1 Kings 14

1At that time Abijah son of Jeroboam became ill.

2Jeroboam said to his wife, “Please get up and disguise yourself, so that no one will know you are Jeroboam’s wife, and go to Shiloh. Ahijah the prophet is there—the one who told me I would be king over this people.

3Take ten loaves of bread with you, some cakes, and a jar of honey, and go to him. He will tell you what will happen to the boy.”

4Jeroboam’s wife did so. She got up and went to Shiloh and came to Ahijah’s house. Now Ahijah could not see, for his eyes had grown dim with age.

5But Yahweh had said to Ahijah, “Jeroboam’s wife is coming to ask you about her son, for he is ill. You are to say such and such to her.” When she arrived, she was pretending to be someone else.

6So when Ahijah heard the sound of her footsteps as she came in the door, 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, tell Jeroboam, ‘This is what Yahweh, the God of Israel, says: I raised you up from among the people and made you ruler over my people Israel.

8I tore the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it to you. But you have not been like my servant David, who kept my commands and followed me with all his heart, doing only what was right in my eyes.

9You have done more evil than all who came before you. You have gone and made for yourself other gods and cast metal images, provoking me to anger, and you have thrown me behind your back.

10Therefore, I am going to bring disaster on the house of Jeroboam. I will cut off from Jeroboam every male in Israel, whether slave or free. I will burn up what is left of the house of Jeroboam as one burns up dung, until it is all gone.

11Anyone 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 Yahweh has spoken.’

12As for you, get up and go home. When 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 come to a grave, because in him, of all the house of Jeroboam, something pleasing to Yahweh, the God of Israel, has been found.

14Yahweh will raise up for himself a king over Israel who will cut off the house of Jeroboam. This is the day—and even now!

15Yahweh will strike Israel until it is like a reed swaying in the water. He will uproot Israel from this good land that he gave to their ancestors and scatter them beyond the Euphrates, because they made their Asherah poles and provoked Yahweh to anger.

16He will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, which he committed and which he caused Israel to commit.”

17Then Jeroboam’s wife got up and left and came to Tirzah. As she stepped over the threshold of the house, the boy died.

18They buried him, and all Israel mourned for him, according to the word of Yahweh that he had spoken through his servant Ahijah the prophet.

19As for the rest of the deeds of Jeroboam, how he waged war and how he reigned, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.

20Jeroboam reigned twenty-two years. Then he rested with his ancestors, and Nadab his son became king in his place.

21Meanwhile Rehoboam 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 Yahweh had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel to put his name there. His mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonite.

22Judah did what was evil in the sight of Yahweh. By the sins they committed, they provoked him to jealousy more than all their ancestors had done.

23They too built for themselves high places, sacred pillars, and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree.

24There were even male cult prostitutes in the land. They did all the detestable things of the nations that Yahweh had driven out before the Israelites.

25In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem.

26He took away the treasures of the house of Yahweh and the treasures of the king’s palace; he took everything. He also took all the gold shields that Solomon had made.

27So King 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 Yahweh, the guards carried them and then brought them back to the guardroom.

29As for the rest of the deeds of Rehoboam and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?

30There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam continually.

31Rehoboam rested with his ancestors and was buried with his ancestors in the city of David. His mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonite. His son Abijam became king in his place.