1 Kings 14 · WEB
Judgment on Jeroboam; Rehoboam's Reign in Judah
Listen — WEB narration 0:00 / 0:00 Narration: World English Bible (David Williams), public domain — AudioTreasure.
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At that time Abijah the son of Jeroboam fell sick.
2Jeroboam said to his wife, "Please get up and disguise yourself so that you won't be recognized as Jeroboam's wife, and go to Shiloh. Behold, there is Ahijah the prophet, who told me that I should be king over this people.
3Take with you ten loaves of bread, some cakes, and a jar of honey, and go to him. He will tell you what will happen to the child."
4Jeroboam's wife did so, and arose and went to Shiloh, and came to the house of Ahijah. Now Ahijah could not see; for his eyes were set by reason of his age.
5Yahweh said to Ahijah, "Behold, the wife of Jeroboam is coming to inquire of you concerning her son, for he is sick. You shall tell her such and such; for it will be, when she comes in, that she will be acting as a stranger."
6When Ahijah heard the sound of her feet as she came in at the door, he said, "Come in, wife of Jeroboam! Why do you act as a stranger? For I am sent to you with hard news.
7Go, tell Jeroboam: 'Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: "Because I exalted you from among the people and made you prince over my people Israel,
8and tore the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it to you, and yet you have not been as my servant David, who kept my commandments and who followed me with all his heart to do only that which was right in my eyes,
9but have done evil above all who were before you, for you have gone and made for yourself other gods and molten images to provoke me to anger, and have cast me behind your back —
10therefore, behold, I will bring evil on the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam every male, him who is shut up and him who is left free in Israel, and will utterly sweep away the house of Jeroboam, as a man sweeps away dung, until it is gone.
11Anyone belonging to Jeroboam who dies in the city, the dogs will eat; and he who dies in the field, the birds of the sky will eat; for Yahweh has spoken it."'
12"Arise therefore, and go to your house. When your feet enter into the city, the child will die.
13All Israel will mourn for him and bury him; for he only of Jeroboam will come to the grave, because in him there is found some good thing toward Yahweh, the God of Israel, in the house of Jeroboam.
14Moreover Yahweh will raise up for himself a king over Israel who shall cut off the house of Jeroboam. This is it — even now.
15"For Yahweh will strike Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water; and he will pluck 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 Asherah poles, provoking Yahweh to anger.
16He will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, who sinned and who made Israel to sin."
17Jeroboam's wife arose and departed, and came to Tirzah. As she came to the threshold of the house, the child died.
18All Israel buried him and mourned for him, according to the word of Yahweh which he spoke by his servant Ahijah the prophet.
19The rest of the acts of Jeroboam, how he made war and how he reigned, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.
20The days that Jeroboam reigned were twenty-two years; and he slept with his fathers, and Nadab his son reigned in his place.
21Rehoboam 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 Yahweh had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel to put his name there. His mother's name was Naamah the Ammonitess.
22Judah did that which was evil in Yahweh's sight, and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins which they committed, more than all that their fathers had done.
23For they also built for themselves high places, sacred pillars, and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree;
24and there were also male prostitutes in the land. They did according to all the abominations of the nations which Yahweh cast out before the children of Israel.
25In the fifth year of king Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem.
26He took away the treasures of Yahweh's house, and the treasures of the king's house. He even took away all the shields of gold which Solomon had made.
27King Rehoboam made shields of bronze in their place, and committed them to the hands of the captains of the guard who kept the door of the king's house.
28It was so, that whenever the king went into Yahweh's house, the guard bore them and brought them back into the guard room.
29Now the rest of the acts of Rehoboam, and all that he did, aren't they written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
30There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam continually.
31Rehoboam slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. His mother's name was Naamah the Ammonitess. Abijam his son reigned in his place.
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Summary
Jeroboam's sick son becomes the occasion for Ahijah the prophet to deliver a devastating verdict on the entire dynasty. The same prophet who once promised Jeroboam the kingdom now announces its total destruction — because Jeroboam exceeded even all who came before him in provoking God to anger. The only mercy is that the sick child, in whom some good was found, will die before the catastrophe falls on his house. The chapter pivots to Judah, where Rehoboam's seventeen-year reign brought rampant idolatry, shrine prostitution, and Pharaoh Shishak's plundering of the Temple's gold.
Themes
- Accountability of leaders for the sins they introduce into a nation
- The prophetic word as both warning and inescapable verdict
- Spiritual decline in Judah mirroring the north — no tribe is immune
- The stripping of glory as a sign of covenant judgment
Key verses
- 1 Kgs 14:15 — “Yahweh will strike Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water... and will scatter them beyond the River.”
- 1 Kgs 14:26 — “He took away the treasures of Yahweh's house, and the treasures of the king's house. He even took away all the shields of gold which Solomon had made.”
- 1 Kgs 14:9 — “You have done evil above all who were before you, for you have gone and made for yourself other gods and molten images to provoke me to anger, and have cast me behind your back.”
Context & background
Ahijah the Shilonite was the prophet from Shiloh (modern Khirbet Seilun, West Bank), the ancient location of the Tabernacle before Jerusalem became the worship center. His prophecy about Israel being scattered "beyond the River" (the Euphrates) was fulfilled in 722 BC when Assyria deported the northern tribes. Shishak (Pharaoh Shoshenq I) invaded in approximately 925 BC — his campaign list, carved on the temple wall at Karnak in modern Luxor, Egypt, confirms the biblical account and mentions dozens of Israelite cities. The golden shields Solomon had made (ch. 10) were replaced by bronze — a visible symbol of diminished glory. Tirzah (modern Tell el-Far'ah North, West Bank) served as an early capital of the northern kingdom.
Cross-references
- 1 Kgs 11:29-39 — Ahijah's original prophecy to Jeroboam promising him the ten tribes
- 2 Chr 12:2-9 — Parallel account of Shishak's invasion with additional detail
- 2 Kgs 17:21-23 — The narrator's later summary confirming Jeroboam's sin led to Israel's deportation
- Deut 28:36 — The covenant threat of exile beyond the river, now beginning to be fulfilled
- Ps 89:38-45 — A lament over the stripping of the king's glory — bronze replacing gold is the lived reality of this psalm