Ahijah’s prophecy against Jeroboam
1 At that time, Abijah, son of Jeroboam, fell ill.
2 So the king told his wife. “Go, disguise your self so that no one may recognize you as Jeroboam’s wife. Go to Shiloh where you will find Ahijah the prophet who foretold that I would be king over this people.
3 Take with you ten loaves, a few cakes, and a jar of honey. Enter his house and he will tell you what shall happen to the child.”
4 Jeroboam’s wife did as she was told and left for Shiloh. She entered the house of Ahijah who was now so old that he could not see.
5 But Yahweh had told Ahijah, “Jeroboam’s wife is coming to consult you about her sick son, and this is what you must tell her. She will be coming in disguise.”
6 And so when Ahijah heard the sound of her footsteps, as she entered the door, he said, “Come in, wife of Jero boam. Why have you disguised yourself? I have been told to give you un pleasant news.
7 Go, therefore; bring Jeroboam this message of Yahweh, the God of Israel:
8 I made you rise from the midst of the people and established you as the leader of Israel. I took the kingdom from David’s family to give it to you. Yet you have not been like my ser vant David, who kept my commands and followed me with his whole heart, doing only what was pleasing to me.
9 You have done worse than anyone be fore you. You have made me angry with your strange gods and the images you have made; and you have forsaken me.
10 Now, I shall bring disaster on the family of Jeroboam. I will cut off every male in Jeroboam’s line, whether slave or freeman in Israel, and I will wipe out the descendants of Jeroboam just as they wipe out the dung till all is gone.
11 He who dies in the city will be devoured by dogs; he who dies in the field, by the birds of the sky. So Yahweh has spoken!
12 Leave now, and go back home! As soon as you enter the city, the child will die.
13 All Israel will mourn for him and bury him. He alone of Jeroboam’s line will be buried, for in him alone has Yahweh, the God of Israel, found something good.
14 Yahweh him self will raise up for himself a king of Israel; it is he who will destroy Jero boam’s family.
15 Yahweh will strike Israel like a reed tossed about in the water and root them out from this good land which he gave to their ancestors. He will scatter them beyond the river Euphrates because they made him angry with the sacred poles they set up.
16 Yahweh will scatter Israel because of the sins Jeroboam has committed and by which he dragged Israel into sin.”
17 So Jeroboam’s wife went home. On her arrival at Tirzah, and as soon as she crossed the threshold of her house, the child died.
18 The child was buried and all Israel mourned over him just as Yahweh had prophesied through his servant the prophet Ahijah.
Rehoboam, king of Judah
19 The rest of the acts of Jero boam, his achievements in war and his reign, are recorded in the Book of Chronicles of the Kings of Israel.
20 Jeroboam reigned for twenty-two years. When he rested with his fathers, his son Nadab succeeded him as king.
21 As for Rehoboam, son of Solomon, he was forty-one when he began to reign over Judah. He reigned for seventeen years in Jeru salem, the city which Yah weh chose out of all the tribes of Israel to put his Name there. His mother Naamah was an Ammonite.
22 The people of Judah did what displeased Yahweh and, by their sins, angered him even more than their ancestors had done.
23 They also built for themselves high places, pillars and sacred poles on every high hill and under every green tree.
24 They even had male cult prostitutes in their land. Judah followed all the abominable practices of the nations whom Yah weh had driven out before the Israelites.
25 In the fifth year of King Reho boam, Shi shak, king of Egypt, attacked Jeru salem
26 and looted everything, including the treasures of Yahweh’s house and of the royal palace. As he had taken the golden shields made under Solomon,
27 Rehoboam replaced them with brazen shields and entrusted them to the officers of the guard who watched at the door of the king’s palace.
28 Every time the king went into Yahweh’s House, the guards took them out and then brought them back to the guardroom.
29 The rest of the events of Reho boam’s reign, including his deeds, are all written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah.
30 There was incessant war between Rehoboam and Jero boam.
31 Then Reho bo am rested with his fathers and was buried with his ancestors in the City of David. His mother Naamah was an Am monite. His son Abijam succeeded him as king.
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Comments 1 Kings, Chapter 14
• 14.1 Ahijah’s words announce the first coup d’etat in the history of Israel. There will be many others and, each time, the relatives and sons of the one overthrown will be killed. Following this episode is the history of the two kingdoms during their first fifty years.