1 Kings 14:3-13

3 Take with you 10 loaves of bread, some cakes, and a jar of honey, and go to him. He will tell you what will happen to the boy."
4 Jeroboam's wife did that: she went to Shiloh and arrived at Ahijah's house. Ahijah could not see; his gaze was fixed[a] due to his age.
5 But the Lord had said to Ahijah, "Jeroboam's wife is coming soon to ask you about her son, for he is sick. You are to say such and such to her. When she arrives, she will be disguised."
6 When Ahijah heard the sound of her feet entering the door, he said, "Come in, wife of Jeroboam! Why are you disguised? I have bad news for you.
7 Go tell Jeroboam, 'This is what the Lord God of Israel says: I raised you up from among the people, appointed you ruler over My people Israel,
8 tore the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it to you. But you were not like My servant David, who kept My commandments and followed Me with all of his heart, doing only what is right in My eyes.
9 You behaved more wickedly than all who were before you. In order to provoke Me, you have proceeded to make for yourself other gods and cast images, but you have flung Me behind your back.
10 Because of all this, I am about to bring disaster on the house of Jeroboam: I will eliminate all of Jeroboam's males,[b] both slave and free,[c] in Israel; I will sweep away the house of Jeroboam as one sweeps away dung until it is all gone!
11 Anyone who belongs to Jeroboam and dies in the city, the dogs will eat, and anyone who dies in the field, the birds of the sky will eat,[d] for the Lord has said it!'
12 "As for you, get up and go to your house. When your feet enter the city, the boy will die.
13 All Israel will mourn for him and bury him, for this one alone out of Jeroboam's [sons] will come to the grave, because in him [alone] out of the house of Jeroboam something was found pleasing to the Lord God of Israel.

1 Kings 14:3-13 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO 1 KINGS 14

This chapter relates the sickness of Jeroboam's son, the application of his wife, at his instance, to the prophet Ahijah, in the child's favour, 1Ki 14:1-6, the prophecy of the prophet concerning the ruin of Jeroboam's house, and the death of the child, which came to pass, 1Ki 14:7-18, an account of the years of Jeroboam's reign, and also of Rehoboam's, 1Ki 14:19-21, and of the evil things done and suffered by the latter in his kingdom, and the calamities that came upon him for it, 1Ki 14:22-28 and the conclusion of his reign, 1Ki 14:29-31.

Footnotes 4

  • [a]. Lit see, for his eyes stood; 1 Sm 4:15
  • [b]. Lit eliminate Jeroboam's one who urinates against the wall
  • [c]. Hb obscure
  • [d]. 1 Kg 16:4; 21:24
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