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.

Rehoboam Misleads Judah

^21 (A)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, ^(B)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 ^(C)Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord, and they ^(D)provoked Him to jealousy with their sins which they ^[a]committed, more than all that their fathers had done. ²³ For they, too, built for themselves ^(E)high places, ^(F)memorial stones, and ^[b](G)Asherim on every high hill and ^(H)under every luxuriant tree. ²⁴ There were also ^(I)male cult prostitutes in the land. They committed ^[c]all the same abominations of the nations which the Lord dispossessed before the sons of Israel.

^13 (A)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 ^(B)because he did not set his heart to seek the Lord.

Rehoboam’s Family

¹⁸ Then Rehoboam married Mahalath the daughter of Jerimoth the son of David and of Abihail the daughter of ^(A)Eliab the son of Jesse, ¹⁹ and she bore to him sons: Jeush, Shemariah, and Zaham. ²⁰ After her he married ^(B)Maacah the daughter of ^[a]Absalom, and she bore to him Abijah, Attai, Ziza, and Shelomith. ²¹ Rehoboam loved Maacah the daughter of Absalom more than all his other wives and concubines. For ^(C)he had taken eighteen wives and sixty concubines, and fathered twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters. ^22 (D)Rehoboam appointed Abijah the son of Maacah as head and leader among his brothers, for he intended to make him king. ²³ He acted wisely and distributed ^[b]some of his sons through all the territories of Judah and Benjamin to all the fortified cities, and he gave them plenty of provisions. And he sought many wives for them.

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.

^25 (A)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 ^(B)he took everything; ^(C)he even took all the shields of gold which Solomon had made. ²⁷ So King Rehoboam made shields of bronze in their place, and ^(D)entrusted them to the ^[a]care of the commanders of the ^[b]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 ^[c]guards would carry them and would bring them back into the ^[d]guards’ room.

^13 (A)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 ^(B)because he did not set his heart to seek the Lord.

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

^29 (A)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 (B)And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam continually. ³¹ And Rehoboam ^[a]lay down with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David; and ^(C)his mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonitess. And his son Abijam became king in his place.

Abijam Reigns over Judah

15 ^(D)Now in the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, Abijam became king over Judah. ² He reigned for three years in Jerusalem; and his mother’s name was ^[b](E)Maacah the daughter of ^[c](F)Abishalom. ³ He walked in all the sins of his father which he had committed before him; and ^(G)his heart was not ^[d]wholly devoted to the Lord his God, like the heart of his father David. ⁴ But for David’s sake the Lord his God gave him a ^(H)lamp in Jerusalem, to raise up his son after him and to establish Jerusalem, ^5 (I)because David did what was right in the sight of the Lord, and did not deviate from anything that He commanded him all the days of his life, ^(J)except in the case of Uriah the Hittite.