Chapter 14

The Lord Condemns Jeroboam.^[a]1 It was at that time that Abijah, the son of Jeroboam, fell ill. ² Jeroboam said to his wife, “Get up and disguise yourself so that they cannot tell that you are Jeroboam’s wife, and then go to Shiloh. Ahijah, the prophet, is there, the one who told me that I would be king over this people. ³ Take ten loaves of bread with you along with some cakes and a jar of honey and go to him. He will tell you what will happen to the child.”

⁴ Jeroboam’s wife did this. She got up and went to Shiloh and entered the house of Ahijah. Ahijah could no longer see, for his eyes had grown dim because of his age. ⁵ But the Lord said to Ahijah, “Behold, the wife of Jeroboam is coming to ask something from you concerning her son who is sick. This is what you are to say to her.”

When she arrived, she pretended she was someone else. ⁶ When Ahijah heard the sound of her feet as she came through the door, he said, “Enter, O wife of Jeroboam. Why do you pretend to be someone else? I have been sent to you with heavy tidings. ⁷ Go tell Jeroboam, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: I have exalted you from among the people, and I have made you the leader over my people Israel. ⁸ I tore the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it to you. Yet, you have not been like my servant David who observed my commandments and who followed me with all of his heart, doing what is right in my sight. ⁹ You have done more evil than those who preceded you. You have gone after and made other gods, molten images, enraging me and casting me behind your back. ¹⁰ Behold, I will bring evil down upon the house of Jeroboam. I will cut off from Jeroboam everyone who pees against the wall, every bondsman and everyone who is free in Israel. I will wipe out the remnant of the house of Jeroboam as one burns up dung until it is completely consumed. ¹¹ Those who belong to Jeroboam and who die in the city will be eaten by the dogs; those who die in the fields will be eaten by the birds of the air. The Lord has spoken.’

¹² “As for you, get up and go home. The moment that your feet enter the city, your child will die. ¹³ All of Israel will mourn for him and bury him. He is the only one who comes from Jeroboam who will be placed in a grave because he is the only one in the house of Jeroboam in whom the Lord, the God of Israel, has found anything good.

¹⁴ “The Lord will raise up a king over Israel for himself who on that day will cut off the house of Jeroboam. What? Even now! ¹⁵ The Lord will strike down Israel, just as a reed is shaken in the water. He will uproot Israel from out of this good land that he gave to their fathers. He will scatter them beyond the river because they have made their wooden images, provoking the Lord to anger. ¹⁶ He will give up Israel because of the sins of Jeroboam, for he sinned and he caused Israel to sin.”

¹⁷ Jeroboam’s wife then got up and left and came to Tirzah. When she arrived at the threshold of the house, the child died. ¹⁸ They buried him, and all of Israel mourned for him, according to the word of the Lord that he had spoken through Ahijah the prophet, his servant.

¹⁹ The rest of the deeds of Jeroboam, how he made war and how he reigned, are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel. ²⁰ Jeroboam reigned for twenty-two years, and then he slept with his fathers, and his son Nadab reigned in his stead.

Kings of Israel and Judah

²¹ Rehoboam’s Reign. Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city that the Lord had chosen from out of all of the tribes of Israel to place his name. His mother’s name was Naamah, and she was an Ammonite.

²² Judah did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.^[b] With the sins that they committed which were worse than what their fathers had done, they provoked the Lord to jealousy. ²³ They also set up high places for themselves as well as sacred pillars and Asherah everywhere and under every green tree. ²⁴ There were even male prostitutes in the land. They did every abomination that the nations had done which the Lord had cast out before the Israelites.

²⁵ In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak, the king of Egypt, attacked Jerusalem. ²⁶ He took away the treasures from the temple of the Lord and the treasures out of the royal palace. He took everything away, including the gold shields that Solomon had made.

²⁷ King Rehoboam made bronze shields to replace them. He entrusted them into the hands of the commanders of the guard who watched over the entrance to the king’s palace. ²⁸ The guards would carry them whenever the king went into the temple of the Lord. Afterwards, they would return them to the guardroom.

²⁹ As for the rest of the deeds of Rehoboam and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?^{[c] 30} There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam during their entire reigns. ³¹ Rehoboam slept with his fathers, and he was buried with his fathers in the City of David. His mother’s name was Naamah, and she was an Ammonite. Abijah, his son, then reigned in his stead.