Deeper Commentary
1Ki 14:1 At that time Abijah the son of Jeroboam fell sick-
"Abijah" is 'father of Yah' but that effectively means 'worshipper of
Yah', and his naming further indicates that Jeroboam was initially aware of
Yahweh worship. He had the potential of being the Divinely blessed king of
Israel, with the promises to David fulfilled through him (1 Kings 11:38).
His twisting of Yahweh worship is therefore the more reprehensible. Abijah
is not to be imagined as a little child; see on :13.
We note that Rehoboam also had a son called Abijah, who
succeeded him as king (:31). The contrast could hint that God was somewhat
more acceptant of Rehoboam in the end, despite his unwisdom and harshness
at the start of his reign; but not with Jeroboam. And yet Rehoboam in
summary "did that which was evil, because he didn’t set his heart to seek
Yahweh" (2 Chron. 12:14). Perhaps here we have a case of God being less
displeased with one king than He was with another. Just as Jehoshaphat was
told “some good is found in you” (2 Chron. 19:3).
1Ki 14:2 Jeroboam said to his wife, Please get up and disguise yourself,
that you won’t be recognized as the wife of Jeroboam. Go to Shiloh. Behold,
there is Ahijah the prophet, who spoke concerning me that I should be king
over this people-
This turning to Yahweh in time of need, rather than to other gods,
indicates that he had a conscience toward Yahweh and after the healing of
his withered hand by the prophet from Judah, he knew that Yahweh was really
the only God who could heal. "Ahijah" is 'brother of Yah' but that
effectively means 'worshipper of Yah'. It is very similar to "Abijah", and
we wonder if Jeroboam initially believed Ahijah's prophecies of 1 Kings
11:38, and named his child after the prophet, as well as making a statement
of his commitment to Yahweh worship.
1Ki 14:3 Take with you ten loaves, cakes and a jar of honey, and go to
him-
The possible death of the child would confirm the annulling of the
promises about Jeroboam fulfilling the promises about the house of David.
That had been made clear by the prophet from Judah in 1 Kings 13, and now
at this same time (:1) the message was being confirmed by the death of
Jeroboam's son Abijah, who symbolized his weak attempt at fulfilling the
potential of the prophecies of Ahijah about him. We see internal
corroboration of the record in the character presentation of Jeroboam; in
1 Kings 13:7 and also 1 Kings 14:3, Jeroboam thinks that prophets must be
paid for their services.
He will tell you what will become of the child-
Again we sense Jeroboam's recognition of the power and truth of Yahweh
and His prophets, although he preferred his own power and kingdom to His.
1Ki 14:4 Jeroboam’s wife did so, and arose, and went to Shiloh, and came
to the house of Ahijah. Now Ahijah could not see; for his eyes were set by
reason of his age-
"His eyes were set" is the phrase used about Eli (1 Sam. 4:15), and
he was also in Shiloh, at the sanctuary. The statistical chance of the
phrase and town occurring together is too great to be chance. But as with
our own lives, we cannot always attach meaning to event and coincidence.
It could simply be that Ahijah was to meditate upon the similarities
between himself and Eli and learn the lessons from Eli's failures and
final rejection by God. Shiloh was in Ephraim, near Shechem, the capital
of Jeroboam. It was a priestly city, but we wonder why Ahijah had not
joined the other Levites in migrating to Judah. Perhaps old age had
stopped him. We note from here and the prophet of Yahweh in Bethel of 1
Kings 13 that there were faithful prophets still in the ten tribes. Indeed
by Elijah's time there were 7000 who were still faithful, and Obadiah hid
100 of Yahweh's prophets in a cave.
1Ki 14:5 Yahweh said to Ahijah, The wife of Jeroboam is coming to inquire
of you concerning her son; for he is sick. This is what you shall tell
her; for it will be, when she comes in, that she will pretend to be
another woman-
Jeroboam knew that Ahijah was likely to condemn him and his wife for
the golden calves and other idolatry. We have an insight into human nature
here. Jeroboam and his wife believed Ahijah had God's help and power to
know the future for their child, and the power to heal him. But they
thought they could deceive him, so that his blindness stopped him
perceiving that she was not Jeroboam's wife. We may believe in God's
knowledge of the future and His power; but yet disbelieve His ability to
see us and know us right now for who we really are. This is why the
tendency of some to focus upon Bible prophecy, God's knowledge of the
future and power in future history, can become an obsession which somehow
mutes our awareness of His knowledge of us personally right now.
1Ki 14:6 It was so, when Ahijah heard the sound of her feet, as she came
in at the door, that he said, Come in, you wife of Jeroboam! Why do you
pretend to be another? For I am sent to you with heavy news-
The woman came to Ahijah, having been sent by Jeroboam; but Ahijah was
"sent" to him. This is part of a wider theme of God's word 'coming' to us,
and God 'coming' to us, through His word. God Himself is spoken of as
coming, descending etc. when He ‘preaches’ to humanity (e.g. Gen. 11:5;
Ex. 19:20; Num. 11:25; 2 Sam. 22:10). In Jer. 39:16, the imprisoned
Jeremiah is told to “go, tell Ebed-melech...” a word from the Lord about
him. Jeremiah couldn’t have literally left prison to do so – but the idea
is that a person encountering the Lord’s word has as it were experienced
the Lord ‘going’ to him or her. And in this sense the message of the Lord
Jesus (in its essence) could ‘go’ to persons without Him physically going
anywhere or even existing consciously at the time (1 Pet. 3:19).
1Ki 14:7 Go, tell Jeroboam, ‘Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: Because I
exalted you from among the people, and made you prince over My people
Israel-
The "Because... therefore" judgment (:10) shows that those who are
called to potentials are held responsible for their failure to realize
them, and are judged accordingly. And we are all called to various
potential good works (Eph. 2:10). Jeroboam had been the son of a
prostitute (LXX) whom God exalted very far. But he used it for himself
rather than God's service. "Exalted" is the same word used of how Jeroboam
"lifted up his hand" against Solomon (1 Kings 11:26,27). But God exalted /
lifted up Jeroboam, and ultimately he became king of the ten tribes. His
revolt or lifting up his hand against Solomon was therefore of God.
Baasha was intended to learn from the path of Jeroboam, for he too was "exalted" (s.w. 1 Kings 16:2) from nothing to be prince over Israel. But Baasha like Jeroboam made the people sin. We are intended to learn from the life path of others. This is why we have Biblical history, and it is why God controls the encounters of those we meet in life.
1Ki 14:8 and tore the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it
you; and yet you have not been as My servant David who kept My
commandments, and who followed Me with all his heart, to do only that
which was right in My eyes-
The final comment upon Jeroboam is that he was not as God’s servant
David (1 Kings 14:7-9). And yet he was set up with that potential
possibility. Consider:
Jeroboam (1Kings 11) - David
Man of valour v. 28- As David 1 Sam. 16:18 RV;
Young man v. 28 - 1 Sam. 17:58
Ruler over all v. 28 - 1 Sam. 18:5
I will take you and you shall reign over Israel v. 37 - 2 Sam. 7:8
Build a house v. 38 - 2 Sam. 7:11
v. 40 - 1 Sam. 19:2,10
1Ki 14:9 but you have done evil above all who were before you, and have
gone and made you other gods and molten images, to provoke Me to anger-
God can be grieved [s.w. 'provoke to anger']. He has emotions, and
His potential foreknowledge doesn't mean that these feelings are not
legitimate. They are presented as occurring in human time, as responses to
human behaviour. This is the degree to which He has accommodated Himself
to human time-space limits, in order to fully enter relationship and
experience with us. As He can limit His omnipotence, so God can limit His
omniscience, in order to feel and respond along with us.
And have cast Me behind your back-
The same phrase is used in Neh. 9:26 of how Israel cast God's law
behind their backs. "The word was God", attitudes to God's word are
attitudes to Him.
1Ki 14:10 therefore, behold, I will bring evil on the house of
Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam every male, he who is shut up and
he who is left free in Israel, and will utterly sweep away the house of
Jeroboam, as a man sweeps away dung, until it is all gone-
The preceding verses show that the extreme judgment pronounced was
because of the great potentials God had enabled for Jeroboam (see 1 Kings
11:38). But he refused to realize them. We live in an age of great
potentials. We are generally literate, mobile, with easy access to God's
word; and many members of the body of Christ live in relative ease and
luxury, free from persecution. The potentials for service are far higher
for the average believer today than they were centuries ago. So this issue
of judgment according to wasted potentials is so relevant to our age. "He
who is shut up and he who is left free" is apparently an idiom referring
to children still shut up at home, and those who are free to move about
independently. The meaning would then be "young and old".
1Ki 14:11 He who dies of Jeroboam in the city shall the dogs eat; and he
who dies in the field shall the birds of the sky eat: for Yahweh has
spoken it’-
The next verse goes on to state that Jeroboam's child "in the city"
was to die. But then the judgment that he would be eaten by dogs is not
applied to him in :13. To not "come to the grave" (:13) meant being thrown
onto the rubbish tip like Gehenna, and eaten by dogs. The Lord's New
Testament references to Gehenna are another way of saying 'Those put there
will not have a decent burial', which was the greatest fear of the Semitic
mind.
1Ki 14:12 Arise therefore, and go to your house. When your feet enter into
the city, the child shall die-
See on :11. By returning home, she was bringing about the death of
her child. There could have been here an appeal for repentance; if she had
not returned to her home in Tirzah, thereby resigning her position as
queen of the apostate kingdom, then she might have saved her child's life.
See on :17.
1Ki 14:13 All Israel shall mourn for him, and bury him; for he only of
Jeroboam shall come to the grave, because in him there is found some good
thing toward Yahweh, the God of Israel, in the house of Jeroboam-
In Jeroboam's son "there was found
some good thing" toward God. If Jeroboam's son was righteous, it is
likely that Jeroboam and / or his wife had a spiritual side to them. But
they didn't live up to their potential. See on 1 Kings 11:38. The child
was old enough to have some spirituality, and God recognized this. "All
Israel" knew of him, so he was presumably not a small child. The word for
"child" is used of Solomon when he became king (1 Kings 3:7). He must have
been an unusual child to have "some good thing toward Yahweh", because he
was surrounded by every possible influence away from the true God. It is
stressed that the child died "in the city", as soon as his mother returned
there. The judgment of :11 was that those who died in the city would be
eaten by dogs, but this is here ameliorated, by grace.
1Ki 14:14 Moreover Yahweh will raise Him up a king over Israel, who shall
cut off the house of Jeroboam. This is the day! What? Even now-
What God plans and purposes is effectively done at that moment of
planning, so certain is His will and power. Therefore He speaks of those
things which do not exist physically as if they do (Rom. 4:17). What will
be, is now, from God's perspective. The Angel commented that God’s words
of future prophecy are “true and faithful… they are come to pass” (Rev.
21:6 RV). They are as good as done as soon as they are uttered, so certain
are they of fulfillment. Thus 1 Kings 14:14 AV: "The Lord shall
raise him up a king… but what? Even now". The future reality could be
spoken of as effectively "even now". This is the way to understand
those passages which appear to teach that both Jesus and ourselves existed
physically before our birth. God doesn't completely express Himself in our
terms and language (although of course to some degree He does).
1Ki 14:15 Yahweh will strike Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water; and
He will root up Israel out of this good land which He gave to their
fathers, and will scatter them beyond the River, because they have made
their Asherim, provoking Yahweh to anger-
As Egypt was a reed, so were Israel (1 Kings 14:15). As Pharaoh’s
heart was plagued (Ex. 9:14), so was Israel’s (1 Kings 8:38); as
Pharaoh-hophra was given into the hand of his enemies, so would Israel be
(Jer. 44:30). She would be “Condemned with the world...”. There is a
major Biblical theme that when God's people lose faith, they are described
and treated as the world. The uprooting of Israel was because they as a
people had broken covenant (Dt. 29:28). But the same word is used in Jer.
18:7; if God says He will uproot a nation, then they can still repent and
change the otherwise inevitable outcome. This is why there is a gap
between the statement of judgment, and its fulfilment. The statement that
God's people would no longer be uprooted (s.w. Am. 9:15) therefore means
that the good news of the Kingdom is that God's people will no longer sin
and have to be judged.
1Ki 14:16 He will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, which he
has sinned, and with which he has made Israel to sin-
The 'giving up' was to captivity, which is the context of :15. Yet
the prophets repeatedly appealed for Israel's repentance, so that this
outcome would not happen. But Ahijah here says that they were to go into
captivity because of Jeroboam's sins. One way to reconcile this is to
understand that there is a gap between God's statement of judgment, and
His fulfilment of it. In that gap, repentance and prayer can change the
execution of what has been stated. We all stand and live in such a gap,
and it gives intensity to the need for prayer and repentant living.
1Ki 14:17 Jeroboam’s wife arose, and departed, and came to Tirzah. As she
came to the threshold of the house, the child died-
We see grace interlaced throughout the judgments. Whoever of
Jeroboam's children died in the city was to be eaten by dogs and not
buried. But an exception was made for this child. The judgment had been
that as soon as she entered the city, the child would die (:12). But God
allowed her to walk from the city limits to her house before the child
died. We wonder if this delay was a reflection of God's desperate hope for
her repentance.
1Ki 14:18 All Israel buried him and mourned for him, according to the word
of Yahweh, which He spoke by His servant Ahijah the prophet-
This fulfilment of :13 suggests Abijah was not a small child but was
known in Israel.
1Ki 14:19 The rest of the acts of Jeroboam, how he warred and how he
reigned, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the
kings of Israel-
This is not necessarily the same as the "book of Chronicles" which we
have in the Bible. However, 2 Chron. 13:3-20 describes the wars of
Jeroboam with Judah, and how Judah captured cities from Jeroboam.
1Ki 14:20 Jeroboam reigned for twenty two years: and he slept with his
fathers, and Nadab his son reigned in his place-
Jeroboam named his sons Abijah
[Abihu] and Nadab- the very names of Aaron's sons. It seems Jeroboam tried
to model himself upon Aaron, and justify the building of the calves by
interpreting what Aaron did as a positive, righteous thing (as some Jewish
expositors do today). He overlooked the fact that Aaron was
condemned for making the calf, and that Nadab and Abihu were slain for
unacceptable worship (Lev. 10:1,2). We too can justify outright wrong
behaviour in the name of superficial allusion to Scripture, willfully
failing to see the similarities between our actions and those of men who
were condemned for doing in essence the things which we seek to justify.
1Ki 14:21 Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was
forty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years
in Jerusalem-
1 Kings 14:21; 2 Chron. 12:13 says Rehoboam was 41 when he became
king. But he was "young and tender hearted" (2 Chron. 13:7). The LXX
addition at 1 Kings 12:24 says he was 16 when he began to reign. He was
surrounded by young men who had grown up with him. I suggest on balance
that he was indeed 41 and the "young men" were "young" in comparison to
the older men present. The description "young and tender hearted" could
simply be a purposeful repetition of the description of his father Solomon
when he ascended the throne; or it could mean that he was a rather weak
and child like man.
The city which Yahweh had chosen out of all the tribes of
Israel, to put His name there: and his mother’s name was Naamah the
Ammonitess-
The criticism of Solomon for marrying Gentile women also applies to
his first marriage with the daughter of Pharaoh; besides
marrying her, he married the others too, and the criticisms which
follow are spoken in the context of both these actions. Yet Solomon
married Pharaoh's daughter in his early days, before he asked for wisdom.
This is another indication that Solomon did not start off well and then
go wrong; right from the beginning he had this incredible dualism in his
spirituality. The Talmud (Shabbath F, 56,2) records that “When
Solomon married the daughter of Pharaoh she brought to him 1000 kinds of
musical instruments, and taught him the chants to the various idols”. Even
when Solomon was young, he evidently loved wine (Song 1:2,4)- which was
later to be something he (temporarily) abandoned himself to. He had a
child by an Ammonite girl one year before he became king (1 Kings 14:21)-
so his relationships with foreign women cannot be put down to mere
political alliances. If the Song of Solomon is about her rather than the
Egyptian woman he married, one can only say that one early error,
unrepented of, paved the way for his later disasters with foreign
women.
1Ki 14:22 Judah did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, and they
provoked Him to jealousy with their sins which they committed, even worse
than all that their fathers had done-
Jealousy is a lead feature within Yahweh's personality (Ex. 20:5;
34:14). It speaks specifically of the jealousy of a man concerning the
faithfulness of his wife (Num. 5:14). God was the passionate lover and
husband of His people, and it is inevitable therefore that the extent of
that love would produce jealousy when they spurned Him and went after
other men, the idols. At this point they only began to do this evil after
Rehoboam had established his kingdom and felt strong (2 Chron. 12:1).
Yahweh was no longer apparently needed by them, and so they turned to
other gods. Maachah his beloved wife (2 Chron. 11:20-22) was an idolater
(2 Chron. 15:16).
1Ki 14:23 For they also built themselves high places, and pillars and
Asherim on every high hill, and under every green tree-
Houses of worship were built on the high places as Jeroboam had done
(1 Kings 12:31), and these became Jeroboam's answer to centralized worship
on one building, the temple, in one place, Jerusalem. But Judah "also" did
this, they were influenced by Jeroboam's style of worship.
1Ki 14:24 and there were also sodomites in the land: they did according to
all the abominations of the nations which Yahweh drove out before the
children of Israel-
These sodomites were associated with the idol shrines (1 Kings 14:23;
1 Kings 15:12). They may well have been Gentiles from Phoenicia, hence
they were expelled from the land rather than killed (1 Kings 15:12). They
may well have been involved with homosexual practices, but the Hebrew
qadesh means literally a devoted person.
1Ki 14:25 It happened in the fifth year of king Rehoboam-
This was after Rehoboam was established in his own strength; see on
:22.
That Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem-
Shishak had given refuge to Jeroboam (1 Kings 11:40), so it could be
that he urged Shishak to attack Judah once Rehoboam became established as
king of Judah. "A monument of this king, the first of the 22nd dynasty,
has been discovered at Karnak in Upper Egypt, recording his conquests and
the names of certain towns which he had taken in Palestine". Inscriptions
on the wall of the temple at Karnak list many conquered cities, including
three of the "cities for defence" which Rehoboam had built, Shoco, Adoraim
and Aijalon (2 Chron. 11:7-10). The list also includes many cities within
the ten tribes, suggesting that if Jeroboam got Shishak to invade Judah,
Shishak then turned against his one time protégé Jeroboam and invaded the
ten tribes also.
1Ki 14:26 and he took away the treasures of the house of Yahweh, and the
treasures of the king’s house; he took away all: and he took away all the
shields of gold which Solomon had made-
LXX mentions that David took golden spears from Hadadezer: “And
the golden spears which David took from the hand of the servants of
Adraazar king of Soba and carried to Jerusalem, he took them all”. These
would not have been used as real spears, but were part of the worship of
the golden sun which was the main religion in Syria at the time. David
would have been better destroying them, rather than bringing idol
paraphernalia into Jerusalem. For it later contributed towards the freedom
Judah felt to worship sun gods. These spears would have been taken at the
time of 2 Sam. 8:7: "David took the shields of gold that were on the
servants of Hadadezer, and brought them to Jerusalem".
"Hadad" was the god of the sun, "Hadadezer" had not been 'helped by Hadad'
as his name means, and so David brought these golden imitations of the sun
to Yahweh's temple. It is perhaps questionable whether David should have
brought idols into Jerusalem; we note that later Judah worshipped sun
gods. David's actions here were not blessed, for the LXX adds “And Susakim
[i.e. Shishak] king of Egypt took them, when he went up to Jerusalem in
the days of Roboam the son of Solomon”.
2 Chron. 12:5-8 recounts the temporary repentance of Rehoboam as a result of the challenge of the prophet Shemaiah at this time.
1Ki 14:27 King Rehoboam made in their place shields of brass, and
committed them to the hands of the captains of the guard, who kept the
door of the king’s house-
Gold being downgraded to brass reflects the decline of faith in
Rehoboam, for gold is a symbol of faith (1 Pet. 1:7).
1Ki 14:28 It was so, that as often as the king went into the house of
Yahweh, the guard bore them, and brought them back into the guard room-
This indicates that there was a very low level of security even in
the Jerusalem temple. Rehoboam wished by all means to imitate the worship
of his father Solomon, but it was on a pathetically lower level. Despite
all his idolatry, he still entered the temple for public worship of
Yahweh. This was Israel's recurrent problem, to worship both Yahweh and
the idols.
1Ki 14:29 Now the rest of the acts of Rehoboam, and all that he did,
aren’t they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?-
This may not be a reference to the books we know as "Chronicles", but
it is noteworthy that the parallel record in Chronicles is far more
detailed at this point than what we are reading in Kings.
1Ki 14:30 There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam continually-
This would indicate disobedience to the command to Rehoboam not to
fight the ten tribes (1 Kings 12:24).
1Ki 14:31 Rehoboam slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers
in the city of David: and his mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonitess.
Abijam his son reigned in his place-
His mother's name is twice stressed (see on :21). The records of the kings
so often mention their mothers, in reflection of the huge spiritual
influence of a mother upon her children.
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