoke; my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.

And Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day as the king had spoken, saying, Return to me on the third day.

And the king answered the people harshly; and he forsook the counsel of the elders that they had given him

And spoke to them according to the counsel of the young men, saying, My father made your yoke heavy, but I will increase your yoke; my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.

So the king did not listen to the people, for this turn of events was of Jehovah that He might establish His word which Jehovah had spoken through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.

And when all Israel saw that the king would not listen to them, the people returned an answer to the king, saying, What portion do we have in David? Neither do we have an inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, O Israel. Now see to your own house, O David. And Israel went to their tents.

But as for the children of Israel who dwelt in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them.

Then King Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was over the forced labor, and all Israel stoned him to death. And King Rehoboam made haste to get up into his chariot and flee to Jerusalem.

So Israel has rebelled against the house of David until this day.

And when all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they sent word to him and called him to the assembly; and they made him king over all Israel. There was none who followed the house of David except the tribe of Judah alone.

And when Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, he gathered all the house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin, one hundred eighty thousand choice warriors, to wage war with the house of Israel in order to return the kingdom to Rehoboam the son of Solomon.

But the word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God, saying,

Speak to Rehoboam the son of Solomon, the king of Judah, and to all the house of Judah and Benjamin and to the rest of the people, saying,

Thus says Jehovah, You shall not go up and wage war with your brothers the children of Israel. Every man return to his house; for this matter is of Me. So they listened to the word of Jehovah and returned and went their way according to the word of Jehovah.

Then Jeroboam built up Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and he dwelt in it; and he went forth from there and built up Penuel.

And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now the kingdom will return to the house of David.

If this people go up to make sacrifices in the house of Jehovah at Jerusalem, the heart of this people will  ¹return to their lord, to Rehoboam the king of Judah; and they will slay me and return to Rehoboam the king of Judah.

And the king took counsel and made two  ¹calves of gold. And he said to them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!

And he set one in Bethel, and he put the other one in Dan.

And this thing became a  ¹sin; and the people went to worship the one as far as Dan.

And he made a  ¹house of  ²high places and appointed priests from among the people who were not from the sons of Levi.

And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like the feast that is in Judah, and he went up to the altar; he did likewise at Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he had made. And he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places that he had made.

And he went up to the altar that he had made at Bethel on the fifteenth day, in the eighth month, that is, the month he had devised in his own heart; and he ordained a feast for the children of Israel and went up to the altar to burn incense.