The prophet Ahijah and King Jeroboam

14 At that time, Jeroboam's son Abijah became ill. ² So Jeroboam said to his wife, ‘Change what you look like so that people will not recognize you as my wife. Then go to Shiloh. The prophet Ahijah lives there.^[a] He told me that I would rule the nation of Israel. ³ Take ten loaves of bread with you. Also take some cakes and a pot of honey. When you visit Ahijah, he will tell you what will happen to our son.’

⁴ Jeroboam's wife did what he told her to do. She went to Ahijah's house in Shiloh. Ahijah could not see because he was very old. ⁵ But the Lord had said to Ahijah, ‘Jeroboam's wife will come to visit you. Her son is ill and she will ask you what will happen to him. I will tell you what to say to her. When she comes, she will pretend that she is not the king's wife.’

⁶ Then Ahijah heard her as she walked through the door of his house. He said, ‘Come in, Jeroboam's wife! I know who you are, so do not pretend to be somebody else. The Lord has given me bad news to tell you. ⁷ Go and say to Jeroboam, “This is what the Lord, Israel's God, says to you: I chose you from among my people, the Israelites, and I made you their ruler. ⁸ I took Israel's kingdom away from David's family and I gave it to you. But you have not served me faithfully as my servant David did. He obeyed my commands. He was faithful to me and he always did the things that I say are right. ⁹ But you have done more evil things than any of the kings who lived before you. You have made me very angry. You have used metal to make images of other gods that you could worship. You have turned away from me. ¹⁰ Because of this, I will bring great trouble to Jeroboam's family. I will kill every male among his descendants in Israel, whoever they are. I will completely destroy Jeroboam's family, like someone burns a heap of rubbish! ¹¹ If they die in the city, dogs will eat their bodies. If they die in the country, vultures will eat them. This is what the Lord has said will happen!”

¹² But you, Jeroboam's wife, should go back home now. As soon as you arrive back in the city, the boy will die. ¹³ All Israel will cry because of his death and they will bury him. He is the only person from Jeroboam's family that they will bury properly. He is the only one among Jeroboam's descendants who has pleased the Lord, Israel's God. ¹⁴ The Lord himself will choose another king to rule Israel. That king will destroy Jeroboam's family. This will happen very soon, even today! ¹⁵ The Lord will attack the nation of Israel. He will shake it, as the wind shakes a reed that is growing in a stream. The Lord will remove the Israelites from this good land that he gave to their ancestors. He will take them to places beyond the Euphrates river. They made Asherah poles to worship, so the Lord became very angry with them. ¹⁶ He will put Israel under the power of its enemies because of Jeroboam's sins. Jeroboam also caused Israel's people to do bad things.’

¹⁷ Then Jeroboam's wife left Ahijah's house. She went back to Tirzah. When she walked through the door of her house, the boy died. ¹⁸ They buried him and all the Israelites cried because of his death. The Lord had told his servant the prophet Ahijah what would happen. And that is what happened.

King Jeroboam dies

¹⁹ The other things that happened while Jeroboam was king are written in a book. The book is called ‘The history of Israel's kings’. It tells about the battles that Jeroboam fought and how he ruled as king. ²⁰ Jeroboam ruled as king for 22 years. Then he died and they buried him beside his ancestors. His son Nadab became king after him.

King Rehoboam dies

²¹ King Solomon's son, Rehoboam, ruled Judah as king. He was 41 years old when he became king. He ruled for 17 years in Jerusalem. That was the city that the Lord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel. He chose it as the place where people would give honour to his name. Rehoboam's mother was an Ammonite woman. Her name was Naamah.

²² The people of Judah did things that the Lord said were evil. Their sins caused the Lord to be very angry. They did worse things than their ancestors had done. ²³ They built altars on the hills for themselves. They put up stone pillars and Asherah poles to worship. They did this on every high hill and under every big tree. ²⁴ In Judah there were even temples which had male prostitutes. The people of Judah did the same evil things as the Canaanite nations did. The Lord had chased those people out of the land so that the Israelites could live there.

²⁵ In the fifth year that Rehoboam was king, King Shishak of Egypt attacked Jerusalem. ²⁶ He took away the valuable things that were in the Lord's temple and in the king's palace. He took everything for himself. That included the gold shields that King Solomon had made. ²⁷ So Rehoboam used bronze to make other shields instead. He gave them to the officers of his own soldiers. These soldiers stood as guards at the entrance of the king's palace. ²⁸ Every time that the king went to the Lord's temple, the guards carried the shields. After that, they took them back to the guards' room where they stored them.

²⁹ The other things that happened while Rehoboam was king are written in a book. The book is called ‘The history of Judah's kings’. It tells about everything that King Rehoboam did. ³⁰ There was always a war between the armies of Rehoboam and Jeroboam. ³¹ Rehoboam died and they buried him beside his ancestors in the City of David. Rehoboam's mother was an Ammonite woman. Her name was Naamah. Rehoboam's son Abijah became king after him.