3. The people of the northern tribes sent for him, and then they all went together to Rehoboam and said to him,
4. “Your father Solomon treated us harshly and placed heavy burdens on us. If you make these burdens lighter and make life easier for us, we will be your loyal subjects.”
5. “Come back in three days and I will give you my answer,” he replied. So they left.
6. King Rehoboam consulted the older men who had served as his father Solomon's advisers. “What answer do you advise me to give these people?” he asked.
7. They replied, “If you want to serve this people well, give a favourable answer to their request, and they will always serve you loyally.”
8. But he ignored the advice of the older men and went instead to the young men who had grown up with him and who were now his advisers.
9. “What do you advise me to do?” he asked. “What shall I say to the people who are asking me to make their burdens lighter?”
26-27. He said to himself, “As things are now, if my people go to Jerusalem and offer sacrifices to the Lord in the Temple there, they will transfer their allegiance to King Rehoboam of Judah and will kill me.”
28. After thinking it over, he made two bull calves of gold and said to his people, “You have been going long enough to Jerusalem to worship. People of Israel, here are your gods who brought you out of Egypt!”
29. He placed one of the gold bull calves in Bethel and the other in Dan.
30. And so the people sinned, going to worship in Bethel and in Dan.
31. Jeroboam also built places of worship on hilltops, and he chose priests from families who were not of the tribe of Levi.
32. Jeroboam also instituted a religious festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the festival in Judah. On the altar in Bethel he offered sacrifices to the gold bull calves he had made, and he placed there in Bethel the priests serving at the places of worship he had built.
33. And on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, the day that he himself had set, he went to Bethel and offered a sacrifice on the altar in celebration of the festival he had instituted for the people of Israel.