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Jeroboam's Son Dies

14 About the same time, Abijah son of Jeroboam got sick. 2-3 Jeroboam told his wife:

Disguise yourself so no one will know you're my wife, then go to Shiloh, where the prophet Ahijah lives. Take him ten loaves of bread, some small cakes, and honey, and ask him what will happen to our son. He can tell you, because he's the one who told me I would become king.

She got ready and left for Ahijah's house in Shiloh.

Ahijah was now old and blind, but the Lord told him, “Jeroboam's wife is coming to ask about her son. I will tell you what to say to her.”

Jeroboam's wife came to Ahijah's house, pretending to be someone else. But when Ahijah heard her walking up to the door, he said:

Come in! I know you're Jeroboam's wife—why are you pretending to be someone else? I have some bad news for you. Give your husband this message from the Lord God of Israel: “Jeroboam, you know that I, the Lord, chose you over anyone else to be the leader of my people Israel. I even took David's kingdom away from his family and gave it to you. But you are not like my servant David. He always obeyed me and did what was right.

“You have made me very angry by rejecting me and making idols out of gold. Jeroboam, you have done more evil things than any king before you.

10 (A) “Because of this, I will destroy your family by killing every man and boy in it, whether slave or free. I will wipe out your family, just as fire burns up trash. 11 Dogs will eat the bodies of your relatives who die in town, and vultures will eat the bodies of those who die in the country. I, the Lord, have spoken and will not change my mind!”

12 That's the Lord's message to your husband. As for you, go back home, and right after you get there, your son will die. 13 Everyone in Israel will mourn at his funeral. But he will be the last one from Jeroboam's family to receive a proper burial, because he's the only one the Lord God of Israel is pleased with.

14 The Lord will soon choose a new king of Israel, who will destroy Jeroboam's family. And I mean very soon.[a] 15 The people of Israel have made the Lord angry by setting up sacred poles[b] for worshiping the goddess Asherah. So the Lord will punish them until they shake like grass in a stream. He will take them out of the land he gave to their ancestors, then scatter them as far away as the Euphrates River. 16 Jeroboam sinned and caused the Israelites to sin. Now the Lord will desert Israel.

17 Jeroboam's wife left and went back home to the town of Tirzah. As soon as she set foot in her house, her son died. 18 Everyone in Israel came and mourned at his funeral, just as the Lord's servant Ahijah had said.

Jeroboam Dies

19 Everything else Jeroboam did while he was king, including the battles he won, is written in The History of the Kings of Israel. 20 He was king of Israel for 22 years, then he died, and his son Nadab became king.

King Rehoboam of Judah

(2 Chronicles 11.5—12.16)

21 Rehoboam son of Solomon was 41 years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled 17 years from Jerusalem, the city where the Lord had chosen to be worshiped. His mother Naamah was from Ammon.

22 The people of Judah disobeyed the Lord and made him even angrier than their ancestors had. 23 (B) They also built their own local shrines[c] and stone images of foreign gods, and they set up sacred poles[d] for worshiping the goddess Asherah on every hill and in the shade of large trees. 24 (C) Even worse, they allowed prostitutes[e] at the shrines, and followed the disgusting customs of the foreign nations that the Lord had forced out of Canaan.

25 (D) After Rehoboam had been king for four years, King Shishak of Egypt attacked Jerusalem. 26 (E) He took everything of value from the temple and the palace, including Solomon's gold shields.

27 Rehoboam had bronze shields made to replace the gold ones, and he ordered the guards at the city gates to keep them safe. 28 Whenever Rehoboam went to the Lord's temple, the guards carried the shields. But they always took them back to the guardroom as soon as he was finished.

29 Everything else Rehoboam did while he was king is written in The History of the Kings of Judah. 30 He and Jeroboam were constantly at war. 31 Rehoboam's mother Naamah was from Ammon, but when Rehoboam died, he was buried beside his ancestors in Jerusalem.[f] His son Abijam then became king.

King Abijam of Judah

(2 Chronicles 13.1-22)

15 Abijam became king of Judah in Jeroboam's eighteenth year as king of Israel, and he ruled from Jerusalem for three years. His mother was Maacah the daughter of Abishalom.

Abijam did not truly obey the Lord his God as his ancestor David had done. Instead, he was sinful just like his father Rehoboam. 4-5 (F) David had always obeyed the Lord's commands by doing right, except in the case of Uriah.[g] And since Abijam was David's great-grandson, the Lord kept Jerusalem safe and let Abijam have a son who would be the next king.

6-7 (G) The war that had broken out between Rehoboam and Jeroboam continued during the time that Abijam was king.

Everything else Abijam did while he was king is written in The History of the Kings of Judah. Abijam died and was buried in Jerusalem,[h] and his son Asa became king.

King Asa of Judah

(2 Chronicles 15.16—16.6,11-13)

Asa became king of Judah in the twentieth year of Jeroboam's rule in Israel, 10 and he ruled 41 years from Jerusalem. His grandmother was Maacah the daughter of Abishalom.

11 Asa obeyed the Lord, as David had done. 12 (H) He forced the prostitutes[i] at the shrines to leave the country, and he got rid of the idols his ancestors had made. 13 His own grandmother Maacah had made an idol of Asherah, and Asa took it and burned it in Kidron Valley. Then he removed Maacah from her position as queen mother.[j]

14 As long as Asa lived, he was completely faithful to the Lord, even though he did not destroy the local shrines. 15 He placed in the temple all the silver and gold objects that he and his father had dedicated to the Lord.

16 Asa was always at war with King Baasha of Israel. 17 One time, Baasha invaded Judah and captured the town of Ramah. He started making the town stronger, so he could put troops there to stop people from going in and out of Judah.

18 When Asa heard about this, he took the silver and gold from his palace and from the Lord's temple. He gave it to some of his officials and sent them to Damascus with this message for King Benhadad[k] of Syria: 19 “Our fathers signed a peace treaty. Why don't we do the same thing? This silver and gold is a present for you. So, would you please break your treaty with Baasha and force him to leave my country?”

20 Benhadad did what Asa asked and sent the Syrian army into Israel. They captured the towns of Ijon, Dan, and Abel-Bethmaacah, and the territories of Chinneroth and Naphtali. 21 When Baasha heard about it, he left Ramah and went back to Tirzah.

22 Asa ordered everyone in Judah to carry away the stones and wood Baasha had used to strengthen the town of Ramah. Then he used these same stones and wood to fortify the town of Geba in the territory of Benjamin and the town of Mizpah.

23 Everything else Asa did while he was king, including his victories and the towns he rebuilt, is written in The History of the Kings of Judah. When he got older, he had a foot disease. 24 Asa died and was buried in the tomb of his ancestors in Jerusalem.[l] His son Jehoshaphat then became king.

King Nadab of Israel

25 Nadab son of Jeroboam became king of Israel in Asa's second year as king of Judah, and he ruled two years. 26 Nadab disobeyed the Lord by following the evil example of his father, who had caused the Israelites to sin.

27-28 Baasha son of Ahijah was from the tribe of Issachar, and he made plans to kill Nadab. When Nadab and his army went to attack the town of Gibbethon in Philistia, Baasha killed Nadab there. So in the third year of Asa's rule, Baasha became king of Israel.

29 (I) The Lord's prophet Ahijah had earlier said, “Not one man or boy in Jeroboam's family will be left alive.” And, as soon as Baasha became king, he killed everyone in Jeroboam's family, 30 because Jeroboam had made the Lord God of Israel angry by sinning and causing the Israelites to sin.

31 Everything else Nadab did while he was king is written in The History of the Kings of Israel.

32 King Asa of Judah and King Baasha of Israel were always at war.

King Baasha of Israel

33 Baasha son of Ahijah became king of Israel in Asa's third year as king of Judah, and he ruled 24 years from Tirzah. 34 Baasha also disobeyed the Lord by acting like Jeroboam, who had caused the Israelites to sin.

Footnotes

  1. 14.14 And I mean very soon: One possible meaning for the difficult Hebrew text.
  2. 14.15 sacred poles: Or “trees,” used as symbols of Asherah, the goddess of fertility.
  3. 14.23 local shrines: See the note at 3.2.
  4. 14.23 sacred poles: See the note at 14.15.
  5. 14.24 prostitutes: Men and women sometimes served at the local shrines as prostitutes in the worship of Canaanite gods, but the Lord had forbidden the people of Israel to worship in this way (see Deuteronomy 23.17,18).
  6. 14.31 Jerusalem: See the note at 2.10,11.
  7. 15.4,5 Uriah: A Hittite who served in David's army; David had him killed so he could marry his wife Bathsheba (see 2 Samuel 11.1-27).
  8. 15.8 Jerusalem: See the note at 2.10,11.
  9. 15.12 prostitutes: See the note at 14.24.
  10. 15.13 queen mother: Or “the mother of the king,” an important position in biblical times (see 2.19).
  11. 15.18 Benhadad: Hebrew “Benhadad son of Tabrimmon son of Hezion.”
  12. 15.24 Jerusalem: Hebrew “the city of David his ancestor.”

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