1 Kings 14–15

Jeroboam’s Son Dies

14At that time Jeroboam’s son Abijah became very sick. ²So Jeroboam said to his wife, “Go to Shiloh to see the prophet Ahijah. He is the one who said I would become king of Israel. But dress yourself so people won’t know you are my wife. ³Take the prophet ten loaves of bread, some cakes, and a jar of honey. Then ask him what will happen to our son, and he will tell you.” ⁴So the king’s wife did as he said and went to Ahijah’s home in Shiloh.

Now Ahijah was very old and blind. ⁵The Lord said to him, “Jeroboam’s son is sick, and Jeroboam’s wife is coming to ask you about him. When she arrives, she will pretend to be someone else.” Then the Lord told Ahijah what to say.

⁶When Ahijah heard her walking to the door, he said, “Come in, wife of Jeroboam. Why are you pretending to be someone else? I have bad news for you. ⁷Go back and tell Jeroboam that this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: ‘Jeroboam, I chose you from among all the people and made you the leader of my people Israel. ⁸I tore the kingdom away from David’s family, and I gave it to you. But you are not like my servant David, who always obeyed my commands and followed me with all his heart. He did only what I said was right. ⁹But you have done more evil than anyone who ruled before you. You have quit following me and have made other gods and idols of metal. This has made me very angry, ¹⁰so I will soon bring disaster to your family. I will kill all the men in your family, both slaves and free men. I will destroy your family as completely as fire burns up manure. ¹¹Anyone from your family who dies in the city will be eaten by dogs, and those who die in the fields will be eaten by the birds. The Lord has spoken.’ ”

¹²Then Ahijah said to Jeroboam’s wife, “Go home now. As soon as you enter your city, your son will die, ¹³and all Israel will be sad for him and bury him. He is the only one of Jeroboam’s family who will be buried, because he is the only one in the king’s family who pleased the Lord, the God of Israel.

¹⁴“The Lord will put a new king over Israel, who will destroy Jeroboam’s family, and this will happen soon. ¹⁵Then the Lord will punish Israel, which will be like reeds swaying in the water. The Lord will pull up Israel from this good land, the land he gave their ancestors. He will scatter Israel beyond the Euphrates River, because he is angry with the people. They made the Lord angry when they set up idols to worship Asherah. ¹⁶Jeroboam sinned, and then he made the people of Israel sin. So the Lord will let the people of Israel be defeated.”

¹⁷Then Jeroboam’s wife left and returned to Tirzah. As soon as she entered her home, the boy died. ¹⁸After they buried him, all Israel had a time of sadness for him, just as the Lord had said through his servant, the prophet Ahijah.

¹⁹Everything else Jeroboam did is written in the book of the history of the kings of Israel. He fought wars and continued to rule the people, ²⁰serving as king for twenty-two years. Then he died, and his son Nadab became king in his place.

The Death of Rehoboam

²¹Solomon’s son Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king of Judah. His mother was Naamah from Ammon. Rehoboam ruled in Jerusalem for seventeen years. (The Lord had chosen that city from all the land of Israel as the place where he would be worshiped.)

²²The people of Judah did what the Lord said was wrong. Their sins made the Lord very angry, even more angry than he had been at their ancestors. ²³The people built stone pillars and places to worship gods and Asherah idols on every high hill and under every green tree. ²⁴There were even male prostitutes in the land. They acted like the people who had lived in the land before the Israelites. They had done many evil things, and God had taken the land away from them.

²⁵During the fifth year Rehoboam was king, Shishak king of Egypt attacked Jerusalem. ²⁶He took the treasures from the Temple of the Lord and the king’s palace. He took everything, even the gold shields Solomon had made. ²⁷So King Rehoboam made bronze shields to put in their place and gave them to the commanders of the guards for the palace gates. ²⁸Whenever the king went to the Temple of the Lord, the guards carried the shields. Later, they would put them back in the guardroom.

²⁹Everything else King Rehoboam did is written in the book of the history of the kings of Judah. ³⁰There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam the whole time. ³¹Rehoboam, son of Naamah from Ammon, died and was buried with his ancestors in Jerusalem, and his son Abijam ⁿ became king in his place.

Abijam King of Judah

15Abijam became king of Judah during the eighteenth year Jeroboam son of Nebat was king of Israel. ²Abijam ruled in Jerusalem for three years. His mother was Maacah daughter of Abishalom. ³He did all the same sins his father before him had done. Abijam was not faithful to the Lord his God as David, his great-grandfather, had been. ⁴Because the Lord loved David, the Lord gave him a kingdom in Jerusalem and allowed him to have a son to be king after him. The Lord also kept Jerusalem safe. ⁵David always did what the Lord said was right and obeyed his commands all his life, except the one time when David sinned against Uriah the Hittite.

⁶There was war between Abijam and Jeroboam during Abijam’s lifetime. ⁷Everything else Abijam did is written in the book of the history of the kings of Judah. During the time Abijam ruled, there was war between Abijam and Jeroboam. ⁸Abijam died and was buried in Jerusalem, and his son Asa became king in his place.

Asa King of Judah

⁹During the twentieth year Jeroboam was king of Israel, Asa became king of Judah. ¹⁰His grandmother’s name was Maacah, the daughter of Abishalom. Asa ruled in Jerusalem for forty-one years.

¹¹Asa did what the Lord said was right, as his ancestor David had done. ¹²He forced the male prostitutes at the worship places to leave the country. He also took away the idols that his ancestors had made. ¹³His grandmother Maacah had made a terrible Asherah idol, so Asa removed her from being queen mother. He cut down that idol and burned it in the Kidron Valley. ¹⁴The places of worship to gods were not removed. Even so, Asa was faithful to the Lord all his life. ¹⁵Asa brought into the Temple of the Lord the gifts he and his father had given: gold, silver, and utensils.

¹⁶There was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all the time they were kings. ¹⁷Baasha attacked Judah, and he made the town of Ramah strong so he could keep people from leaving or entering Judah, Asa’s country.

¹⁸Asa took the rest of the silver and gold from the treasuries of the Temple of the Lord and his own palace and gave it to his officers. Then he sent them to Ben-Hadad son of Tabrimmon, who was the son of Hezion. Ben-Hadad was the king of Aram and ruled in the city of Damascus. Asa said, ¹⁹“Let there be a treaty between you and me as there was between my father and your father. I am sending you a gift of silver and gold. Break your treaty with Baasha king of Israel so he will leave my land.”

²⁰Ben-Hadad agreed with King Asa, so he sent the commanders of his armies to attack the towns of Israel. They defeated the towns of Ijon, Dan, and Abel Beth Maacah, as well as all Galilee and the area of Naphtali. ²¹When Baasha heard about these attacks, he stopped building up Ramah and returned to Tirzah. ²²Then King Asa gave an order to all the people of Judah; everyone had to help. They carried away all the stones and wood Baasha had been using in Ramah, and they used them to build up Geba and Mizpah in the land of Benjamin.

²³Everything else Asa did—his victories and the cities he built—is written in the book of the history of the kings of Judah. When he became old, he got a disease in his feet. ²⁴After Asa died, he was buried with his ancestors in Jerusalem, the city of David, his ancestor. Then Jehoshaphat, Asa’s son, became king in his place.

Nadab King of Israel

²⁵Nadab son of Jeroboam became king of Israel during the second year Asa was king of Judah. Nadab was king of Israel for two years, ²⁶and he did what the Lord said was wrong. Jeroboam had led the people of Israel to sin, and Nadab sinned in the same way as his father Jeroboam.

²⁷Baasha son of Ahijah, from the tribe of Issachar, made plans to kill Nadab. Nadab and all Israel were attacking the Philistine town of Gibbethon, so Baasha killed Nadab there. ²⁸This happened during Asa’s third year as king of Judah, and Baasha became the next king of Israel.

Baasha King of Israel

²⁹As soon as Baasha became king, he killed all of Jeroboam’s family, leaving no one in Jeroboam’s family alive. He destroyed them all as the Lord had said would happen through his servant Ahijah from Shiloh. ³⁰King Jeroboam had sinned very much and had led the people of Israel to sin, so he made the Lord, the God of Israel, very angry.

³¹Everything else Nadab did is written in the book of the history of the kings of Israel. ³²There was war between Asa king of Judah and Baasha king of Israel all the time they ruled.

³³Baasha son of Ahijah became king of Israel during Asa’s third year as king of Judah. Baasha ruled in Tirzah for twenty-four years, ³⁴and he did what the Lord said was wrong. Jeroboam had led the people of Israel to sin, and Baasha sinned in the same way as Jeroboam.