The Histories · Old Testament
1 Kings 14
1 Kings 14: judgment on Jeroboam's house and loss in Judah
General context
Jeroboam sends his wife in disguise to the aged prophet Ahijah because their son Abijah is sick. The Lord tells Ahijah who is coming, and he identifies her despite his blindness. He announces judgment on Jeroboam's house and says the child will die when she returns. Abijah dies and receives mourning and burial, as announced. Jeroboam's reign ends and Nadab succeeds him. The account then describes Judah's wrongdoing under Rehoboam. Shishak king of Egypt takes the temple and palace treasures, including Solomon's gold shields. Rehoboam replaces them with brass shields, and his reign ends with Abijam succeeding him.
Cited passages: 1 Kings 14:1, 1 Kings 14:2, 1 Kings 14:3, 1 Kings 14:4, 1 Kings 14:5, 1 Kings 14:6, 1 Kings 14:7, 1 Kings 14:8, 1 Kings 14:9, 1 Kings 14:10, 1 Kings 14:11, 1 Kings 14:12, 1 Kings 14:13, 1 Kings 14:14, 1 Kings 14:15, 1 Kings 14:16, 1 Kings 14:17, 1 Kings 14:18, 1 Kings 14:19, 1 Kings 14:20, 1 Kings 14:21, 1 Kings 14:22, 1 Kings 14:23, 1 Kings 14:24, 1 Kings 14:25, 1 Kings 14:26, 1 Kings 14:27, 1 Kings 14:28, 1 Kings 14:29, 1 Kings 14:30, 1 Kings 14:31
1 Kings 14 (KJV)
1At that time Abijah the son of Jeroboam fell sick.
2And 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.
3And 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.
4And 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.
5And 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.
6And 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.
7Go, 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,
8And 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;
9But 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:
10Therefore, 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.
11Him 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.
12Arise thou therefore, get thee to thine own house: and when thy feet enter into the city, the child shall die.
13And 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.
14Moreover the Lord shall raise him up a king over Israel, who shall cut off the house of Jeroboam that day: but what? even now.
15For 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.
16And he shall give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, who did sin, and who made Israel to sin.
17And Jeroboam’s wife arose, and departed, and came to Tirzah: and when she came to the threshold of the door, the child died;
18And 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.
19And 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.
20And the days which Jeroboam reigned were two and twenty years: and he slept with his fathers, and Nadab his son reigned in his stead.
21And 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.
22And 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.
23For they also built them high places, and images, and groves, on every high hill, and under every green tree.
24And 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.
25And it came to pass in the fifth year of king Rehoboam, that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem:
26And 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.
27And 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.
28And 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.
29Now 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?
30And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all their days.
31And 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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Historical context
Jeroboam's wife remains unnamed, and Abijah's good disposition toward the Lord is affirmed without a story explaining its particular deeds. Jeroboam's son Abijah is distinct from Rehoboam's successor Abijam. The reign notices give Jeroboam twenty-two years and Rehoboam seventeen, with Rehoboam aged forty-one at accession and Naamah the Ammonite named as his mother. Shishak's attack is placed in Rehoboam's fifth year. The new shields replace the gold ones, but the narrator supplies no modern value for what was taken.
Cited passages: 1 Kings 14:1, 1 Kings 14:2, 1 Kings 14:3, 1 Kings 14:4, 1 Kings 14:5, 1 Kings 14:6, 1 Kings 14:12, 1 Kings 14:13, 1 Kings 14:14, 1 Kings 14:15, 1 Kings 14:16, 1 Kings 14:17, 1 Kings 14:18, 1 Kings 14:19, 1 Kings 14:20, 1 Kings 14:21, 1 Kings 14:25, 1 Kings 14:26, 1 Kings 14:27, 1 Kings 14:28, 1 Kings 14:29, 1 Kings 14:30, 1 Kings 14:31
Literary context
The disguised visit cannot hide the wife from the word Ahijah has received, even though the prophet cannot see. The child's death and burial are matched to the announced word, while the judgment extends beyond the immediate illness. In Judah, the replacement shields preserve a royal ceremony after its costly objects have been lost. The two reign accounts give no refuge in the assumption that the other kingdom's failures leave one's own kingdom untouched.
Cited passages: 1 Kings 14:4, 1 Kings 14:5, 1 Kings 14:6, 1 Kings 14:7, 1 Kings 14:8, 1 Kings 14:9, 1 Kings 14:10, 1 Kings 14:11, 1 Kings 14:12, 1 Kings 14:13, 1 Kings 14:14, 1 Kings 14:15, 1 Kings 14:16, 1 Kings 14:17, 1 Kings 14:18, 1 Kings 14:22, 1 Kings 14:23, 1 Kings 14:24, 1 Kings 14:25, 1 Kings 14:26, 1 Kings 14:27, 1 Kings 14:28, 1 Kings 14:29, 1 Kings 14:30, 1 Kings 14:31
Key moments
- A disguised visit ordered (1 Kings 14:2). Jeroboam tells his wife to disguise herself and consult Ahijah.
- Ahijah recognizes her (1 Kings 14:6). The blind prophet addresses her as Jeroboam's wife before she can sustain the disguise.
- The child distinguished (1 Kings 14:13). The prophecy singles out the child for mourning and burial because something good toward the Lord is found in him.
- The child dies (1 Kings 14:17). Abijah dies as his mother returns to the doorway.
- Treasures taken (1 Kings 14:26). Shishak takes the treasures and Solomon's gold shields.
- Replacement shields made (1 Kings 14:27). Rehoboam supplies brass shields in place of the gold ones.
For reflection
What do the failed disguise and the replacement shields reveal about the difference between outward arrangements and the conditions the narrator describes?
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