1 Kings 14–15

Judgment for Jeroboam Continues

14At that time, Abijah son of Jeroboam became ill. ²Jeroboam said to his wife, “Please get up and disguise yourself so that they will not know that you are the wife of Jeroboam, and go to Shiloh. Look, Ahijah the prophet is there, and he spoke concerning me before I became king over this people. ³You must take ten loaves of bread in your hand and cakes and a jar of honey, and you must go to him. He shall tell you what will happen to the boy.” ⁴The wife of Jeroboam did so. She got up, went to Shiloh, and came to the house of Ahijah. Now Ahijah was not able to see, for his eyes were fixed^a because of his old age. ⁵Then Yahweh said to Ahijah, “Look, the wife of Jeroboam is coming to seek a word from you about her son, for he is ill. Thus and so^b you shall say to her. When she comes, she will be disguising herself.” ⁶It happened at the moment Ahijah heard the sound of her footsteps coming through the doorway, he said, “Come in, wife of Jeroboam. Why are you making yourself unrecognizable? I have been sent a hard message for you: ⁷Go, tell Jeroboam, ‘Thus says Yahweh the God of Israel: “Because I raised you from the midst of the people and I made you leader over my people Israel, ⁸I tore the kingdom from the house of David and I gave it to you. But you were not like my servant David who kept my commandments, and who went after me with all his heart, to do only what is right in my eyes. ⁹But you did more evil than all who were before you. You have gone and made for yourself other gods and molten idols to provoke me, but me you have completely disregarded.^{c 10}Therefore, look, I am about to bring disaster upon the house of Jeroboam, and I will cut off males^d from Jeroboam, bond or free, in Israel. I will burn after the house of Jeroboam as one burns after the manure, until it is finished. ¹¹The one belonging to Jeroboam who dies in the city, the dogs will eat. The one who dies in the open field, the birds of the heavens will eat, for Yahweh has spoken it.” ’ ¹²As for you, get up. Go to your house. When your feet enter the city, the child will die. ¹³All of Israel will mourn for him, and they will bury him. This one alone will come to a tomb for Jeroboam, because a good thing has been found in him by Yahweh the God of Israel in the house of Israel. ¹⁴Yahweh will raise up a king for himself over Israel who will even now cut off the house of Jeroboam this day. ¹⁵Yahweh will strike Israel as one shakes the reed plant in the water, and he will root Israel up from this good land that he gave to their ancestors.^e He will scatter them beyond the River^f because they have made their sacred poles which are provoking Yahweh. ¹⁶He will give up Israel because of the sin of Jeroboam which he sinned and which he caused Israel to sin.”

¹⁷Then the wife of Jeroboam got up, went, and came to Tirzah. As she was coming to the threshold of the house, the boy died. ¹⁸They buried him and all of Israel mourned for him, according to the word of Yahweh which he had spoken by the hand of his servant Ahijah the prophet. ¹⁹The remainder of the acts of Jeroboam, how he fought and how he reigned, behold, they are written in the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Israel. ²⁰The days which Jeroboam reigned were twenty-two years, and he slept with his ancestors.^g Then Nadab his son became king in place of him.

Rehoboam Reigns in Judah

²¹Now Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty-one years old^h when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which, from all of the tribes of Israel, Yahweh chose to place his name. And the name of his mother was Naamah the Ammonitess. ²²But Judah did evil in the eyes of Yahweh, and they annoyed him more than their fathersⁱ did with their sins that they had committed. ²³They also built for themselves high places and stone pillars and sacred poles on every high hill and under every green tree. ²⁴There were also male shrine prostitutes in the land, and they did according to all the abominations of the nations which Yahweh had driven out from before the Israelites.^j

Pharaoh Shishak of Egypt Raids Jerusalem

²⁵It happened in the fifth year of King Rehoboam that Shishak the king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, ²⁶and he took the treasures of the house of Yahweh, and he took all the treasures of the king’s house. He took the small gold shields that Solomon had made, ²⁷so King Rehoboam made small copper shields in place of them and entrusted them^k to the commanders of the royal guard who keep the doorway of the king’s house. ²⁸Whenever the king came to the house of Yahweh, the royal guard carried them and brought them back to the alcove room of the royal guard. ²⁹The remainder of the acts of Rehoboam and all that he did, are they not written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Judah? ³⁰There was always war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam. ³¹Then Rehoboam slept with his ancestors,^l and he was buried with his ancestors^m in the city of David. The name of his mother was Naamah the Ammonitess. Abijam his son became king in his place.

The Reign of Abijam in Judah

15In the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam the son of Nebat, Abijam began to reign over Judah. ²Three years he reigned in Jerusalem. The name of his mother was Maacah the daughter of Abishalom. ³He walked in all the sins of his father that he had done before him, and his heart was not fully with Yahweh his God as the heart of David his father. ⁴For the sake of David, Yahweh his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem, by establishing his son after him and by causing Jerusalem to exist; ⁵because David did right in the eyes of Yahweh and he didn’t turn aside from all that he commanded him all the days of his life, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.

⁶There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days of his life. ⁷The remainder of the acts of Abijam and all that he did, are they not written in the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Judah? There was also war between Abijam and Jeroboam. ⁸Abijam slept with his ancestors,^a and they buried him in the city of David, and Asa his son became king in his place.

The Reign of Asa in Judah

⁹In the twentieth year of Jeroboam the king of Israel, Asa became the king of Judah. ¹⁰He reigned forty-one years in Jerusalem, and the name of his mother was Maacah the daughter of Abishalom. ¹¹Asa did right in the eyes of Yahweh, like David his ancestor.^{b 12}He put away the male shrine prostitutes from the land, and he removed all of the idols that his ancestors^c made. ¹³Also, he had Maacah his mother removed from the office of queen mother, as she had made a repulsive image for the Asherah. Asa also cut down her repulsive image and burned it in the Wadi^d Kidron. ¹⁴But the high places he did not remove. Nevertheless, the heart of Asa was completely with Yahweh all of his days. ¹⁵He brought the holy objects of his father and his own holy objects to the house of Yahweh, silver and gold and utensils.

¹⁶There was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all of their days. ¹⁷Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah, and he built Ramah to hinder the coming and going of anyone to Asa^e king of Judah. ¹⁸Asa took all of the silver and gold remaining in the storerooms of the house of Yahweh and in the treasury rooms of the house of the king, and he gave them into the hand of his servants; so King Asa sent them to Ben-Hadad the son of Tabrimmon the son of Hezion, the king of Aram, who lived in Damascus, saying, ¹⁹“Let there be a covenant between me and you, between my father and your father. Look, I have sent you a gift of silver and gold. Go, break your covenant with Baasha king of Israel that he may go up away from me.” ²⁰Ben-Hadad listened to King Asa, and he sent the commanders of his armies against the cities of Israel and he attacked Ijon, Dan, Abel-Beth-Maacah, and all of Kinnereth, in addition to all the land of Naphtali. ²¹When Baasha heard, he stopped building Ramah, and he lived in Tirzah. ²²Then King Asa proclaimed among all Judah that there was no one free from obligation, so they carried the stones of Ramah and its wood with which Baasha had built, and King Asa rebuilt Geba in Benjamin with them, and the Mizpah. ²³The remainder of the acts of Asa, all of his achievements, all that he did, and the cities which he built, are they not written in the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Judah? But at the time of his old age, he developed a foot disease.^{f 24}Asa slept with his ancestors^g and was buried with his ancestors^h in the city of David his ancestor;ⁱ Jehoshaphat his son became king in his place.

The Reign of Nadab in Israel

²⁵Nadab the son of Jeroboam began to reign over Israel in the second year of Asa king of Judah, and he reigned over Israel two years. ²⁶He did evil in the eyes of Yahweh, and he walked in the way of his father and in his sin that he caused Israel to commit. ²⁷Baasha son of Ahijah of the house of Issachar conspired against him, and Baasha struck him down at Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines. Now Nadab and all of Israel were laying siege to Gibbethon, ²⁸and Baasha killed him in the third year of Asa the king of Judah, and he reigned in his place. ²⁹It happened that as soon as he became king, he killed all of the house of Jeroboam. There was no one left of Jeroboam who breathed, until he had destroyed him according to the word of Yahweh that he had spoken by the hand of his servant, Ahijah the Shilonite, ³⁰because of the sins of Jeroboam that he had committed and that he had caused Israel to commit and because of his anger with which he had provoked Yahweh the God of Israel. ³¹Now the remainder of the acts of Nadab and all that he did, are they not written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Israel?

The Reign of Baasha in Israel

³²There was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their…