1 Kings 14

Jeroboam’s son falls ill, and the king sends his wife in disguise to the prophet Ahijah. The prophet sees through her and announces the end of Jeroboam’s dynasty and, in time, the exile of Israel. The chapter then turns to Judah, where Rehoboam’s people copy pagan ways and Egypt strips the temple of its treasures.

1 Kings 14:1-3

When his son Abijah falls sick, Jeroboam wants a word from God but does not want to be seen asking. He sends his wife in disguise to Ahijah, the prophet who first promised him the kingdom, carrying a small, humble gift. He trusts the prophet, yet hides from him.

BSA: disguise (“change, conceal”): Jeroboam wants his wife to change how she appears so the prophet will not know who she is.

See also: 1 Kings 11:29-31.

1 Kings 14:4-5

Ahijah is old and blind, so the disguise seems safe. But God does not need human eyes. He tells the prophet beforehand who is coming, why she has come, and what pretense she will use. No disguise hides anyone from the LORD.

BSA: disguised (“feign herself to be another woman, pretend to be someone else”): She will act the part of a stranger, but God has already seen through the act.

See also: Psalm 139:1-4.

1 Kings 14:6

Ahijah greets her by name at the door, before she says a word. His question, “Why are you disguised?”, exposes the pretense. Then he warns her that the message he carries is hard. The prophet who once gave Jeroboam good news now has bad news.

Hebrew: קָשָׁה (qashah, H7186) — “hard, heavy, severe.” The word describing the news is the same word used for a heavy yoke or a stiff neck. The message is hard to carry and hard to bear.

1 Kings 14:7-8

God reminds Jeroboam what he owes. He lifted him from the common people and made him ruler of Israel. But Jeroboam did not follow God as David did, with a whole heart. Everything he had was a gift, and he answered it with unfaithfulness.

BSA: raised you up (“exalted, lifted up”): Jeroboam’s position was God’s gift, not his own achievement. heart (“with complete devotion, sincerely”): David is the measure here: not perfect, but wholly turned toward God.

See also: 1 Kings 11:37-38.

1 Kings 14:9

Jeroboam did worse than all before him. He made other gods and cast images, the golden calves of Bethel and Dan, and in doing so he turned his back on the God who made him king. To throw someone behind your back is to treat him as nothing.

BSA: flung (“cast, thrown”): God was not forgotten by accident. He was deliberately thrown aside.

See also: 1 Kings 12:28-30.

1 Kings 14:10-11

The punishment is total. Jeroboam’s male descendants will be cut off, and his house swept away like dung burned as fuel. The family will die unburied, left to dogs and birds. These are images of complete disgrace, and a warning that judgment follows persistent sin.

BSA: cut off (“destroy, eliminate”): The family line itself will be ended, not merely disciplined.

1 Kings 14:12-13

The boy will die as soon as his mother comes home. Yet this is mercy as well as sorrow. He alone will be mourned and buried properly, because God found something good in him. Even in a wicked house, God notices and honors a good heart.

BSA: good (“pleasant, beneficial, righteous”): God saw something real and pleasing in this boy, despite his father’s house.

1 Kings 14:14

God will raise up another king who will end Jeroboam’s family. The phrase “even today” stresses how near the judgment is. It was fulfilled when Baasha struck down Jeroboam’s son Nadab and all his house.

See also: 1 Kings 15:27-29.

1 Kings 14:15-16

The prophecy reaches beyond Jeroboam to the whole nation. Israel will be shaken like a reed in water, uprooted from the good land God gave, and scattered beyond the Euphrates. Their idols are the cause. A leader’s sins can pull a whole people down with him.

BSA: uproot (“tear away, remove completely”): The people, planted in the land by God, will be pulled out like a plant. scatter (“disperse, toss about”): They will lose their place and be thrown far from home.

See also: 2 Kings 17:6-23.

1 Kings 14:17-18

The queen goes home, and as she steps over the threshold the boy dies, exactly as Ahijah said. All Israel mourns him and he is buried. The accurate fulfillment shows that God’s word, though hard, can be trusted in every detail.

BSA: word (“divine message, prophetic utterance”): What God has spoken through his prophet comes to pass exactly.

1 Kings 14:19-20

Jeroboam’s reign is summed up briefly: wars, a rule of twenty-two years, then death. His son Nadab takes the throne. A long reign did not mean God’s approval; the record that matters is the one God keeps.

BSA: rested (“to lie down, sleep”): This is the familiar Old Testament way of describing death, as lying down with one’s ancestors.

1 Kings 14:21

The story turns to Judah. Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, reigns seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city where God chose to put his Name. His mother was an Ammonite, a reminder of the foreign influences that had crept into Solomon’s household.

BSA: Name (“to establish His presence and glory”): God’s Name placed in Jerusalem means he made himself present there in a special way.

See also: 1 Kings 11:1-2.

1 Kings 14:22-24

Judah does evil too, and even more than earlier generations. They build shrines, pillars and Asherah poles on every hill and under every green tree, and even male shrine prostitutes appear. They copied the very nations God had driven out. God’s people drifted into the practices they were meant to reject.

BSA: jealous (“zealous, envious”): God’s anger comes from a faithful love that will not share his people with idols. abominations (“disgusting, detestable practices”): These customs were deeply repugnant to God, not harmless folk habits.

See also: Exodus 20:5.

1 Kings 14:25-26

In Rehoboam’s fifth year, Pharaoh Shishak of Egypt invades and takes the treasures of the temple and palace, including Solomon’s gold shields. The riches built up in Solomon’s day are lost within a few years. Unfaithfulness costs far more than it seems.

BSA: shields (“protective devices, defensive armor”): The gold shields were symbols of royal glory, and they were carried off.

See also: 1 Kings 10:16-17.

1 Kings 14:27-28

Rehoboam replaces the gold shields with bronze ones. The guards carry them in procession when the king visits the temple, then store them again. It looks impressive from a distance, but it is only a copy of former glory, with the real thing gone.

BSA: bronze (“copper, brass”): A cheaper metal stands in for the gold, a sign of a kingdom in decline.

1 Kings 14:29-31

Rehoboam’s reign ends with the record kept in the royal chronicles, constant war with Jeroboam, and burial in the City of David. His son Abijam succeeds him. The two kingdoms stay divided and at odds, as the chapter shows the sad results of turning from God.

BSA: war (“continual, ongoing”): The conflict between the two kingdoms did not end but lasted through both reigns.