1 Kings 14:21-31

Rehoboam Misleads Judah

21 ¹Now 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, ²the 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.

22 ³Judah did evil in the sight of the LORD, and they ⁴provoked Him to jealousy more than all that their fathers had done, with the sins which they committed.

23 For they also built for themselves ⁵high places and sacred ⁶pillars and ⁷Asherim on every high hill and ⁸beneath every luxuriant tree.

24 There were also ⁹male cult prostitutes in the land. They did according to all the abominations of the nations which the LORD dispossessed before * the sons of Israel.

25 ¹⁰Now it happened in the fifth year of King Rehoboam, that Shishak the king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem.

26 He took away the treasures of the house of the LORD and the treasures of the king's house, and ¹¹he took everything, ¹²even taking all the shields of gold which Solomon had made.

27 So King Rehoboam made shields of bronze in their place, and ¹³committed them to the care of the commanders of the guard who guarded the doorway of the king's house.

28 Then it happened as often as the king entered the house of the LORD, that the guards would carry them and would bring them back into the guards' room.

29 ¹⁴Now 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?

30 ¹⁵There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam continually *.

31 And Rehoboam slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David; and ¹⁶his mother's name was Naamah the Ammonitess. And Abijam his son became king in his place.

1 Kings 14:21-31 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.

Cross References

• 1. 2 Chronicles 12:13
• 2. 1 Kings 11:32, 36
• 3. 2 Chronicles 12:1, 14
• 4. Deuteronomy 32:21; Psalms 78:58; 1 Corinthians 10:22
• 5. Deuteronomy 12:2; Ezekiel 16:24
• 6. Deuteronomy 16:22
• 7. 1 Kings 14:15
• 8. 2 Kings 17:10; Isaiah 57:5; Jeremiah 2:20
• 9. Genesis 19:5; Deuteronomy 23:17; 1 Kings 15:12; 1 Kings 22:46; 2 Kings 23:7
• 10. 1 Kings 11:40; 2 Chronicles 12:2, 9
• 11. 1 Kings 15:18; 2 Chronicles 12:9
• 12. 1 Kings 10:17; 2 Chronicles 9:15, 16
• 13. 1 Samuel 8:11; 1 Samuel 22:17
• 14. 2 Chronicles 12:15, 16
• 15. 1 Kings 12:21; 1 Kings 15:6
• 16. 1 Kings 14:21

Footnotes

• [a]. Lit "their"
• [b]. Lit "sinned"
• [c]. I.e. wooden symbols of a female deity
• [d]. Lit "and he took away"
• [e]. Lit "hand"
• [f]. Lit "runner"
• [g]. Lit "runners"
• [h]. Lit "runners"