1Abijah, Jeroboam's son, being sick, Jeroboam sendeth his wife in disguise with presents to enquire of Ahijah the prophet. 5Ahijah, forewarned by God of her coming, denounceth God's judgments against Jeroboam's house. 17Abijah dieth, and is buried. 19Jeroboam dieth, and is succeeded by Nadab. 21Rehoboam's wicked reign. 25Shishak king of Egypt carrieth away much treasure from Jerusalem. 29Rehoboam dieth, and is succeeded by Abijam.
1AT 1that time Abijah the son of Jeroboam fell sick.
1 Namely, when Jeroboam went on in the way of his abominable idolatry mentioned at the end of the previous chapter.
2And Jeroboam said to his wife, Arise, I pray thee, and 2disguise thyself, that thou be not known to be the wife of Jeroboam; and get thee to 3Shiloh: behold, there is Ahijah the prophet, whicha told me that I should be king over this people.
2 Hebr. alter yourself; namely, in your apparel, ornaments, train, words, behavior, and gestures.
3 A city situated in the tribe of Ephraim, where the tent of the congregation and the ark of God were a long time, and where the prophet Ahijah was born and lived. See Joshua 18:1; Judges 21:21; 1 Sam. 1:3; 1 Kings 11:29.
a 1 Kings 11:31.
3And 4take with thee ten loaves, and 5cracknels, and a 6cruseb of honey, and go to him: he shall tell thee 7what shall become of the child.
4 Namely, for a present for the prophet, which in those times was used by many, not to reward the service of the prophets, but to honor and grace their persons. See Judges 13:17; 1 Sam. 9:7, 8; 2 Kings 5:15; 8:8.
5 Hebr. pricked cakes, in which certain pricks, tokens, marks were made or imprinted for ornament’s sake. Other, cakes, or, biscuit.
6 Or, bottle.
b small jar
7 That is, whether he shall recover, or shall die.
4And Jeroboam's wife did so, and arose, and went to Shiloh, and came to the house of Ahijah. But Ahijah could not see; for his eyes were 8set by reason of his age.
8 Hebr. stood through, or, from his grayness; that is, his sight was grown thick and stiff, and consequently dark, by reason of his great age, which is usually accompanied with gray hairs.
5¶And the LORD said unto Ahijah, Behold, the wife of Jeroboam cometh 9to ask a thing of thee for her son; for he is sick: 10thus and thus shalt thou say unto her: for it shall be, when she cometh in, that she shall 11feign herself to be another woman.
9 Namely, what shall become of her son’s sickness.
10 Hebr. after this and after this thou shalt speak unto her. Understand hereby what the prophet was charged to announce, and is related hereafter, verse 7, etc.
11 See on verse 2.
6And it was so, when Ahijah heard the sound of her feet, as she came in at the door, that he said, Come in, thou wife of Jeroboam; 12why feignest thou thyself to be another? for I am 13sent to thee with 14heavy tidings.
12 Or, to what end is this, that thou behavest thyself strange?
13 Namely, by the Lord.
14 Which after the account of God’s mercies shown to Jeroboam, setting before him his abominable sins, with a prediction of the righteous and fearful judgments of God, that would follow thereupon. Or, for some hard thing.
7Go, tell Jeroboam, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Forasmuchc as I exalted thee from among the people, and made thee 15prince over my people Israel,
c 1 Kings 12:15.
15 Compare 1 Kings 1:35; 16:2; 2 Kings 20:5; 2 Chron. 6:5, where the Hebrew word is likewise so translated.
8And rent the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it thee: and yet thou hast not been as my servant David, who kept my commandments, and who followed me 16with all his heart, to do that only which was right in mine eyes;
16 See 1 Kings 2 on verse 4.
9But hast done evil above all that were before thee: for thou hast gone and made thee other gods, and molten images, to provoke me to anger, and hast cast me 17behind thy back:
17 That is, disdainfully despised, and disloyally forsaken. The Lord speaks also thus, Neh. 9:26; Ezek. 23:35.
10Therefore, behold,d I will bring 18evil upon the 19house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam him 20thate pisseth against the wall, and him 21that is shut up and left in Israel, and will take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam, as a man taketh away dung, till it be all gone.
d 1 Kings 15:29.
18 That is, mishap, punishment, vengeance. See Gen. 19 on verse 19.
19 That is, family. Also in the sequel; likewise 2 Sam. 3:10; 9:3; 1 Kings 16:3.
20 Understand hereby a total and utter destruction, wherein none is spared, even not as much as a dog; also 1 Sam. 25:22, 34; 1 Kings 16:11; 21:21; 2 Kings 9:8.
e 1 Sam. 25:22, 34; 1 Kings 16:11; 21:21; 2 Kings 9:8.
21 See the explanation of this phrase, Deut. 32 on verse 36.
1122Him that dieth of Jeroboam in the city shall the dogs eat; and him that dieth in the field shall the fowls of the air eat: for the LORD hath spoken it.
22 A phrase signifying an unhappy death, with the loss of the grave. See the same also 1 Kings 16:4; 21:24.
12Arise thou therefore, get thee to thine own house: and when thy feet 23enter into the city, the child shall die.
23 Namely, upon the threshold of your house; as appears by the fulfillment thereof, verse 17.
13And 24all Israel shall 25mourn for him, and bury him: 26for he only of Jeroboam shall come to the grave, because in him there is found 27some good thing toward the LORD God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam.
24 Namely, the good (ones) in Israel, because of the good hope they had received of this young lad; the bad (ones) to please the father.
25 Of the mourning and lamenting of the godly (ones) for the dead, see Gen. 23 on verse 2.
26 The burial is also a mercy of God, because it is the last civil honor done to the dead in this life, and a spiritual instruction to the living of the life to come, by the renewing of the hope of the resurrection from the dead. See Gen. 23 on verse 4.
27 That is, some beginnings of the fear of God, and true piety, not by nature, but wrought in him by the Spirit of God, John 1:13; 3:6.
14Moreover thef LORD shall raise him up 28a king over Israel, who shall cut off the house of Jeroboam 29that day: 30but what? 31even now.
f 1 Kings 15:28, 29.
28 Namely, Baasha, of whom see 1 Kings 15:27.
29 Namely, when he shall take possession of the kingdom.
30 That is, what shall now further happen? Others, but what? namely, do I say that God shall raise up one in time to come? He hath even now, that is, He hath already raised Himself up one, in order that He might begin to execute this threatened judgment
31 See the previous annotation.
15For the LORD shallg smite Israel, as a reed is 32shaken in the water, and he shall root up Israel out of this good land, which he gave to their fathers, and shall scatter them beyond the 33river, because they have made their 34groves, provoking the LORD to anger.
g 2 Kings 17:18.
32 Namely, hither and thither by all manner of winds, so would Israel be disquieted and troubled by dissensions within, and wars without.
33 Namely, Euphrates. See Gen. 31 on verse 21. He foretells the deportation of the Israelites into Assyria, Mesopotamia, and Media; of the accomplishment whereof (which happened about 240 years after this time) we may read 2 Kings 17:6.
34 See of these groves Exod. 34 on verse 13; Deut. 7 on verse 5. Under one kind of idolatry God understands all others; yea, all false worships. Other, grove-gods, grove-images; also verse 23.
16And he shall 35give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, 36who did sin, and who 37made Israel to sin.
35 Namely, into the hands of their enemies.
36 Or, wherewith he sinned, and wherewith he made Israel to sin; or, which he sinned, and which he made Israel to sin. Understand the sin of idolatry, of which see 1 Kings 12:28, 29, etc.; 13:33, 34.
37 Namely, by erecting abominable idol-worship, and commanding his subjects to practice idolatry, and obstinately forcing them thereunto by his own example.
17¶And Jeroboam's wife arose, and departed, and came to 38Tirzah: and when she came to the threshold of the door, 39the child died;
38 A city situated in the tribe of Manasseh, where was the court of the kings of Israel, before they dwelt in Samaria. It was very fair and pleasant, so that the spouse of Christ is compared unto it, Cant. 6:4. See of this city, Joshua 12:24; 1 Kings 16:8.
39 As was foretold by the prophet Ahijah, verse 12.
18And they buried him; and all Israel mourned for him, according to the word of the LORD, 40which he spake by the 41hand of his servant Ahijah the prophet.
40 Verse 13.
41 Or, by the service. See Lev. 8 on verse 36.
19And the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, how he warred, and how he reigned, behold, they are written 42in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel.
42 Hebr. in the book of the words or acts of the days of the kings of Israel; also verse 29 of the kings of Judah. By this book is not to be understood the two books of Chronicles or Paralipomenon, contained in the Scriptures of the Old Testament, and (as is perceived) have first been written by Ezra, who lived a long time after those times, and have been bequeathed, also do not have everything which is stated in those first chronicles of the kings of Israel or of Judah, but thereby is to be understood certain writings containing the histories of the government of the kings of both kingdoms, which, without prejudice or detriment of the doctrine of salvation, are not available anymore, and out of which the books of Chronicles left us in Holy Scripture, were (as some perceive) compiled by Ezra through the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. Compare the annotation at 1 Kings 11 on verse 41.
20And the days which Jeroboam reigned were two and twenty years: and he slept with his fathers, and Nadab his son reigned in his stead.
21¶And Rehoboamh the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty and one years 43old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the LORD did choose out of all the tribes of Israel, 44to put his name there. 45And his mother's name was Naamah an 46Ammonitess.
h 2 Chron. 12:13.
43 Hebr. a son of one and forty years.
44 See 1 Kings 8 on verse 29.
45 Also verse 31.
46 Among other pagan women, who seduced Solomon from the Lord, are also named the women of the Ammonites, 1 Kings 11:1, 2, etc., of which, without a doubt, this was one of the most important one, who not only enraptured her husband to idolatry, but also her son Rehoboam, after he had served the Lord three years, 2 Chron. 11:17.
22And Judah 47did evil in the sight of the LORD, and they provoked him to 48jealousy with their sins which they had committed, above all that their fathers had done.
47 Namely, after Rehoboam had reigned three years. See 2 Chron. 11:17; 2 Chron. 12 on verse 1.
48 See Deut. 4 on verse 24.
23For they 49also built them high places, and images, and 50groves, on every 51high hill, and under every green tree.
49 That is, not only the blinded heathen and the back-sliding Israelites, but also these Jews themselves, with whom God had preserved the light of the truth, and the purity of worship.
50 See Deut. 12 on verse 3.
51 See Deut. 12 on verse 2.
24And there were also 52sodomites in the land: and they did according to 53all the abominations of the nations which the LORD cast out before the children of Israel.
52 See Deut. 23 on verse 17.
53 See some kinds of these abominations described, Deut. 18:9, 10, 11, 12; 2 Chron. 33:2, 3, 4, etc.; Rom. 1:25, 26, etc.
25¶And it came to pass in the fifth year of king Rehoboam, thati54Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem:
i 2 Chron. 12:2.
54 See of this man also 1 Kings 11:40; 2 Chron. 12:2.
26And he took away the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king’s house; 55he even took away all: and hej took away all the shields of gold which Solomon had made.
55 Namely, all the gold and silver, and what was of any special value, that he could come at, and was not hid from his sight. Compare 1 Kings 15:18.
j 1 Kings 10:16, 17; 2 Chron. 9:15.
27And king Rehoboam made in their stead brasen shields, and committed them unto the hands of the chief of the 56guard, which kept the door of the king's house.
56 Hebr. runners. Understand pages, lackeys, or lifeguards, which great lords and princes are wont to have about them, being at home, or abroad, 1 Sam. 22:17; 2 Kings 11:19, so called, because they run on the way before and about their lords, 2 Sam. 15:1; 1 Kings 1:5.
28And it was so, when the king went into the house of the LORD, that the guard bare 57them, and brought them back into the 58guard chamber.
57 Namely, the shields. These the guards carried, when they conducted the king to the house of the Lord.
58 Understand some appointed place, where the guards usually kept close together.
29¶Now the rest of the acts of Rehoboam, and all that he did, are they not written 59in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
59 See on verse 19.
30And there was 60war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all 61their days.
60 Understand this of defensive war, which Rehoboam waged to defend his own kingdom; and not of offensive, to take the kingdom of Israel; for this was forbidden him by the prophet Shemaiah, 1 Kings 12:22.
61 This insertion is in the like case expressed by the Holy Ghost in 1 Kings 15:16, 32.
31And Rehoboam slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the 62city of David. 63And his mother's name was Naamah an Ammonitess. And 64Abijam his son reigned in his stead.
62 See 1 Kings 2 on verse 10.
63 Also verse 21.
64 Otherwise called Abijah, 2 Chron. 12:16; 13:1.