1 Kings 14

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.