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1 Kings

About this book
Chapter 14

1 At that time Jeroboam’s son Abijah became sick.⁠ 2 Jeroboam told his wife, “Disguise yourself so that people cannot recognize you are Jeroboam’s wife. Then go to Shiloh; Ahijah the prophet, who told me I would rule over this nation, lives there. 3 Take 10 loaves of bread, some small cakes, and a container of honey and visit him. He will tell you what will happen to the boy.” 4 Jeroboam’s wife did as she was told. She went to Shiloh and visited Ahijah. Now Ahijah could not see; he had lost his eyesight in his old age. 5 But the Lord had told Ahijah, “Look, Jeroboam’s wife is coming to find out from you what will happen to her son, for he is sick. Tell her such and such. When she comes, she will be in a disguise.” 6 When Ahijah heard the sound of her footsteps as she came through the door, he said, “Come on in, wife of Jeroboam! Why are you pretending to be someone else? I have been commissioned to give you bad news. 7 Go, tell Jeroboam, ‘This is what the Lord God of Israel has said: “I raised you up from among the people and made you ruler over my people Israel. 8 I tore the kingdom away from the Davidic dynasty and gave it to you. But you are not like my servant David, who kept my commandments and followed me wholeheartedly by doing only what I approve. 9 You have sinned more than all who came before you. You went and angered me by making other gods, formed out of metal; you have completely disregarded me.⁠ 10 So I am ready to bring disaster on the dynasty of Jeroboam. I will cut off every last male belonging to Jeroboam in Israel, including even the weak and incapacitated. I will burn up the dynasty of Jeroboam, just as one burns manure until it is completely consumed. 11 Dogs will eat the members of your family who die in the city, and the birds of the sky will eat the ones who die in the country.”’⁠ Indeed, the Lord has announced it! 12 “As for you, get up and go home. When you set foot in the city, the boy will die. 13 All Israel will mourn him and bury him. He is the only one in Jeroboam’s family who will receive a decent burial, for he is the only one in whom the Lord God of Israel found anything good. 14 The Lord will raise up a king over Israel who will cut off Jeroboam’s dynasty. It is ready to happen! 15 The Lord will attack Israel, making it like a reed that sways in the water. He will remove Israel from this good land he gave to their ancestors and scatter them beyond the Euphrates River, because they angered the Lord by making Asherah poles. 16 He will hand Israel over to their enemies because of the sins which Jeroboam committed⁠ and which he made Israel commit.” 17 So Jeroboam’s wife got up and went back to Tirzah. As she crossed the threshold of the house, the boy died. 18 All Israel buried him and mourned for him, in keeping with the Lord’s message that he had spoken through his servant, the prophet Ahijah. 19 The rest of the events of Jeroboam’s reign, including the details of his battles and rule, are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Israel.⁠ 20 Jeroboam ruled for 22 years; then he passed away. His son Nadab replaced him as king.⁠ 21 Now Rehoboam son of Solomon ruled in Judah. He was forty-one years old when he became king, and he ruled for 17 years in Jerusalem, the city the Lord chose from all the tribes of Israel to be his home. His mother was an Ammonite woman named Naamah. 22 Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord. They made him more jealous by their sins than their ancestors had done. 23 They even built for themselves high places, sacred pillars, and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree.⁠ 24 There were also male cultic prostitutes in the land. They committed the same horrible sins as the nations that the Lord had driven out from before the Israelites. 25 In King Rehoboam’s fifth year, King Shishak of Egypt attacked Jerusalem. 26 He took away the treasures of the Lord’s temple and of the royal palace; he took everything, including all the golden shields that Solomon had made. 27 King Rehoboam made bronze shields to replace them and assigned them to the officers of the royal guard who protected the entrance to the royal palace. 28 Whenever the king visited the Lord’s temple, the royal guard carried them and then brought them back to the guardroom. 29 The rest of the events of Rehoboam’s reign, including his accomplishments, are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Judah.⁠ 30 Rehoboam and Jeroboam were continually at war with each other. 31 Rehoboam passed away and was buried with his ancestors in the City of David. His mother was an Ammonite named Naamah. His son Abijah replaced him as king.

Texts in conversation

Compare Deuteronomy 5:8 and 1 Kings 14:9

Hebrew Bible

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Summary

1 Kings 14 echoes Deuteronomy 5 by condemning the making and worship of idols, recalling the command not to serve images of anything in creation. This language critiques Jeroboam’s making of golden calves, describing him as violating the covenant.

Passages

Deuteronomy 5:8

Hebrew Bible
6 “I am the Lord your God—he who brought you from the land of Egypt, from the place of slavery. 7 “You must not have any other gods besides me. 8 “You must not make for yourself an image of anything in heaven above, on earth below, or in the waters beneath. 9 You must not worship or serve them, for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God. I punish the sons, grandsons, and great-grandsons for the sin of the fathers who reject me, 10 but I show covenant faithfulness to the thousands who choose me and keep my commandments.
750–400 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Deuteronomy

1 Kings 14:9

Hebrew Bible
7 Go, tell Jeroboam, ‘This is what the Lord God of Israel has said: “I raised you up from among the people and made you ruler over my people Israel. 8 I tore the kingdom away from the Davidic dynasty and gave it to you. But you are not like my servant David, who kept my commandments and followed me wholeheartedly by doing only what I approve. 9 You have sinned more than all who came before you. You went and angered me by making other gods, formed out of metal; you have completely disregarded me. 10 So I am ready to bring disaster on the dynasty of Jeroboam. I will cut off every last male belonging to Jeroboam in Israel, including even the weak and incapacitated. I will burn up the dynasty of Jeroboam, just as one burns manure until it is completely consumed.
600–501 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in 1 Kings

References

"... Albeit briefly, mention should be made of Jeroboam’s erecting a golden calf at both Dan and Bethel to keep his people from worshiping in Jerusalem and eventually returning to the house of David (1 Kings 12:26-29). There is no evidence that Jeroboam wanted to substitute another god for Yahweh (he used virtually the same formula in introducing the golden calves as had Aaron: Exodus 32:4; 1 Kings 12:28). However, the presence of the two golden calves promoted religious syncretism (compare 1 Kings 14:9; 2 Chronicles 11:15), and his statement, “this is your god who led you out of Egypt” (as in Exodus 32:4), was open to being understood as referring not only to Yahweh but also to Canaanite gods. Such an understanding is supported by the strong condemnation of Jeroboam’s sin, both in his lifetime (1 Kings 14:9) and after his death (e.g., 1 Kings 15:30, 34; 16:2-3, 7,19, 26, 31; 2 Kings 17:15-16; Hosea 8:5-6), as well as by the fact that such calves were worshiped as a deity (compare Hosea 13:2 and 1 Kings 19:18). Still, the archaeological evidence for calf worship in the northern kingdom is sparse compared to the evidence from earlier (including pre-Israelite) periods ..."
T. Desmond Alexander and David W. Baker, Dictionary of the Old Testament: Pentateuch (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 2003), 370.

References are not endorsements of their contents. Read each reference in full to understand its author's intentions in using these texts.

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Deuteronomy 5:8 and 1 Kings 14:9

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