1 Kings 14–15

Judgment on the House of Jeroboam

14At that time Abijah the son of Jeroboam became sick. ²And Jeroboam said to his wife, “Please arise, and disguise yourself, that they may not recognize you as the wife of Jeroboam, and go to Shiloh. Indeed, Ahijah the prophet is there, who told me that ^aI would be king over this people. ^3bAlso take ¹with you ten loaves, some cakes, and a jar of honey, and go to him; he will tell you what will become of the child.” ⁴And Jeroboam’s wife did so; she arose ^cand went to Shiloh, and came to the house of Ahijah. But Ahijah could not see, for his eyes were ²glazed by reason of his age.

⁵Now the Lord had said to Ahijah, “Here is the wife of Jeroboam, coming to ask you something about her son, for he is sick. Thus and thus you shall say to her; for it will be, when she comes in, that she will pretend to be another woman.”

⁶And so it was, when Ahijah heard the sound of her footsteps as she came through the door, he said, “Come in, wife of Jeroboam. Why do you pretend to be another person? For I have been sent to you with bad news. ⁷Go, tell Jeroboam, ‘Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ^d“Because I exalted you from among the people, and made you ruler over My people Israel, ⁸and ^etore the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it to you; and yet you have not been as My servant David, ^fwho kept My commandments and who followed Me with all his heart, to do only what was right in My eyes; ⁹but you have done more evil than all who were before you, ^gfor you have gone and made for yourself other gods and molded images to provoke Me to anger, and ^hhave cast Me behind your back—¹⁰therefore behold! ⁱI will bring disaster on the house of Jeroboam, and ^jwill cut off from Jeroboam every male in Israel, ^kbond and free; I will take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam, as one takes away refuse until it is all gone. ¹¹The dogs shall eat ^lwhoever belongs to Jeroboam and dies in the city, and the birds of the air shall eat whoever dies in the field; for the Lord has spoken!” ’ ¹²Arise therefore, go to your own house. ^mWhen your feet enter the city, the child shall die. ¹³And all Israel shall mourn for him and bury him, for he is the only one of Jeroboam who shall ³come to the grave, because in him ⁿthere is found something good toward the Lord God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam.

^14o“Moreover the Lord will raise up for Himself a king over Israel who shall cut off the house of Jeroboam; ⁴this is the day. What? Even now! ¹⁵For the Lord will strike Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water. He will ^puproot Israel from this ^qgood land which He gave to their fathers, and will scatter them ^rbeyond ⁵the River, ^sbecause they have made their ⁶wooden images, provoking the Lord to anger. ¹⁶And He will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, ^twho sinned and who made Israel sin.”

¹⁷Then Jeroboam’s wife arose and departed, and came to ^uTirzah. ^vWhen she came to the threshold of the house, the child died. ¹⁸And they buried him; and all Israel mourned for him, ^waccording to the word of the Lord which He spoke through His servant Ahijah the prophet.

Death of Jeroboam

¹⁹Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, how he ^xmade war and how he reigned, indeed they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel. ²⁰The period that Jeroboam reigned was twenty-two years. So he rested with his fathers. Then ^yNadab his son reigned in his place.

Rehoboam Reigns in Judah

²¹And Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. ^zRehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king. He reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city ^awhich the Lord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to put His name there. ^bHis mother’s name was Naamah, an Ammonitess. ^22cNow Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord, and they ^dprovoked Him to jealousy with their sins which they committed, more than all that their fathers had done. ²³For they also built for themselves ^ehigh ⁷places, ^fsacred pillars, and ^gwooden images on every high hill and ^hunder every green tree. ²⁴ⁱAnd there were also ⁸perverted persons in the land. They did according to all the ^jabominations of the nations which the Lord had cast out before the children of ^kIsrael.

^25lIt happened in the fifth year of King Rehoboam that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem. ^26mAnd he took away the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king’s house; he took away everything. He also took away all the gold shields ⁿwhich Solomon had made. ²⁷Then King Rehoboam made bronze shields in their place, and ⁹committed them to the hands of the captains of the ¹guard, who guarded the doorway of the king’s house. ²⁸And whenever the king entered the house of the Lord, the guards carried them, then brought them back into the guardroom.

^29oNow 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? ³⁰And there was ^pwar between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all their days. ^31qSo Rehoboam ²rested with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the City of David. ^rHis mother’s name was Naamah, an Ammonitess. Then ^sAbijam ³his son reigned in his place.

Abijam Reigns in Judah

15In ^athe eighteenth year of King Jeroboam the son of Nebat, Abijam became king over Judah. ²He reigned three years in Jerusalem. ^bHis mother’s name was ^cMaachah the granddaughter of ^dAbishalom. ³And he walked in all the sins of his father, which he had done before him; ^ehis heart was not ¹loyal to the Lord his God, as was the heart of his father David. ⁴Nevertheless ^ffor David’s sake the Lord his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem, by setting up his son after him and by establishing Jerusalem; ⁵because David ^gdid what was right in the eyes of the Lord, and had not turned aside from anything that He commanded him all the days of his life, ^hexcept in the matter of Uriah the Hittite. ⁶ⁱAnd there was war between ²Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days of his life. ^7jNow the 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? And there was war between Abijam and Jeroboam.

^8kSo Abijam ³rested with his fathers, and they buried him in the City of David. Then Asa his son reigned in his place.

Asa Reigns in Judah

⁹In the twentieth year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Asa became king over Judah. ¹⁰And he reigned forty-one years in Jerusalem. His grandmother’s name was Maachah the granddaughter of Abishalom. ^11lAsa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as did his father David. ^12mAnd he banished the ⁴perverted persons from the land, and removed all the idols that his fathers had made. ¹³Also he removed ⁿMaachah his grandmother from being queen mother, because she had made an obscene image of ⁵Asherah. And Asa cut down her obscene image and ^oburned it by the Brook Kidron. ^14pBut the ⁶high places were not removed. Nevertheless Asa’s ^qheart was loyal to the Lord all his days. ¹⁵He also brought into the house of the Lord the things which his father ^rhad dedicated, and the things which he himself had dedicated: silver and gold and utensils.

¹⁶Now there was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their days. ¹⁷And ^sBaasha king of Israel came up against Judah, and built ^tRamah, ^uthat he might let none go out or come in to Asa king of Judah. ¹⁸Then Asa took all the silver and gold that was 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 King Asa sent them to ^vBen-Hadad the son of Tabrimmon, the son of Hezion, king of Syria, who dwelt in ^wDamascus, saying, ¹⁹“Let there be a treaty between you and me, as there was between my father and your father. See, I have sent you a present of silver and gold. Come and break your treaty with Baasha king of Israel, so that he will withdraw from me.”

²⁰So Ben-Hadad heeded King Asa, and ^xsent the captains of his armies against the cities of Israel. He attacked ^yIjon, ^zDan, ^aAbel Beth Maachah, and all Chinneroth, with all the land of Naphtali. ²¹Now it happened, when Baasha heard it, that he stopped building Ramah, and remained in ^bTirzah.

^22cThen King Asa made a proclamation throughout all Judah; none was exempted. And they took away the stones and timber of Ramah, which Baasha had used for building; and with them King Asa built ^dGeba of Benjamin, and ^eMizpah.

²³The rest of all the acts of Asa, all his might, 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 ^fin the time of his old age he was diseased in his feet. ²⁴So Asa ⁷rested with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the City of David his father. ^gThen ^hJehoshaphat his son reigned in his place.

Nadab Reigns in Israel

²⁵Now ⁱNadab the son of Jeroboam became king over Israel in the second year of Asa king of Judah, and he reigned over Israel two years. ²⁶And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the way of his father, and in ^jhis sin by which he had made Israel sin.

^27kThen Baasha the son of Ahijah, of the house of Issachar, conspired against him. And Baasha killed him at ^lGibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines, while Nadab and all Israel laid siege to Gibbethon. ²⁸Baasha killed him in the third year of Asa king of Judah, and reigned in his place. ²⁹And it was so, when he became king, that he killed all the house of Jeroboam. He did not leave to Jeroboam anyone that breathed, until he had destroyed him, according to ^mthe word of the Lord which He had spoken by His servant Ahijah the Shilonite, ³⁰ⁿbecause of the sins of Jeroboam, which he had sinned and by which he had made Israel sin, because of his provocation with which he had provoked the Lord God of Israel to anger.

³¹Now 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? ^32oAnd there was war between Asa and…