Jeroboam Warned, Stricken

13 Now behold, ^(A)a man of God came from Judah to Bethel by the word of the Lord, while Jeroboam was standing at the altar ^(B)to burn incense. ² And ^(C)he cried out against the altar by the word of the Lord and said, “Altar, altar, this is what the Lord says: ‘Behold, a son shall be born to the house of David, ^(D)Josiah by name; and on you he shall sacrifice the priests of the high places who burn incense on you, and human bones shall burn on you.’” ³ Then he gave a ^[a]sign on the same day, saying, “^(E)This is the ^[b]sign which the Lord has spoken: ‘Behold, the altar shall be torn to pieces and the ^[c]ashes which are on it shall be poured out.’” ⁴ Now when the king heard the statement of the man of God which he cried out against the altar in Bethel, Jeroboam stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, “Seize him!” But his hand which he had stretched out toward him dried up, and he could not draw it back to himself. ⁵ The altar also was torn to pieces and the ^[d]ashes were poured out from the altar, in accordance with the ^[e]sign which the man of God had given by the word of the Lord. ⁶ And the king responded and said to the man of God, “Please ^[f](F)appease the Lord your God and pray for me, so that my hand may be restored to me.” So ^(G)the man of God ^[g]appeased the Lord, and the king’s hand was restored to him, and it became as it was before. ⁷ Then the king said to the man of God, “Come home with me and refresh yourself, and ^(H)I will give you a gift.” ⁸ But the man of God said to the king, “^(I)If you were to give me half your house, I would not go with you, nor would I eat bread or drink water in this place. ⁹ For so ^[h]it was commanded me by the word of the Lord, saying, ‘You shall not eat bread nor drink water, nor return by the way that you came.’” ¹⁰ So he went another way and did not return by the way that he had come to Bethel.

The Disobedient Prophet

¹¹ Now ^(J)an old prophet was living in Bethel; and his ^[i]sons came and told him all the deeds which the man of God had done that day in Bethel; the words which he had spoken to the king, these also they reported to their father. ¹² And their father said to them, “^[j]Which way did he go?” Now his sons ^[k]had seen the way that the man of God who came from Judah had gone. ¹³ Then he said to his sons, “Saddle the donkey for me.” So they saddled the donkey for him and he rode away on it. ¹⁴ So he went after the man of God and found him sitting under ^[l]an oak; and he said to him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?” And he said, “I am.” ¹⁵ Then he said to him, “Come home with me and eat bread.” ¹⁶ But he said, “^(K)I cannot return with you, nor come with you, nor will I eat bread or drink water with you in this place. ¹⁷ For a ^[m]command came to me ^(L)by the word of the Lord: ‘You shall not eat bread, nor drink water there; do not return by going the way that you came.’” ¹⁸ Then he said to him, “^(M)I too am a prophet like you, and ^(N)an angel spoke to me by the word of the Lord, saying, ‘Bring him back with you to your house, so that he may eat bread and drink water.’” But ^(O)he lied to him. ¹⁹ So he went back with him, and ate bread in his house and drank water.

²⁰ Now it came about, as they were sitting down at the table, that the word of the Lord came to the prophet who had brought him back; ²¹ and he cried out to the man of God who came from Judah, saying, “This is what the Lord says: ‘Because you have ^[n]disobeyed the ^[o]command of the Lord, and have not kept the commandment which the Lord your God commanded you, ²² but have returned and eaten bread and drunk water in the place of which He said to you, “You are not to eat bread nor drink water”; your dead body will not come to the grave of your fathers.’” ²³ It came about after he had eaten bread and after he had drunk, that he saddled the donkey for him, for the prophet whom he had brought back. ²⁴ Now when he had gone, ^(P)a lion met him on the way and killed him, and his body was thrown on the road, with the donkey standing beside it; the lion also was standing beside the body. ²⁵ And behold, men passed by and saw the body thrown on the road, and the lion standing beside the body; so they came and told about it in the city where ^(Q)the old prophet had lived.

²⁶ Now when the prophet who had brought him back from the way heard about it, he said, “It is the man of God, who ^[p]disobeyed the ^[q]command of the Lord; therefore the Lord has given him to the lion, which has torn him and killed him, in accordance with the word of the Lord which He spoke to him.” ²⁷ Then he spoke to his sons, saying, “Saddle the donkey for me.” And they saddled it. ²⁸ Then he went and found his body thrown on the road, with the donkey and the lion standing beside the body; the lion had not eaten the body nor ^[r]harmed the donkey. ²⁹ So the prophet picked up the body of the man of God and laid it on the donkey and brought it back; and he came to the city of the old prophet to mourn and to bury him. ³⁰ He laid his body in his own grave, and they mourned over him, saying, “^(R)Oh, my brother!” ³¹ And after he had buried him, he talked to his sons, saying, “When I die, bury me in the grave in which the man of God is buried; ^(S)lay my bones beside his bones. ^32 (T)For the thing will certainly come to pass which he cried out by the word of the Lord against the altar that is in Bethel, and ^(U)against all the houses of the high places which are in the cities of ^(V)Samaria.”

³³ After this event, Jeroboam did not ^[s]abandon his evil way, but he ^(W)again ^[t]appointed priests of the high places from ^[u]all the people; ^(X)anyone who wanted, he ordained, and he became ^[v]one of the priests of the high places. ^34 [w](Y)This event also became a sin of the house of Jeroboam, ^(Z)even to wipe it out and eliminate it from the face of the earth.

Ahijah Prophesies against the King

14 At that time Abijah the son of Jeroboam became sick. ² And Jeroboam said to his wife, “Now arise and ^(AA)disguise yourself so that they will not know that you are the wife of Jeroboam, and go to ^(AB)Shiloh. Behold, Ahijah the prophet is there, who ^(AC)said regarding me that I would be king over this people. ^3 (AD)Take ten loaves with you, some pastries, and a jar of honey, and go to him. He will tell you what will happen to the boy.”

⁴ And Jeroboam’s wife did so, and set out and went to ^(AE)Shiloh, and came to the house of ^(AF)Ahijah. Now Ahijah could not see ^(AG)because his eyes were ^[x]glossy from his old age. ⁵ Now the Lord had said to Ahijah, “Behold, the wife of Jeroboam is coming to ^[y]inquire of you about her son, because he is sick. You shall say such and such to her, for it will be when she arrives, that ^(AH)she is going to make herself unrecognizable.”

⁶ So when Ahijah heard the sound of her feet coming in the doorway, he said, “Come in, wife of Jeroboam; why do you make yourself unrecognizable? Nevertheless, I am sent to you with a harsh message. ⁷ Go, say to Jeroboam, ‘This is what the Lord, the God of Israel says: “^(AI)Because I exalted you from among the people and made you leader over My people Israel, ⁸ and ^(AJ)tore the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it to you—^(AK)yet you have not been like My servant David, who kept My commandments and followed Me with all his heart, ^(AL)to do only that which was right in My sight; ⁹ you also have done more evil than all who were before you, and ^(AM)you have gone and made for yourself other gods and ^(AN)cast metal images to provoke Me to anger, and have ^(AO)thrown Me behind your back— ¹⁰ therefore behold, I am bringing disaster on the house of Jeroboam, and ^(AP)I will eliminate from Jeroboam ^[z]every male person, ^(AQ)both ^[aa]bond and free in Israel, and I ^(AR)will make a clean sweep of the house of Jeroboam, just as one sweeps away dung until it is all gone. ^11 (AS)Anyone belonging to Jeroboam who dies in the city, the dogs will eat. And anyone who dies in the field, the birds of the sky will eat; for the Lord has spoken it.”’ ¹² Now you, arise, go to your house. ^(AT)When your feet enter the city the child will die. ¹³ Then all Israel will mourn for him and bury him, for ^[ab]he alone of Jeroboam’s family will come to the grave, because in him ^(AU)something good was found toward the Lord God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam. ¹⁴ Moreover, ^(AV)the Lord will raise up for Himself a king over Israel who will eliminate the house of Jeroboam this day ^[ac]and from now on.

¹⁵ “For the Lord will strike Israel, just as a reed sways in the water; and ^(AW)He will uproot Israel from ^(AX)this good land which He gave to their fathers, and ^(AY)will scatter them beyond the Euphrates River, ^(AZ)because they have made their ^[ad]Asherim, provoking the Lord to anger. ¹⁶ He will give up Israel ^(BA)because of the sins of Jeroboam, which he ^[ae]committed and with which he misled Israel into sin.”

¹⁷ Then Jeroboam’s wife arose and departed, and came to ^(BB)Tirzah. ^(BC)As she was entering the threshold of the house, the child died. ^18 (BD)Then all Israel buried him and mourned for him, in accordance with the word of the Lord which He had spoken through His servant Ahijah the prophet.

¹⁹ Now as for the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, ^(BE)how he made war and how he reigned, behold, they are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. ²⁰ And the time that Jeroboam reigned was twenty-two years; and he ^[af]lay down with his fathers, and his son Nadab reigned in his place.

Rehoboam Misleads Judah

^21 (BF)Now Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned for seventeen years in Jerusalem, ^(BG)the 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 And the people of ^(BH)Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord, and they ^(BI)provoked Him to jealousy with their sins which they ^[ag]committed, more than all that their fathers had done. ²³ For they, too, built for themselves ^(BJ)high places, ^(BK)memorial stones, and ^[ah](BL)Asherim on every high hill and ^(BM)under every luxuriant tree. ²⁴ There were also ^(BN)male cult prostitutes in the land. They committed ^[ai]all the same abominations of the nations which the Lord dispossessed before the sons of Israel.

^25 (BO)Now it happened in the fifth year of King Rehoboam, that Shishak the king of Egypt marched against Jerusalem. ²⁶ And he took away the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king’s house, and ^(BP)he took everything; ^(BQ)he even took all the shields of gold which Solomon had made. ²⁷ So King Rehoboam made shields of bronze in their place, and ^(BR)entrusted them to the ^[aj]care of the commanders of the ^[ak]guard who guarded the doorway of the king’s house. ²⁸ And it happened as often as the king entered the house of the Lord, that the ^[al]guards would carry them and would bring them back into the ^[am]guards’ room.

^29 (BS)Now as for 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 (BT)And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam continually. ³¹ And Rehoboam ^[an]lay down with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David; and ^(BU)his mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonitess. And his son Abijam became king in his place.

Shishak of Egypt Invades Judah

12 ^(A)When the kingdom of Rehoboam was established and strong, ^(B)he and all Israel with him abandoned the Law of the Lord. ^2 (C)And it came about in King Rehoboam’s fifth year, because they had been unfaithful to the Lord, that ^(D)Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem ³ with 1,200 chariots and sixty thousand horsemen. And the people who came with him from Egypt were innumerable: ^(E)the Lubim, the Sukkiim, and the Ethiopians. ⁴ And he captured ^(F)the fortified cities of Judah and came as far as Jerusalem. ⁵ Then ^(G)Shemaiah the prophet came to Rehoboam and the princes of Judah who had gathered at Jerusalem because of Shishak, and he said to them, “This is what the Lord says: ‘^(H)You have abandoned Me, so I also have abandoned you ^[a]to Shishak.’” ⁶ So the princes of Israel and the king humbled themselves and said, “The ^(I)Lord is righteous.”

⁷ When the Lord saw that they had humbled themselves, the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah, saying, “^(J)They have humbled themselves, so I will not destroy them; and I will grant them a little deliverance, and ^(K)My wrath will not be poured out on Jerusalem by means of Shishak. ⁸ But they will become his slaves, so ^(L)that they may learn the difference between My service and the service of the kingdoms of the countries.”

Plunder Impoverishes Judah

^9 (M)So Shishak king of Egypt went up against Jerusalem, and he took the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king’s palace. He took everything; ^(N)he even took the gold shields which Solomon had made. ¹⁰ Then King Rehoboam made shields of bronze in their place and committed them to the ^[b]care of the commanders of the ^[c]guards who guarded the entrance of the king’s house. ¹¹ As often as the king entered the house of the Lord, the ^[d]guards came and carried them and then brought them back into the ^[e]guards’ room. ¹² And ^(O)when he humbled himself, the anger of the Lord turned away from him, so as not to destroy him completely; and conditions ^(P)were also good in Judah.

^13 (Q)So King Rehoboam became powerful in Jerusalem and reigned there. For Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for seventeen years in Jerusalem, the 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. ¹⁴ But he did evil ^(R)because he did not set his heart to seek the Lord.

^15 (S)Now the acts of Rehoboam, from the first to the last, are they not written in the ^[f]records of ^(T)Shemaiah the prophet and of ^(U)Iddo the seer, according to genealogical enrollment? And there were wars between Rehoboam and Jeroboam continually. ¹⁶ And Rehoboam ^[g]lay down with his fathers and was buried in the city of David; and his son ^(V)Abijah became king in his place.

The Goal of Life

3 Finally, my brothers and sisters, ^(A)rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things again is no trouble for me, and it is a safeguard for you.

² Beware of the ^(B)dogs, beware of the ^(C)evil workers, beware of the ^[a]false circumcision; ³ for ^(D)we are the true ^[b]circumcision, who ^(E)worship in the Spirit of God and take ^(F)pride in ^(G)Christ Jesus, and put no confidence in the flesh, ⁴ although ^(H)I myself could boast as having confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else thinks he is confident in the flesh, I have more reason: ^5 (I)circumcised the eighth day, of the ^(J)nation of Israel, of the ^(K)tribe of Benjamin, a ^(L)Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, ^(M)a Pharisee; ⁶ as to zeal, ^(N)a persecutor of the church; as to the ^(O)righteousness which is in the Law, found ^(P)blameless.

⁷ But ^(Q)whatever things were gain to me, these things I have counted as loss because of Christ. ⁸ More than that, I count all things to be loss ^[c]in view of the surpassing value of ^[d](R)knowing ^(S)Christ Jesus my Lord, ^[e]for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them mere rubbish, so that I may gain Christ, ⁹ and may be found in Him, not having ^(T)a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, ^(U)the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, ¹⁰ that I may ^(V)know Him and ^(W)the power of His resurrection and ^[f](X)the fellowship of His sufferings, being ^(Y)conformed to His death; ¹¹ if somehow I may ^(Z)attain to the resurrection from the dead.

¹² Not that I have already ^[g](AA)grasped it all or have already ^(AB)become perfect, but I press on if I may also ^(AC)take hold of that ^[h]for which I ^(AD)was even taken hold of by ^(AE)Christ Jesus. ¹³ Brothers and sisters, I do not regard myself as having taken hold of it yet; but one thing I do: ^(AF)forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴ I ^(AG)press on toward the goal for the prize of the ^(AH)upward call of God in ^(AI)Christ Jesus. ¹⁵ Therefore, all who are ^[i](AJ)mature, let’s have this attitude; and if in anything you have a ^(AK)different attitude, ^(AL)God will reveal that to you as well; ¹⁶ however, let’s keep ^[j](AM)living by that same standard to which we have attained.

¹⁷ Brothers and sisters, ^(AN)join in following my example, and observe those who walk according to the ^(AO)pattern you have in us. ¹⁸ For ^(AP)many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even as I ^(AQ)weep, that they are the enemies of ^(AR)the cross of Christ, ¹⁹ whose end is destruction, whose god is their ^[k](AS)appetite, and whose ^(AT)glory is in their shame, who ^(AU)have their minds on earthly things. ²⁰ For ^(AV)our ^[l]citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly ^(AW)wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; ²¹ who will ^(AX)transform the body of our lowly condition into ^(AY)conformity with ^[m]His ^(AZ)glorious body, ^(BA)by the exertion of the power that He has even to ^(BB)subject all things to Himself.