1 Reyes 14

Ahijah’s word against Jeroboam’s house

¹At that time Abijah son of Jeroboam fell ill. ²Jeroboam told his wife, “Please get up and change your appearance, so that no one will recognize you are Jeroboam’s wife, and go to Shiloh. Ahijah the prophet is there, the one who told me that I would be king over this people. ³Go to him with ten loaves of bread in your hand, some cakes and a jar of honey. He will tell you what is going to happen to the boy.” ⁴Jeroboam’s wife did so. She set out for Shiloh and arrived at the house of Ahijah. Ahijah was unable to see; his eyes had grown fixed with age.

⁵But the LORD had said to Ahijah, “Jeroboam’s wife is coming to ask you for a word about her son, because he is sick. You are to tell her such and such. When she arrives, she will be pretending to be someone else.” ⁶As soon as Ahijah heard the sound of her footsteps at the doorway, he said, “Come in, wife of Jeroboam. Why are you pretending to be someone else? I have been sent to you with hard news. ⁷Go and tell Jeroboam, ‘The LORD, the God of Israel, says this: I raised you up from among the people and made you ruler over my people Israel. ⁸I tore the kingdom out of the hands of David’s house and gave it to you. Yet you have not been like my servant David, who kept my commandments, who followed me wholeheartedly and did nothing but what was right in my sight. ⁹You have done more evil than all who were before you. You went and made yourself other gods, images of cast metal, to provoke me to anger, and you have thrown me behind your back.

¹⁰Therefore I am about to bring disaster on Jeroboam’s house. From Jeroboam I will cut off every male in Israel, bond or free. I will burn away what remains of his house, the way someone burns up dung until none is left.^{a 11}Anyone belonging to Jeroboam who dies in the city, the dogs will eat, and anyone who dies in the open country, the birds of the sky will eat. For the LORD has spoken.’ ¹²As for you, get up and return to your house. The moment your feet enter the city, the child will die. ¹³All Israel will mourn for him and bury him. He is the only one belonging to Jeroboam who will be laid in a grave, because in him something good toward the LORD, the God of Israel, has been found in the house of Jeroboam. ¹⁴The LORD will raise up a king of his own over Israel, and that king will cut off Jeroboam’s house. This is the day; indeed, it has already begun.^{b 15}The LORD will strike Israel until it sways like a reed in the water. He will pull Israel up by the roots from this good land he gave their ancestors and scatter them beyond the Euphrates River, because they have made their Asherah poles and provoked the LORD to anger. ¹⁶He will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, which he committed and by which he led Israel to sin.” ¹⁷Then Jeroboam’s wife got up and left and came to Tirzah. As she was stepping over the threshold of the house, the boy died. ¹⁸They buried him, and all Israel mourned for him, just as the LORD had said through his servant Ahijah the prophet. ¹⁹The rest of the acts of Jeroboam, how he fought and how he reigned, are written in the Book of the History of the Kings of Israel. ²⁰Jeroboam reigned twenty-two years. Then he rested with his ancestors, and his son Nadab became king in his place.

Rehoboam king of Judah

²¹Rehoboam son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city the LORD had chosen from among all the tribes of Israel as the place for his name. His mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonite. ²²Judah did what was evil in the sight of the LORD. By the sins they committed they stirred up his jealousy more than all their ancestors had done.^{c 23}They also built for themselves high places, standing stones and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every leafy tree. ²⁴There were even male shrine prostitutes in the land. The people did all the detestable things of the nations that the LORD had driven out ahead of the Israelites.^d

Shishak attacks Jerusalem

²⁵In King Rehoboam’s fifth year, Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem. ²⁶He carried off the treasures of the house of the LORD and those of the king’s palace. He took everything, even all the gold shields Solomon had made. ²⁷King Rehoboam made bronze shields to replace them and entrusted them to the commanders of the guard who kept watch at the entrance of the king’s palace. ²⁸Whenever the king went into the house of the LORD, the guards carried the shields, and afterward they brought them back to the guardroom. ²⁹The rest of the acts of Rehoboam and all that he did are written in the Book of the History of the Kings of Judah. ³⁰There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all their days. ³¹Rehoboam rested with his ancestors and was buried with them in the City of David. His mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonite. His son Abijam became king in his place.