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The Book of 1 Kings

1 Kings Chapter 14

  

The Judgment Against Jeroboam

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that time Abijah son of Jeroboam became sick.  2  Jeroboam said to his wife, “Go and disguise yourself, so you won’t be recognized as the wife of Jeroboam, and go to Shiloh. Abijah the prophet is there. He is the one who told me I would be king over this people.  3  Take ten loaves with you, some cakes, and a jar of honey, and go to him. He will tell you what will happen to the boy.”4 So Jeroboam’s wife did as he said. She set out and went to the house of Ahijah at Shiloh.

Now Ahijah could not see; his eyes were dim because of his age.  5  But the Lord had said to Ahijah, “The wife of Jeroboam is coming to ask you about her son, for he is sick. You will say thus and thus to her. When she arrives, she will pretend to be someone else.”

6 So when Ahijah heard the sound of her feet as she entered through the door, he said, “Come in, wife of Jeroboam. Why do you come pretending you are someone else? I have a harsh message to give you.  7  Go, tell Jeroboam, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: “I raised you up from among the people and made you ruler over My people Israel.  8  I tore the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it to you. But you have not been like My servant David, who kept My commands and followed Me with all his heart, doing only what was right in My eyes.  9  You have done more evil than all who were before you. You have gone and made for yourself other gods, and cast metal idols. You have provoked Me to anger and flung Me behind your back.

10  ‘Because of all this, I am going to bring disaster upon the house of Jeroboam. I will cut off from Jeroboam every male, both slave and free in Israel. I will sweep away the house of Jeroboam, just as dung is swept away, until it is all gone.  11  Anyone who belongs to Jeroboam and dies in the city, the dogs will eat, and anyone who dies in the open country the birds of the air will eat, for the Lord has spoken!’

12  “As for you, go back to your own home. When your feet enter the city, the boy will die.  13  All Israel will mourn for him and bury him. Yet he is the only one of Jeroboam’s family who will come to the grave, because he is the only one from the house of Jeroboam in whom something was found pleasing to the Lord, the God of Israel.

14  “The Lord will raise up for Himself a king over Israel, who will cut off the house of Jeroboam. This is this day, yes, even now! 15 The Lord will strike Israel, and it will sway like a reed swaying in the water. He will uproot Israel from this good land that He gave to their forefathers and scatter them beyond the River, because they made their Asherah poles, and so provoked the Lord to anger.  16  He will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, who sinned, and caused Israel to sin.”

17  Then Jeroboam’s wife got up and left, and she went to Tirzah. As she was stepping over the threshold of the house, the boy died.  18  They buried him, and all Israel mourned for him, according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke through His servant Ahijah the prophet.

The Death of Jeroboam

19  The other events of Jeroboam’s reign, how he waged war and how he reigned, are they not written in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel?  20  Jeroboam reigned for twenty-two years, then he slept with his fathers. His son Nadab succeeded him as king.

Rehoboam Reigns in Judah

21  Now Rehoboam son of Solomon was king in Judah. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city that the Lord had chosen from all the tribes of Israel, to put His Name there. His mother’s name was Naamah; she was an Ammonite.

22  Judah did evil in the eyes of the Lord. They provoked Him to jealous anger even more than their fathers had done with the sins they committed.  23  They also set up for themselves high places, sacred pillars, and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree.  24  There were also male cult prostitutes in the land; and the people committed all the detestable practices of the nations that the Lord had driven out before the Israelites.

25  In the fifth year of the reign of King Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem.  26  He carried off the treasures from the House of the Lord and the treasures of the king’s palace. He looted everything, including all the gold shield that Solomon had made.  27  So King Rehoboam made bronze shields to replace them and entrusted them to the officers of the guard, who guarded the entrance to the royal palace.  28  Whenever the king entered the House of the Lord, the guards would carry the shields, then afterwards they would return them to the armoury of the guards.

29  The other events of Rehoboam’s reign, and all that he did, are they not written about in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Judah?  30  And there was continuous warfare between Rehoboam and Jeroboam.  31  Then Rehoboam slept with his fathers, and he was buried with them in the City of David. His mother’s name was Naamah; she was an Ammonite. Then his son Abijam became king in his place.