1 Kings 14–15

Chapter 14

Ahijah Prophesies against the King

¹At that time Abijah the son of Jeroboam became sick.

²Jeroboam said to his wife, “Arise now, and ^adisguise yourself so that they will not know that you are the wife of Jeroboam, and go to ^bShiloh; behold, Ahijah the prophet is there, who ^cspoke concerning me that I would be king over this people.

³“^aTake 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.”

⁴Jeroboam’s wife did so, and arose and went to ^aShiloh, and came to the house of ^bAhijah. Now Ahijah could not see, ^cfor his eyes were ¹dim because of his age.

⁵Now the Lord had said to Ahijah, “Behold, the wife of Jeroboam is coming to ¹inquire of you concerning her son, for he is sick. You shall say thus and thus to her, for it will be when she arrives that ^ashe will pretend to be another woman.”

⁶When Ahijah heard the sound of her feet coming in the doorway, he said, “Come in, wife of Jeroboam, why do you pretend to be another woman? For I am sent to you with a harsh message.

⁷“Go, say to Jeroboam, ‘Thus says the Lord God of Israel, “^aBecause I exalted you from among the people and made you leader over My people Israel,

⁸and ^atore the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it to you—^byet you have not been like My servant David, who kept My commandments and who followed Me with all his heart, ^cto do only that which was right in My sight;

⁹you also have done more evil than all who were before you, and ^ahave gone and made for yourself other gods and ^bmolten images to provoke Me to anger, and have ^ccast Me behind your back—

¹⁰therefore behold, I am bringing calamity on the house of Jeroboam, and ^awill cut off from Jeroboam ¹every male person, ^bboth bond and free in Israel, and I ^cwill make a clean sweep of the house of Jeroboam, as one sweeps away dung until it is all gone.

¹¹“^aAnyone belonging to Jeroboam who dies in the city the dogs will eat. And he who dies in the field the birds of the heavens will eat; for the Lord has spoken it.” ’

¹²“Now you, arise, go to your house. ^aWhen your feet enter the city the child will die.

¹³“All Israel shall mourn for him and bury him, for ¹he alone of Jeroboam’s family will come to the grave, because in him ^asomething good was found toward the Lord God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam.

¹⁴“Moreover, ^athe Lord will raise up for Himself a king over Israel who will cut off the house of Jeroboam this day ¹and from now on.

¹⁵“For the Lord will strike Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water; and ^aHe will uproot Israel from ^bthis good land which He gave to their fathers, and ^cwill scatter them beyond the Euphrates River, ^dbecause they have made their ¹Asherim, provoking the Lord to anger.

¹⁶“He will give up Israel ^aon account of the sins of Jeroboam, which he ¹committed and with which he made Israel to sin.”

¹⁷Then Jeroboam’s wife arose and departed and came to ^aTirzah. ^bAs she was entering the threshold of the house, the child died.

^18aAll Israel buried him and mourned for him, according to the word of the Lord which He spoke through His servant Ahijah the prophet.

¹⁹Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, ^ahow he made war and how he reigned, behold, they are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel.

²⁰The time that Jeroboam reigned was twenty-two years; and he slept with his fathers, and Nadab his son reigned in his place.

Rehoboam Misleads Judah

^21aNow Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, ^bthe city which the Lord had chosen from all the tribes of Israel to put His name there. And his mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonitess.

^22aJudah did evil in the sight of the Lord, and they ^bprovoked Him to jealousy more than all that their fathers had done, with ¹the sins which they ²committed.

²³For they also built for themselves ^ahigh places and sacred ^bpillars and ^1cAsherim on every high hill and ^dbeneath every luxuriant tree.

²⁴There were also ^amale cult prostitutes in the land. They did according to all the abominations of the nations which the Lord dispossessed before the sons of Israel.

^25aNow it happened in the fifth year of King Rehoboam, that Shishak the king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem.

²⁶He took away the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king’s house, and ^ahe took everything, ^1beven taking all the shields of gold which Solomon had made.

²⁷So King Rehoboam made shields of bronze in their place, and ^acommitted them to the ¹care of the commanders of the ²guard who guarded the doorway of the king’s house.

²⁸Then it happened as often as the king entered the house of the Lord, that the ¹guards would carry them and would bring them back into the guards’ room.

^29aNow the rest of the acts of Rehoboam and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?

^30aThere was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam continually.

³¹And Rehoboam slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David; and ^ahis mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonitess. And Abijam his son became king in his place.

Chapter 15

Abijam Reigns over Judah

^1aNow in the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, Abijam became king over Judah.

²He reigned three years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was ^1aMaacah the daughter of ^2bAbishalom.

³He walked in all the sins of his father which he had committed before him; and ^ahis heart was not ¹wholly devoted to the Lord his God, like the heart of his father David.

⁴But for David’s sake the Lord his God gave him a ^alamp in Jerusalem, to raise up his son after him and to establish Jerusalem;

^5abecause David did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and had not turned aside from anything that He commanded him all the days of his life, ^bexcept in the case of Uriah the Hittite.

^6aThere was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days of his life.

⁷Now ^athe rest of the acts of Abijam and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? ^bAnd there was war between Abijam and Jeroboam.

Asa Succeeds Abijam

^8aAnd Abijam slept with his fathers and they buried him in the city of David; and Asa his son became king in his place.

⁹So in the twentieth year of Jeroboam the king of Israel, Asa began to reign as king of Judah.

¹⁰He reigned forty-one years in Jerusalem; and ^ahis mother’s name was Maacah the daughter of Abishalom.

^11aAsa did what was right in the sight of the Lord, like David his father.

^12aHe also put away the male cult prostitutes from the land and ^bremoved all the idols which his fathers had made.

^131aHe also removed Maacah his mother from being queen mother, because she had made a horrid image ²as an Asherah; and Asa cut down her horrid image and ^bburned it at the brook Kidron.

^14aBut the high places were not taken away; nevertheless ^bthe heart of Asa was ¹wholly devoted to the Lord all his days.

^15aHe brought into the house of the Lord the dedicated things of his father and his own dedicated things: silver and gold and utensils.

^16aNow there was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their days.

^17aBaasha king of Israel went up against Judah and ^1bfortified Ramah ^cin order to prevent anyone from going out or coming in to Asa king of Judah.

¹⁸Then ^aAsa took all the silver and the gold which were left in the treasuries of the house of the Lord and the treasuries of the king’s house, and delivered them into the hand of his servants. And ^bKing Asa sent them to Ben-hadad the son of Tabrimmon, the son of Hezion, king of Aram, who lived in ^cDamascus, saying,

¹⁹“Let there be a ^atreaty between ¹you and me, as between my father and your father. Behold, I have sent you a present of silver and gold; go, break your treaty with Baasha king of Israel so that he will withdraw from me.”

²⁰So Ben-hadad listened to King Asa and sent the commanders of his armies against the cities of Israel, and ¹conquered ^aIjon, ^bDan, ^cAbel-beth-maacah and all ^dChinneroth, besides all the land of Naphtali.

²¹When Baasha heard of it, ^ahe ceased ¹fortifying Ramah and remained in ^bTirzah.

²²Then King Asa made a proclamation to all Judah—none was exempt—and they carried away the stones of Ramah and its timber with which Baasha had built. And King Asa built with them ^aGeba of Benjamin and Mizpah.

Jehoshaphat Succeeds Asa

^23aNow the rest of all the acts of Asa and all his might and all that he did and the cities which he built, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? But in the time of his old age he was diseased in his feet.

²⁴And Asa slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David his father; and ^aJehoshaphat his son reigned in his place.

Nadab, then Baasha, Rules over Israel

²⁵Now ^aNadab the son of Jeroboam became king over Israel in the second year of Asa king of Judah, and he reigned over Israel two years.

²⁶He did evil in the sight of the Lord, and ^awalked in the way of his father and ^bin his sin which he made Israel sin.

²⁷Then ^aBaasha the son of Ahijah of the house of Issachar conspired against him, and Baasha struck him down at ^bGibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines, while Nadab and all Israel were laying siege to Gibbethon.

²⁸So Baasha killed him in the third year of Asa king of Judah and reigned in his place.

²⁹It came about as soon as he was king, he struck down all the household of Jeroboam. He did not leave to Jeroboam ¹any persons alive, until he had destroyed them, ^aaccording to the word of the Lord, which He spoke by His servant Ahijah the Shilonite,

³⁰and because of the sins of Jeroboam which he sinned, and ^awhich he made Israel sin, because of his provocation with which he provoked the Lord God of Israel to anger.

^31aNow the rest of the acts of Nadab and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?

War with Judah

^32aThere was war between Asa and Baasha king of…