Judgment on the House of Jeroboam

14 At that time Abi′jah the son of Jerobo′am fell sick. ² And Jerobo′am said to his wife, “Arise, and disguise yourself, that it be not known that you are the wife of Jerobo′am, and go to Shiloh; behold, Ahi′jah the prophet is there, who said of me that I should be king over this people. ³ Take with you ten loaves, some cakes, and a jar of honey, and go to him; he will tell you what shall happen to the child.”

⁴ Jerobo′am’s wife did so; she arose, and went to Shiloh, and came to the house of Ahi′jah. Now Ahi′jah could not see, for his eyes were dim because of his age. ⁵ And the Lord said to Ahi′jah, “Behold, the wife of Jerobo′am is coming to inquire of you concerning her son; for he is sick. Thus and thus shall you say to her.”

When she came, she pretended to be another woman. ⁶ But when Ahi′jah heard the sound of her feet, as she came in at the door, he said, “Come in, wife of Jerobo′am; why do you pretend to be another? For I am charged with heavy tidings for you. ⁷ Go, tell Jerobo′am, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: “Because I exalted you from among the people, and made you leader over my people Israel, ⁸ and tore the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it to you; and yet you have not been like my servant David, who kept my commandments, and followed me with all his heart, doing only that which was right in my eyes, ⁹ but you have done evil above all that were before you and have gone and made for yourself other gods, and molten images, provoking me to anger, and have cast me behind your back; ¹⁰ therefore behold, I will bring evil upon the house of Jerobo′am, and will cut off from Jerobo′am every male, both bond and free in Israel, and will utterly consume the house of Jerobo′am, as a man burns up dung until it is all gone. ¹¹ Any one belonging to Jerobo′am who dies in the city the dogs shall eat; and any one who dies in the open country the birds of the air shall eat; for the Lord has spoken it.”’ ¹² Arise therefore, go to your house. When your feet enter the city, the child shall die. ¹³ And all Israel shall mourn for him, and bury him; for he only of Jerobo′am shall come to the grave, because in him there is found something pleasing to the Lord, the God of Israel, in the house of Jerobo′am. ¹⁴ Moreover the Lord will raise up for himself a king over Israel, who shall cut off the house of Jerobo′am today. And henceforth^{[a] 15} the Lord will smite Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water, and root up Israel out of this good land which he gave to their fathers, and scatter them beyond the Euphra′tes, because they have made their Ashe′rim, provoking the Lord to anger. ¹⁶ And he will give Israel up because of the sins of Jerobo′am, which he sinned and which he made Israel to sin.”

Death of Jeroboam

¹⁷ Then Jerobo′am’s wife arose, and departed, and came to Tirzah. And as she came to the threshold of the house, the child died. ¹⁸ And all Israel buried him and mourned for him, according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke by his servant Ahi′jah the prophet. ¹⁹ Now the rest of the acts of Jerobo′am, 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 time that Jerobo′am reigned was twenty-two years; and he slept with his fathers, and Nadab his son reigned in his stead.

Ministers of the New Covenant

3 Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some do, letters of recommendation to you, or from you? ² You yourselves are our letter of recommendation, written on your^[a] hearts, to be known and read by all men; ³ and you show that you are a letter from Christ delivered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.

⁴ Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. ⁵ Not that we are competent of ourselves to claim anything as coming from us; our competence is from God, ⁶ who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not in a written code but in the Spirit; for the written code kills, but the Spirit gives life.

⁷ Now if the dispensation of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such splendor that the Israelites could not look at Moses’ face because of its brightness, fading as this was, ⁸ will not the dispensation of the Spirit be attended with greater splendor? ⁹ For if there was splendor in the dispensation of condemnation, the dispensation of righteousness must far exceed it in splendor. ¹⁰ Indeed, in this case, what once had splendor has come to have no splendor at all, because of the splendor that surpasses it. ¹¹ For if what faded away came with splendor, what is permanent must have much more splendor.

¹² Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, ¹³ not like Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not see the end of the fading splendor. ¹⁴ But their minds were hardened; for to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. ¹⁵ Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their minds; ¹⁶ but when a man turns to the Lord the veil is removed. ¹⁷ Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. ¹⁸ And we all, with unveiled face, beholding^[b] the glory of the Lord, are being changed into his likeness from one degree of glory to another; for this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.

Egypt Attacks Judah

12 When the rule of Rehobo′am was established and was strong, he forsook the law of the Lord, and all Israel with him. ² In the fifth year of King Rehobo′am, because they had been unfaithful to the Lord, Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem ³ with twelve hundred chariots and sixty thousand horsemen. And the people were without number who came with him from Egypt—Libyans, Suk′ki-im, and Ethiopians. ⁴ And he took the fortified cities of Judah and came as far as Jerusalem. ⁵ Then Shemai′ah the prophet came to Rehobo′am and to the princes of Judah, who had gathered at Jerusalem because of Shishak, and said to them, “Thus says the Lord, ‘You abandoned me, so I have abandoned you to the hand of Shishak.’” ⁶ Then the princes of Israel and the king humbled themselves and said, “The Lord is righteous.” ⁷ When the Lord saw that they humbled themselves, the word of the Lord came to Shemai′ah: “They have humbled themselves; 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 servants to him, 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; he took away the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king’s house; he took away everything. He also took away the shields of gold which Solomon had made; ¹⁰ and King Rehobo′am made in their stead shields of bronze, and committed them to the hands of the officers of the guard, who kept the door of the king’s house. ¹¹ And as often as the king went into the house of the Lord, the guard came and bore them, and brought them back to the guardroom. ¹² And when he humbled himself the wrath of the Lord turned from him, so as not to make a complete destruction; moreover, conditions were good in Judah.

Death of Rehoboam

¹³ So King Rehobo′am established himself in Jerusalem and reigned. Rehobo′am was forty-one 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. His mother’s name was Na′amah the Ammonitess. ¹⁴ And he did evil, for he did not set his heart to seek the Lord.

¹⁵ Now the acts of Rehobo′am, from first to last, are they not written in the chronicles of Shemai′ah the prophet and of Iddo the seer?^[a] There were continual wars between Rehobo′am and Jerobo′am. ¹⁶ And Rehobo′am slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David; and Abi′jah his son reigned in his stead.

²⁹ When he drew near to Beth′phage and Bethany, at the mount that is called Olivet, he sent two of the disciples, ³⁰ saying, “Go into the village opposite, where on entering you will find a colt tied, on which no one has ever yet sat; untie it and bring it here. ³¹ If any one asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ you shall say this, ‘The Lord has need of it.’” ³² So those who were sent went away and found it as he had told them. ³³ And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the colt?” ³⁴ And they said, “The Lord has need of it.” ³⁵ And they brought it to Jesus, and throwing their garments on the colt they set Jesus upon it. ³⁶ And as he rode along, they spread their garments on the road. ³⁷ As he was now drawing near, 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 is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” ³⁹ And some of the Pharisees in the multitude said to him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” ⁴⁰ He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.”

Jesus Weeps over Jerusalem

⁴¹ And when he drew near and saw the city he wept over it, ⁴² saying, “Would that even today you knew the things that make for peace! But now they are hid from your eyes. ⁴³ For the days shall come upon you, when your enemies will cast up a bank about you and surround you, and hem you in on every side, ⁴⁴ and dash you to the ground, you and your children within you, and they will not leave one stone upon another in you; because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

Jesus Cleanses the Temple

⁴⁵ And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, ⁴⁶ saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer’; but you have made it a den of robbers.”

⁴⁷ And he was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people sought to destroy him; ⁴⁸ but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people hung upon his words.