1 Kings 14

Jeroboam sends his wife, disguised, to prophet Ahijah 1
The Lord tells Ahijah about the plan 5
Ahijah describes Jeroboam's evil ways 6
Disaster to the house of Jeroboam 10
The Lord would raise up a king 14
The wife returns 17
Other events of Jeroboam 19
Rehoboam king of Judah 21
Judah was more evil than in the past 22
King of Egypt carried off temple treasures; replaced by brass 25
Continual strife between Rehoboam and Jeroboam 29
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Text
Explanation
.1 ¶ 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.
  1 - Abijah The name means, "Jehovah (Yahweh)" is my father. Jeroboam apparently intended to be faithful to Jehovah at the time of the child's birth. Rehoboam had a son with a similar name, "Abijam" v31 or Abijah (2ch1216) and probably born at about the same time.
  2 - Shiloh The ark had been placed there there for some 300 years jos1801 until being taken by the Philistines (1sa0404,11) who probably destroyed the city je0712. Ahijah, an old blind prophet who told Jeroboam he should be king, lived there, v1 1ki1129-31. Shiloh is 10 miles (16 km.) south of Shechem. See map.
  3 - Take ... loaves A matter of courtesy.
  4 - Were set From qamu which is translated "were dim" in 1sa0415.
.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.
  We may be glad that the Lord knows our ways. He can be fair in the judgment of every soul.
 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:
  7 - I exalted thee David was different. He repented.
  9 - Other gods ... cast me behind The commandment says, "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." ex2003.
.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.
   10 - Cut off This meant that he would have no male descendants. Baasha accomplished this 1ki1529. Identification of males by how they relieved themselves was common from the time of David 1sa2522.
  10 - Shut up and left "those who were concealed with the greatest privacy, as the heirs of royalty often are where polygamy prevails; the other phrase, from the loose garments of the East having led to a different practice from what prevails in the West, cannot refer to men; it must signify either a very young boy, or rather, perhaps, a dog, so entire would be the destruction of Jeroboam's house that none, not even a dog, belonging to it should escape. This peculiar phrase occurs only in regard to the threatened extermination of a family (1Sa 25:22-34). See the manner of extermination (1Ki 16:4; 21:24)." (JFB Commentary)
.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.
  14 - Raise him up a king God does not promote wickedness but, is always in control, he permits it as part of His plan 1ki1528.
.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.
  17 - Tizrah Jeroboam apparently moved the principle city to this place.
  17 - Child died as predicted in v12. This was to help the king realize the seriousness of his path of evil.
.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.
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.21 ¶ And Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty and one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the LORD did choose out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there. And his mother's name was Naamah an Ammonitess.   Rehoboam ... reigned ... Judah We switch to the Southern Kingdom and a little later in time. "Its particular designation as 'the city which the Lord did choose out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there,' seems given here, both as a reflection on the apostasy of the ten tribes, and as a proof of the aggravated wickedness of introducing idolatry and its attendant vices there." (JFB)
  Mother's name ... Ammoritess "Her heathen extraction and her influence as queen mother are stated to account for Rehoboam's tendency to depart from the true religion. Led by the warning of the prophet (1Ki 12:23), as well as by the large immigration of Israelites into his kingdom (1Ki 12:17; 2Ch 11:16), he continued for the first three years of his reign a faithful patron of true religion (2Ch 11:17)." (JFB)
.22  And Judah did evil in the sight of the LORD, and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins which they had committed, above all that their fathers had done.
.23  For they also built them high places, and images, and groves, on every high hill, and under every green tree.
.24  And there were also sodomites in the land: and they did according to all the abominations of the nations which the LORD cast out before the children of Israel.
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.25  And it came to pass in the fifth year of king Rehoboam, that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem:
.26  And he took away the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king's house; he even took away all: and he took away all the shields of gold which Solomon had made.
 27  And king Rehoboam made in their stead brasen shields, and committed them unto the hands of the chief of the guard, which kept the door of the king's house.
.28  And it was so, when the king went into the house of the LORD, that the guard bare them, and brought them back into the guard chamber.
  Sad picture of the results of evil practices.
.29  Now 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  And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all their days.
.31  And Rehoboam slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. And his mother's name was Naamah an Ammonitess. And Abijam his son reigned in his stead.
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