1 Kings 14

1 At that time King Jeroboam's son Abijah got sick.

2 Jeroboam said to his wife, "Disguise yourself so that no one will recognize you, and go to Shiloh, where the prophet Ahijah lives, the one who said I would be king of Israel.

3 Take him ten loaves of bread, some cakes, and a jar of honey. Ask him what is going to happen to our son, and he will tell you."

4 So she went to Ahijah's home in Shiloh. Old age had made Ahijah blind.

5 The Lord had told him that Jeroboam's wife was coming to ask him about her son, who was sick. And the Lord told Ahijah what to say. When Jeroboam's wife arrived, she pretended to be someone else.

6 But when Ahijah heard her coming in the door, he said, "Come in. I know you are Jeroboam's wife. Why are you pretending to be someone else? I have bad news for you.

7 Go and tell Jeroboam that this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says to him: "I chose you from among the people and made you the ruler of my people Israel.

8 I took the kingdom away from David's descendants and gave it to you. But you have not been like my servant David, who was completely loyal to me, obeyed my commands, and did only what I approve of.

9 You have committed far greater sins than those who ruled before you. You have rejected me and have aroused my anger by making idols and metal images to worship.

10 Because of this I will bring disaster on your dynasty and will kill all your male descendants, young and old alike. I will get rid of your family; they will be swept away like dung. ¹

11 Any members of your family who die in the city will be eaten by dogs, and any who die in the open country will be eaten by vultures. I, the Lord, have spoken.' "

12 And Ahijah went on to say to Jeroboam's wife, "Now go back home. As soon as you enter the town, your son will die.

13 All the people of Israel will mourn for him and bury him. He will be the only member of Jeroboam's family who will be properly buried, because he is the only one with whom the Lord, the God of Israel, is pleased.

14 The Lord is going to place a king over Israel who will put an end to Jeroboam's dynasty.

15 The Lord will punish Israel, and she will shake like a reed shaking in a stream. He will uproot the people of Israel from this good land which he gave to their ancestors, and he will scatter them beyond the Euphrates River, because they have aroused his anger by making idols of the goddess Asherah.

16 The Lord will abandon Israel because Jeroboam sinned and led the people of Israel into sin."

17 Jeroboam's wife went back to Tirzah. Just as she entered her home, the child died.

18 The people of Israel mourned for him and buried him, as the Lord had said through his servant, the prophet Ahijah.

19 Everything else that King Jeroboam did, the wars he fought and how he ruled, are all recorded in [The History of the Kings of Israel.]

20 Jeroboam ruled as king for twenty-two years. He died and was buried, and his son Nadab succeeded him as king.

21 Solomon's son Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the Lord had chosen from all the territory of Israel as the place where he was to be worshiped. Rehoboam's mother was Naamah from Ammon.

22 The people of Judah sinned against the Lord and did more to arouse his anger against them than all their ancestors had done.

23 They built places of worship for false gods and put up stone pillars and symbols of Asherah to worship on the hills and under shady trees. ²

24 Worst of all, there were men and women who served as prostitutes at those pagan places of worship. The people of Judah practiced all the shameful things done by the people whom the Lord had driven out of the land as the Israelites advanced into the country. ³

25 In the fifth year of Rehoboam's reign King Shishak of Egypt attacked Jerusalem. ⁴

26 He took away all the treasures in the Temple and in the palace, including the gold shields Solomon had made. ⁵

27 To replace them, King Rehoboam made bronze shields and entrusted them to the officers responsible for guarding the palace gates.

28 Every time the king went to the Temple, the guards carried the shields and then returned them to the guardroom.

29 Everything else that King Rehoboam did is recorded in [The History of the Kings of Judah.]

30 During all this time Rehoboam and Jeroboam were constantly at war with each other.

31 Rehoboam died and was buried in the royal tombs in David's City and his son Abijah succeeded him as king.

1 Kings 14 Commentary

Chapter 14

Abijah being sick, his mother consults Ahijah. (1-6) The destruction of Jeroboam's house. (7-20) Rehoboam's wicked reign. (21-31)

Verses 1-6 "At that time," when Jeroboam did evil, his child sickened. When sickness comes into our families, we should inquire whether there may not be some particular sin harboured in our houses, which the affliction is sent to convince us of, and reclaim us from. It had been more pious if he had desired to know wherefore God contended with him; had begged the prophet's prayers, and cast away his idols from him; but most people would rather be told their fortune, than their faults or their duty. He sent to Ahijah, because he had told him he should be king. Those who by sin disqualify themselves for comfort, yet expect that their ministers, because they are good men, should speak peace and comfort to them, greatly wrong themselves and their ministers. He sent his wife in disguise, that the prophet might only answer her question concerning her son. Thus some people would limit their ministers to smooth things, and care not for having the whole counsel of God declared to them, lest it should prophesy no good concerning them, but evil. But she shall know, at the first word, what she has to trust to. Tidings of a portion with hypocrites will be heavy tidings. God will judge men according to what they are, not by what they seem to be.

Verses 7-20 Whether we keep an account of God's mercies to us or not, he does; and he will set them in order before us, if we are ungrateful, to our greater confusion. Ahijah foretells the speedy death of the child then sick, in mercy to him. He only in the house of Jeroboam had affection for the true worship of God, and disliked the worship of the calves. To show the power and sovereignty of his grace, God saves some out of the worst families, in whom there is some good thing towards the Lord God of Israel. The righteous are removed from the evil to come in this world, to the good to come in a better world. It is often a bad sign for a family, when the best in it are buried out of it. Yet their death never can be a loss to themselves. It was a present affliction to the family and kingdom, by which both ought to have been instructed. God also tells the judgments which should come upon the people of Israel, for conforming to the worship Jeroboam established. After they left the house of David, the government never continued long in one family, but one undermined and destroyed another. Families and kingdoms are ruined by sin. If great men do wickedly, they draw many others, both into the guilt and punishment. The condemnation of those will be severest, who must answer, not only for their own sins, but for sins others have been drawn into, and kept in, by them.

Verses 21-31 Here is no good said of Rehoboam, and much said to the disadvantage of his subjects. The abounding of the worst crimes, of the worst of the heathen, in Jerusalem, the city the Lord had chosen for his temple and his worship, shows that nothing can mend the hearts of fallen men but the sanctifying grace of the Holy Spirit. On this alone may we depend; for this let us daily pray, in behalf of ourselves and all around us. The splendour of their temple, the pomp of their priesthood, and all the advantages with which their religion was attended, could not prevail to keep them close to it; nothing less than the pouring out the Spirit will keep God's Israel in their allegiance to him. Sin exposes, makes poor, and weakens any people. Shishak, king of Egypt, came and took away the treasures. Sin makes the gold become dim, changes the most fine gold, and turns it into brass.

Cross References

• 1. 14.10 1 Kings 15.29.
• 2. 14.23 2 Kings 17.9, 10.
• 3. 14.24Deuteronomy 23.17.
• 4. 14.252 Chronicles 12.2-8.
• 5. 14.26 1 K 10.16, 17;2 Chronicles 9.15, 16.

Footnotes

• [a]. [Hebrew has five additional words, the meaning of which is unclear.]

Chapter Summary

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.