1 Kings 14

¹At that time Abiʹjah the son of Jeroboʹam fell sick. ²And Jeroboʹam said to his wife, “Arise, and disguise yourself, that it be not known that you are the wife of Jeroboʹam, and go to Shiloh; behold, Ahiʹjah the prophet is there, who said of me that I should be king over this people. ³Take with you ten loaves, some cakes, and a jar of honey, and go to him; he will tell you what shall happen to the child.”

⁴Jeroboʹam’s wife did so; she arose, and went to Shiloh, and came to the house of Ahiʹjah. Now Ahiʹjah could not see, for his eyes were dim because of his age. ⁵And the Lord said to Ahiʹjah, “Behold, the wife of Jeroboʹam is coming to inquire of you concerning her son; for he is sick. Thus and thus shall you say to her.”

When she came, she pretended to be another woman. ⁶But when Ahiʹjah heard the sound of her feet, as she came in at the door, he said, “Come in, wife of Jeroboʹam; why do you pretend to be another? For I am charged with heavy tidings for you. ⁷Go, tell Jeroboʹam, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: “Because I exalted you from among the people, and made you leader 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 like my servant David, who kept my commandments, and followed me with all his heart, doing only that which was right in my eyes, ⁹but you have done evil above all that were before you and have gone and made for yourself other gods, and molten images, provoking me to anger, and have cast me behind your back; ¹⁰therefore behold, I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboʹam, and will cut off from Jeroboʹam every male, both bond and free in Israel, and will utterly consume the house of Jeroboʹam, as a man burns up dung until it is all gone. ¹¹Any one belonging to Jeroboʹam who dies in the city the dogs shall eat; and any one who dies in the open country the birds of the air shall eat; for the Lord has spoken it.” ’ ¹²Arise therefore, go to your house. When your feet enter the city, the child shall die. ¹³And all Israel shall mourn for him, and bury him; for he only of Jeroboʹam shall come to the grave, because in him there is found something pleasing to the Lord, the God of Israel, in the house of Jeroboʹam. ¹⁴Moreover the Lord will raise up for himself a king over Israel, who shall cut off the house of Jeroboʹam today. And henceforth ¹⁵the Lord will smite Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water, and root up Israel out of this good land which he gave to their fathers, and scatter them beyond the Euphraʹtes, because they have made their Asheʹrim, provoking the Lord to anger. ¹⁶And he will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboʹam, which he sinned and which he made Israel to sin.”

¹⁷Then Jeroboʹam’s wife arose, and departed, and came to Tirzah. And as she came to the threshold of the house, the child died. ¹⁸And all Israel buried him and mourned for him, according to the word of the Lord, which he spoke by his servant Ahiʹjah the prophet. ¹⁹Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboʹam, how he warred and how he reigned, behold, they are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. ²⁰And the time that Jeroboʹam reigned was twenty-two years; and he slept with his fathers, and Nadab his son reigned in his stead.

²¹Now Rehoboʹam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboʹam was forty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the Lord had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there. His mother’s name was Naʹamah the Ammonitess. ²²And Judah did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, 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, and pillars, and Asheʹrim on every high hill and under every green tree; ²⁴and there were also male cult prostitutes in the land. They did according to all the abominations of the nation which the Lord drove out before the people of Israel.

²⁵In the fifth year of King Rehoboʹam, Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem; ²⁶he took away the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king’s house; he took away everything. He also took away all the shields of gold which Solomon had made; ²⁷and King Rehoboʹam made in their stead shields of bronze, and committed them to the hands of the officers of the guard, who kept the door of the king’s house. ²⁸And as often as the king went into the house of the Lord, the guard bore them and brought them back to the guardroom.

²⁹Now the rest of the acts of Rehoboʹam, 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 Rehoboʹam and Jeroboʹam continually. ³¹And Rehoboʹam slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. His mother’s name was Naʹamah the Ammonitess. And Abiʹjam his son reigned in his stead.