1 Kings 14:1–20

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.