14 At that time Abijah the son of Jeroboam fell sick.

² And Jeroboam said to his wife, Arise, I pray thee, and disguise thyself, that thou be not known to be the wife of Jeroboam; and get thee to Shiloh: behold, there is Ahijah the prophet, which told me that I should be king over this people.

³ And take with thee ten loaves, and cracknels, and a cruse of honey, and go to him: he shall tell thee what shall become of the child.

⁴ And Jeroboam's wife did so, and arose, and went to Shiloh, and came to the house of Ahijah. But Ahijah could not see; for his eyes were set by reason of his age.

⁵ And the Lord said unto Ahijah, Behold, the wife of Jeroboam cometh to ask a thing of thee for her son; for he is sick: thus and thus shalt thou say unto her: for it shall be, when she cometh in, that she shall feign herself to be another woman.

⁶ And it was so, when Ahijah heard the sound of her feet, as she came in at the door, that he said, Come in, thou wife of Jeroboam; why feignest thou thyself to be another? for I am sent to thee with heavy tidings.

⁷ Go, tell Jeroboam, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Forasmuch as I exalted thee from among the people, and made thee prince over my people Israel,

⁸ And rent the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it thee: and yet thou hast not been as my servant David, who kept my commandments, and who followed me with all his heart, to do that only which was right in mine eyes;

⁹ But hast done evil above all that were before thee: for thou hast gone and made thee other gods, and molten images, to provoke me to anger, and hast cast me behind thy back:

¹⁰ Therefore, behold, I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam him that pisseth against the wall, and him that is shut up and left in Israel, and will take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam, as a man taketh away dung, till it be all gone.

¹¹ Him that dieth of Jeroboam in the city shall the dogs eat; and him that dieth in the field shall the fowls of the air eat: for the Lord hath spoken it.

¹² Arise thou therefore, get thee to thine own house: and when thy feet enter into the city, the child shall die.

¹³ And all 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 the Lord God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam.

¹⁴ Moreover the Lord shall raise him up a king over Israel, who shall cut off the house of Jeroboam that day: but what? even now.

¹⁵ For the Lord shall smite Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water, and he shall root up Israel out of this good land, which he gave to their fathers, and shall scatter them beyond the river, because they have made their groves, provoking the Lord to anger.

¹⁶ And he shall give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, who did sin, and who made Israel to sin.

¹⁷ And Jeroboam's wife arose, and departed, and came to Tirzah: and when she came to the threshold of the door, the child died;

¹⁸ And they buried him; and all Israel mourned for him, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by the hand of his servant Ahijah the prophet.

¹⁹ And the 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.

²⁰ And the days which Jeroboam reigned were two and twenty years: and he slept with his fathers, and Nadab his son reigned in his stead.

3 Do we begin again to commend ourselves? or need we, as some others, epistles of commendation to you, or letters of commendation from you?

² Ye are our epistle written in our hearts, known and read of all men:

³ Forasmuch as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.

⁴ And such trust have we through Christ to God-ward:

⁵ Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;

⁶ Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.

⁷ But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away:

⁸ How shall not the ministration of the spirit be rather glorious?

⁹ For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory.

¹⁰ For even that which was made glorious had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth.

¹¹ For if that which is done away was glorious, much more that which remaineth is glorious.

¹² Seeing then that we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech:

¹³ And not as Moses, which put a veil over his face, that the children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of that which is abolished:

¹⁴ But their minds were blinded: for until this day remaineth the same vail untaken away in the reading of the old testament; which vail is done away in Christ.

¹⁵ But even unto this day, when Moses is read, the vail is upon their heart.

¹⁶ Nevertheless when it shall turn to the Lord, the vail shall be taken away.

¹⁷ Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

¹⁸ But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

12 And it came to pass, when Rehoboam had established the kingdom, and had strengthened himself, he forsook the law of the Lord, and all Israel with him.

² And it came to pass, that in the fifth year of king Rehoboam Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, because they had transgressed against the Lord,

³ With twelve hundred chariots, and threescore thousand horsemen: and the people were without number that came with him out of Egypt; the Lubims, the Sukkiims, and the Ethiopians.

⁴ And he took the fenced cities which pertained to Judah, and came to Jerusalem.

⁵ Then came Shemaiah the prophet to Rehoboam, and to the princes of Judah, that were gathered together to Jerusalem because of Shishak, and said unto them, Thus saith the Lord, Ye have forsaken me, and therefore have I also left you in the hand of Shishak.

⁶ Whereupon the princes of Israel and the king humbled themselves; and they said, The Lord is righteous.

⁷ And when the Lord saw that they humbled themselves, the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah, saying, They have humbled themselves; therefore I will not destroy them, but I will grant them some deliverance; and my wrath shall not be poured out upon Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak.

⁸ Nevertheless they shall be his servants; that they may know my service, and the service of the kingdoms of the countries.

⁹ So Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, and took away the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king's house; he took all: he carried away also the shields of gold which Solomon had made.

¹⁰ Instead of which king Rehoboam made shields of brass, and committed them to the hands of the chief of the guard, that kept the entrance of the king's house.

¹¹ And when the king entered into the house of the Lord, the guard came and fetched them, and brought them again into the guard chamber.

¹² And when he humbled himself, the wrath of the Lord turned from him, that he would not destroy him altogether: and also in Judah things went well.

¹³ So king Rehoboam strengthened himself in Jerusalem, and reigned: for Rehoboam was one and forty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the Lord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there. And his mother's name was Naamah an Ammonitess.

¹⁴ And he did evil, because he prepared not his heart to seek the Lord.

¹⁵ Now the acts of Rehoboam, first and last, are they not written in the book of Shemaiah the prophet, and of Iddo the seer concerning genealogies? And there were wars between Rehoboam and Jeroboam continually.

¹⁶ And Rehoboam slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David: and Abijah his son reigned in his stead.

²⁹ And it came to pass, when he was come nigh to Bethphage and Bethany, at the mount called the mount of Olives, he sent two of his disciples,

³⁰ Saying, Go ye into the village over against you; in the which at your entering ye shall find a colt tied, whereon yet never man sat: loose him, and bring him hither.

³¹ And if any man ask you, Why do ye loose him? thus shall ye say unto him, Because the Lord hath need of him.

³² And they that were sent went their way, and found even as he had said unto them.

³³ And as they were loosing the colt, the owners thereof said unto them, Why loose ye the colt?

³⁴ And they said, The Lord hath need of him.

³⁵ And they brought him to Jesus: and they cast their garments upon the colt, and they set Jesus thereon.

³⁶ And as he went, they spread their clothes in the way.

³⁷ And when he was come nigh, even now at the descent of the mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen;

³⁸ Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest.

³⁹ And some of the Pharisees from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke thy disciples.

⁴⁰ And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.

⁴¹ And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it,

⁴² Saying, If thou hadst known, even thou, at least in this thy day, the things which belong unto thy peace! but now they are hid from thine eyes.

⁴³ For the days shall come upon thee, that thine enemies shall cast a trench about thee, and compass thee round, and keep thee in on every side,

⁴⁴ And shall lay thee even with the ground, and thy children within thee; and they shall not leave in thee one stone upon another; because thou knewest not the time of thy visitation.

⁴⁵ And he went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold therein, and them that bought;

⁴⁶ Saying unto them, It is written, My house is the house of prayer: but ye have made it a den of thieves.

⁴⁷ And he taught daily in the temple. But the chief priests and the scribes and the chief of the people sought to destroy him,

⁴⁸ And could not find what they might do: for all the people were very attentive to hear him.