1At that time Abijah the son of Jeroboam was sick. 2And Jeroboam said to his wife, Please arise, and disguise yourself, that they may not recognize you as the wife of Jeroboam, and go to Shiloh. Behold, Ahijah the prophet is there, who told me that I would be king over this people. 3Also take with you ten loaves, some cakes, and a jar of honey, and go to him; he will tell you what shall become of the child. 4And Jeroboam's wife did so; she arose and went to Shiloh, and came to the house of Ahijah. But Ahijah could not see, for his eyes had become fixed by reason of his age. 5And Jehovah had said to Ahijah, Behold, the wife of Jeroboam is coming to ask you something about her son, for he is sick. Thus and thus you shall say to her; for it will be, when she comes in, that she will pretend to be another woman. 6And so it was, when Ahijah heard the sound of her feet as she came in the door, that he said, Come in, wife of Jeroboam! Why do you pretend to be another person? For I am sent to you with a difficult message. 7Go, say to Jeroboam, Thus says Jehovah the God of Israel: Because I have exalted you from among the people, and appointed you ruler over My people Israel, 8and tore the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it to you; and yet you have not been as My servant David, who kept My commandments and who walked after Me with all his heart, to do only what was right in My eyes; 9but you have done more evil than all who were before you, for you have gone and made for yourself other gods and molten images to provoke Me to anger, and have cast Me behind your back; 10therefore behold, I am bringing calamity upon the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam him who urinates against a wall, both bond and free in Israel; I will consume the remnant of the house of Jeroboam, as one takes away the dung for burning until it is all gone. 11The dogs shall eat whoever of Jeroboam dies in the city, and the birds of the heavens shall eat whoever dies in the field; for Jehovah has spoken! 12Arise therefore, go to your own house. When your feet enter the city, the child shall die. 13And all Israel shall mourn for him and bury him, for he is the only one of Jeroboam who shall come to the grave; because out of the whole house of Jeroboam, only in him there is found something good toward Jehovah the God of Israel. 14Moreover Jehovah shall raise up for Himself a king over Israel who shall cut off the house of Jeroboam that day. What? Even straightaway! 15For Jehovah shall strike Israel, as a reed flutters in the water. He will uproot Israel from this good land which He has given to their fathers, and will scatter them beyond the River, because they have made their groves, provoking Jehovah to anger. 16And He will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, who has sinned and has made Israel sin. 17And Jeroboam's wife arose and departed, and came to Tirzah. And as she was entering the threshold of the house, the boy died. 18And they buried him; and all Israel mourned for him, according to the Word of Jehovah which He had spoken by the hand of His servant Ahijah the prophet. 19Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, how he made war and how he reigned, behold they are written in the book of the Chronicles of the kings of Israel. 20The days that Jeroboam reigned were twenty-two years. And he rested with his fathers, and Nadab his son reigned in his place. 21And Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king. He reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which Jehovah had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to put His name there. His mother's name was Naamah, an Ammonitess. 22And Judah did evil in the eyes of Jehovah, and they provoked Him to jealousy with their sins which they sinned, more than all that their fathers had done. 23For they also built for themselves high places, sacred pillars, and groves on every high hill and under every green tree. 24And there were also male temple prostitutes in the land. They did according to all the abominations of the nations which Jehovah had cast out before the children of Israel. 25And it came to pass 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 Jehovah and the treasures of the king's house; he took away everything. He also took away all the gold shields which Solomon had made. 27And King Rehoboam made bronze shields in their place, and committed them to the hands of the chief runners who guarded the door to the king's house. 28And whenever the king went to the house of Jehovah, the runners carried them, then brought them back into the guardroom. 29Now 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. 30And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all their days. 31So Rehoboam rested with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the City of David. His mother's name was Naamah, an Ammonitess. And Abijam his son reigned in his place.
Jamieson Fausset Brown Bible Commentary 1 AHIJAH DENOUNCES GOD'S JUDGMENTS AGAINST JEROBOAM. (1Ki. 14:1-20)
At that time--a phrase used often loosely and indefinitely in sacred history. This domestic incident in the family of Jeroboam probably occurred towards the end of his reign; his son Abijah was of age and considered by the people the heir to the throne.
2 Jeroboam said to his wife, Arise, I pray thee, and disguise thyself--His natural and intense anxiety as a parent is here seen, blended with the deep and artful policy of an apostate king. The reason of this extreme caution was an unwillingness to acknowledge that he looked for information as to the future, not to his idols, but to the true God; and a fear that this step, if publicly known, might endanger the stability of his whole political system; and a strong impression that Ahijah, who was greatly offended with him, would, if consulted openly by his queen, either insult or refuse to receive her. For these reasons he selected his wife, as, in every view, the most proper for such a secret and confidential errand, but recommended her to assume the garb and manner of a peasant woman. Strange infatuation, to suppose that the God who could reveal futurity could not penetrate a flimsy disguise!
3 And take with thee ten loaves, and cracknels, and a cruse of honey, and go to him--This was a present in unison with the peasant character she assumed. Cracknels are a kind of sweet seed-cake. The prophet was blind, but having received divine premonition of the pretended countrywoman's coming, he addressed her as the queen the moment she appeared, apprised her of the calamities which, in consequence of the ingratitude of Jeroboam, his apostasy, and outrageous misgovernment of Israel, impended over their house, as well as over the nation which too readily followed his idolatrous innovations.
8 thou hast not been as my servant David--David, though he fell into grievous sins, repented and always maintained the pure worship of God as enjoined by the law.
10 I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam--Strong expressions are here used to indicate the utter extirpation of his house;
him that is shut up and left in Israel--means those who were concealed with the greatest privacy, as the heirs of royalty often are where polygamy prevails; the other phrase, from the loose garments of the East having led to a different practice from what prevails in the West, cannot refer to men; it must signify either a very young boy, or rather, perhaps, a dog, so entire would be the destruction of Jeroboam's house that none, not even a dog, belonging to it should escape. This peculiar phrase occurs only in regard to the threatened extermination of a family (
1Sam 25:22-34). See the manner of extermination (
1Kgs 16:4;
1Kgs 21:24).
12 the child shall die--The death and general lamentation felt through the country at the loss of the prince were also predicted. The reason for the profound regret shown at his death arose, according to Jewish writers, from his being decidedly opposed to the erection of the golden calves, and using his influence with his father to allow his subjects the free privilege of going to worship in Jerusalem.
13 all Israel shall mourn for him, and bury him--the only one of Jeroboam's family who should receive the rites of sepulture.
14 the Lord shall raise him up a king . . . but what? even now--namely, Baasha (
1Kgs 15:27); he was already raised--he was in being, though not in power.
17 Tirzah--a place of pre-eminent beauty (
Song 6:4), three hours' travelling east of Samaria, chosen when Israel became a separate kingdom, by the first monarch, and used during three short reigns as a residence of the royal house. The fertile plains and wooded hills in that part of the territory of Ephraim gave an opening to the formation of parks and pleasure-grounds similar to those which were the "paradises" of Assyrian and Persian monarchs [STANLEY]. Its site is occupied by the large village of Taltise [ROBINSON]. As soon as the queen reached the gate of the palace, she received the intelligence that her son was dying, according to the prophet's prediction [
1Kgs 14:12].
19 the rest of the acts of Jeroboam--None of the threatenings denounced against this family produced any change in his policy or government.
21 REHOBOAM'S WICKED REIGN. (
1Kgs 14:21-24)
he reigned . . . in Jerusalem--Its particular designation as "the city which the Lord did choose out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there," seems given here, both as a reflection on the apostasy of the ten tribes, and as a proof of the aggravated wickedness of introducing idolatry and its attendant vices there.
his mother's name was Naamah an Ammonitess--Her heathen extraction and her influence as queen mother are stated to account for Rehoboam's tendency to depart from the true religion. Led by the warning of the prophet (
1Kgs 12:23), as well as by the large immigration of Israelites into his kingdom (
1Kgs 12:17;
2Chr 11:16), he continued for the first three years of his reign a faithful patron of true religion (
2Chr 11:17). But afterwards he began and encouraged a general apostasy; idolatry became the prevailing form of worship, and the religious state of the kingdom in his reign is described by the high places, the idolatrous statues, the groves and impure rites that with unchecked license were observed in them. The description is suited to the character of the Canaanitish worship.
25 SHISHAK SPOILS JERUSALEM. (
1Kgs 14:25-31)
Shishak king of Egypt came up--He was the instrument in the hand of Providence for punishing the national defection. Even though this king had been Solomon's father-in-law, he was no relation of Rehoboam's; but there is a strong probability that he belonged to another dynasty (see on
2Chr 12:2). He was the Sheshonk of the Egyptian monuments, who is depicted on a bas-relief at Karnak, as dragging captives, who, from their peculiar physiognomy, are universally admitted to be Jews.
29 Now the rest of the acts of Rehoboam . . ., are they not written in the book of the chronicles?--not the book so called and comprehended in the sacred canon, but the national archives of Judah.
30 there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam--The former was prohibited from entering on an aggressive war; but as the two kingdoms kept up a jealous rivalry, he might be forced into vigilant measures of defense, and frequent skirmishes would take place on the borders.
