1 Kings 14:21-31

21 Rehoboam son of Solomon was king in Judah. He was forty-one years old when he took the throne and was king for seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city God selected from all the tribes of Israel for the worship of his Name. Rehoboam's mother was Naamah, an Ammonite.
22 Judah was openly wicked before God, making him very angry. They set new records in sin, surpassing anything their ancestors had done.
23 They built Asherah sex-and-religion shrines and set up sacred stones all over the place - on hills, under trees, wherever you looked.
24 Worse, they had male sacred prostitutes, polluting the country outrageously - all the stuff that God had gotten rid of when he brought Israel into the land.
25 In the fifth year of King Rehoboam's rule, Shishak king of Egypt made war against Jerusalem.
26 He plundered The Temple of God and the royal palace of their treasures, cleaned them out - even the gold shields that Solomon had made.
27 King Rehoboam replaced them with bronze shields and outfitted the royal palace guards with them.
28 Whenever the king went to God's Temple, the guards carried the shields but always returned them to the guardroom.
29 The rest of Rehoboam's life, what he said and did, is all written in The Chronicles of the Kings of Judah.
30 There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam the whole time.
31 Rehoboam died and was buried with his ancestors in the City of David. His mother was Naamah, an Ammonite. His son Abijah ruled after him.

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.

Published by permission. Originally published by NavPress in English as THE MESSAGE: The Bible in Contemporary Language copyright 2002 by Eugene Peterson. All rights reserved.