The prophet Ahijah predicts the destruction of Jeroboam’s dynasty
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📚At that time Abijah, the son of Jeroboam, fell sick. 2 📚And Jeroboam said to his wife, “Please arise and disguise yourself, so that you will not be recognized as the wife of Jeroboam, and go to Shiloh. See, Ahijah 📖 the prophet is there, who told me that I would be king over this people. 3 📚And take ten loaves and cakes and a jar of honey with you, and go to him. He will tell you what is to become of the child”.4 📚And Jeroboam’s wife did so. She arose and went to Shiloh, and came to the house of Ahijah. Now Ahijah could not see, for his eyes were set because of his age. 5 📚And the LORD said to Ahijah, “Now the wife of Jeroboam is coming to ask something of you for her son, for he is sick. You are to say such and such to her; for it shall be, when she comes in, that she will pretend to be another woman”.
6 📚And so it was that when Ahijah heard the sound of her feet, as she came in the door, he said, “Come in, you wife of Jeroboam. Why do you pretend to be someone else? For I have been sent to you with bad news. 7 📚Go, tell Jeroboam, Thus says the LORD God of Israel, ‘Because I exalted you from among the people, and made you ruler 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 who followed me with all his heart to do only what was right in my eyes, 9 📚but have done evil 📖 above all who were before you, for you have gone and made other gods and cast metal idols for yourself to provoke me to anger 📖, and have thrust me behind your back 📖, 10 📚therefore, look, I will bring disaster on the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off every male person from Jeroboam, both bond and free in Israel, and will sweep away the rest of the house of Jeroboam, as a man sweeps away dung, until it is all gone. 11 📚Those who belong to Jeroboam who die in the city will be eaten by the dogs, and those who die in the field will be eaten by the birds of the air; for the LORD has spoken it.’
14:11 God had warned that this was one of the penalties of disobedience to His covenant (Deut 28:26).⚜
12 📚“So arise. Go to your own house. And when your feet enter the city, the child will die. 13 📚And all Israel will mourn for him and bury him, for he alone of those who belong to Jeroboam will come to the grave, because in him there is found some good thing 📖 toward the LORD God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam.
14 📚“Moreover the LORD will raise up for himself a king over Israel who will cut off the house of Jeroboam that day. And what now? 15 📚For the LORD will strike Israel 📖. It will be like a reed shaken in the water. And he will root up Israel out of this good land, which he gave to their fathers, and will scatter them beyond the River 📖, because they have made their idolatrous groves 📖, provoking the LORD to anger. 16 📚And he will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam 📖, who sinned and who caused Israel to sin”.
17 📚And Jeroboam’s wife arose and left 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, in accordance with the word of the LORD which he spoke through his servant Ahijah the prophet.
19 📚And the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, how he made war, and how he reigned, see, they are written in the book of The Annals 📖 of the Kings of Israel. 20 📚And Jeroboam reigned for twenty-two years. Then he slept 📖 with his ancestors, and Nadab 📖 his son reigned in his place.
Judah’s bad King Rehoboam
21 📚And Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam 📖 was forty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the LORD chose out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there. And his mother’s name was Naamah. She was an Ammonite 📖.
22 📚And Judah did evil 📖 in the sight of the LORD, and provoked him to jealousy 📖 with their sins which they committed, above all that their fathers had done. 23 📚For they also built for themselves high places and made idols and idolatrous groves, on every high hill and under every green tree. 24 📚And there were even male shrine prostitutes 📖 in the land, and they behaved in accordance with all the abominations of the nations which the LORD drove out before the children of Israel.
25 📚And this occurred in the fifth year of King Rehoboam: Shishak, King of Egypt, came up against Jerusalem, 26 📚and took away the treasures of the house of the LORD and the treasures of the king’s house. He took them all away, and took away all the shields of gold which Solomon had made 📖. 27 📚And in their place King Rehoboam made bronze shields, and committed them into the hands of the chief of the guard, who kept the door of the king’s house. 28 📚And the custom was that whenever the king went into the house of the LORD, the guard carried them, and later brought them back into the guard room.
29 📚Now the rest of the acts of Rehoboam, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of The Annals 📖 of the Kings of Judah?
14:1-2 1 Kings 13:6. Like many people in every generation Jeroboam was ready to seek God for something he wanted, but was not willing to forsake his sins.⚜
30 📚And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all their days. 31 📚And Rehoboam slept 📖 with his ancestors, and was buried among his ancestors in the city of David. And his mother’s name was Naamah. She was an Ammonite. And Abijam 📖 his son reigned in his place.
14:25-31 This was because God was punishing the people for their sins (2 Chron 12:1-2). See note at 1 Kings 11:14-25.⚜