The Story of Adoram the Taskmaster over the Forced Labor and the Traditions Regarding the Kingdom’s Division

Abstract

This study compares the three major versions of the concluding verses of the story of the assembly at Shechem (1 Kgs 12:13–20): the Masoretic Text (MT), its Septuagint counterpart (G*), and the version found in 3 Kgdms 12:24s–u LXX called the “Alternative Story” (AS). While the MT version includes an account concerning Adoram the taskmaster over the forced labor (12:18a, 19), the shorter AS lacks this detail. This fact, together with additional historical and philological considerations, serves as the basis for the article’s proposal that the brief report on Adoram originated from an independent account that provides a unique and distinct explanation for the Kingdom’s division. This tradition diverges from, yet exhibits certain similarities to other explanations for the schism, as described in the Shechem assembly story, the account of Jeroboam’s rise, and the Deuteronomistic editorial strata.