16
Your fame reached to far-off islands, and you were loved for your peaceful reign.
17
Your songs, proverbs, and parables, and the answers you gave astounded the nations.
18
In the name of the Lord God, who is called the God of Israel, you gathered gold like tin and amassed silver like lead.
19
But you brought in women to lie at your side, and through your body you were brought into subjection.
20
You stained your honor, and defiled your family line, so that you brought wrath upon your children, and they were grieved at your folly,
21
because the sovereignty was divided and a rebel kingdom arose out of Ephraim.
22
But the Lord will never give up his mercy, or cause any of his works to perish; he will never blot out the descendants of his chosen one, or destroy the family line of him who loved him. So he gave a remnant to Jacob, and to David a root from his own family.
23
Solomon rested with his ancestors, and left behind him one of his sons, broad in folly and lacking in sense, Rehoboam, whose policy drove the people to revolt. Then Jeroboam son of Nebat led Israel into sin and started Ephraim on its sinful ways.
24
Their sins increased more and more, until they were exiled from their land.
25
For they sought out every kind of wickedness, until vengeance came upon them.