CHAPTER 14 Aug. 19
Abijah’s Prophecy against Jeroboam
At that time Abijah the son of Jeroboam fell sick. 2Jeroboam 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. 3Take with you ten loaves, cakes and a jar of honey, and go to him. He will tell you what will become of the child. 4Jeroboam’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. 5Yahweh 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. 6It 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. 7Go, 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, 8and 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, 9but 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, and have cast Me behind your back: 10therefore, 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. 11He 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’. 12Arise therefore, and go to your house. When your feet enter into the city, the child shall die. 13All 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. 14Moreover Yahweh will raise Him up a king over Israel, who shall cut off the house of Jeroboam. This is the day! What? Even now. 15Yahweh 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. 16He will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, which he has sinned, and with which he has made Israel to sin.
The Death of Jeroboam
17Jeroboam’s wife arose, and departed, and came to Tirzah. As she came to the threshold of the house, the child died. 18All Israel buried him and mourned for him, according to the word of Yahweh, which He spoke by His servant Ahijah the prophet. 19The 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. 20Jeroboam reigned for twenty two years: and he slept with his fathers, and Nadab his son reigned in his place.
Rehoboam’s Reign
21Rehoboam 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, 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. 22Judah 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. 23For they also built themselves high places, and pillars and Asherim on every high hill, and under every green tree; 24and 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. 25It happened in the fifth year of king Rehoboam, that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem; 26and 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. 27King 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. 28It 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. 29Now 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? 30There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam continually. 31Rehoboam 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.
Commentary
14:14 Even now- This reflects how God’s words are as good as done as soon as they are uttered, so certain are they of fulfilment. 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). There is a degree to which God is God, and He expresses Himself as He is. We must bring ourselves to accept His perspective. Indeed, faith is the ability to believe that what God has said will actually happen physically, and that therefore we can live as if we see that future physical event as actually having happened. In other words, faith is about adopting God's time-less perspective.
14:15 As Pharaoh’s heart was plagued (Ex. 9:14), so was Israel’s (1 Kings 8:38); as Egypt was a reed, so were Israel (1 Kings 14:15). The language of the world is thus applied to God’s people because this is how they thought and acted. Apostate Israel are spoken of as the pagan world; and therefore at the day of judgment the rejected of the new Israel will be condemned along with the world (1 Cor. 11:32); assigned their portion “with the unbelievers” (Lk. 12:46).
14:31 His mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonitess- This is repeated twice (:21). The emphasis is on the fact that Solomon’s marriage to a Gentile unbeliever resulted in unbelieving children.