1 Kings 14-15

New Life Version

The Death of Jeroboam’s Son Abijah

14 At that time Jeroboam’s son Abijah became sick. ² And Jeroboam said to his wife, “Get ready and dress yourself so no one will know that you are the wife of Jeroboam. Then go to Shiloh. Ahijah the man who speaks for God is there. He is the one who said that I would be king over these people. ³ Take ten loaves, some sweet bread and a jar of honey with you, and go to him. He will tell you what will happen to the boy.” ⁴ Jeroboam’s wife did so. She got ready and went to Shiloh, and came to Ahijah’s house. Now Ahijah could not see. His eyes were weak because he was old. ⁵ The Lord had said to Ahijah, “The wife of Jeroboam is coming to ask you about her son, for he is sick. This is what you should say to her. When she comes she will pretend to be another woman.”

⁶ When Ahijah heard the sound of her feet coming to the door, he said, “Come in, wife of Jeroboam. Why do you pretend to be another woman? For I have been given news that will be hard for you. ⁷ Go and say to Jeroboam, ‘This is what the Lord God of Israel says. “I gave you honor from among the people. I made you the leader of My people Israel. ⁸ I tore the nation away from the family of David and gave it to you. But you have not been like My servant David. He kept My Laws and followed Me with all his heart. He did only what was right in My eyes. ⁹ But you have done more sinful things than all who were before you. You have gone and made for yourself other gods and objects to look like gods to make Me angry. You have put Me behind your back. ¹⁰ So I am bringing trouble upon the family of Jeroboam. I will kill every male from Jeroboam, both owned and free in Israel. I will clean away the family of Jeroboam, as one cleans away animal waste until it is all gone. ¹¹ The dogs will eat anyone belonging to Jeroboam who dies in the city. And the birds of the air will eat anyone who dies in the field. For the Lord has said it.” ‘ ¹² “Get up and go to your house. When your feet go into the city the child will die. ¹³ All Israel will have sorrow for him and bury him. For he alone of Jeroboam’s family will come to the grave. Because in him there is found something good to the Lord God of Israel, in the family of Jeroboam. ¹⁴ But the Lord will send a king over Israel who will destroy the family of Jeroboam this day and from now on. ¹⁵ For the Lord will punish Israel, as a piece of grass is shaken in the water. He will send Israel out from this good land He gave to their fathers. He will spread them out on the other side of the Euphrates River, because they have their false gods, and have made the Lord angry. ¹⁶ He will give up Israel because of the sins of Jeroboam, which he sinned and made Israel to sin.”

¹⁷ Then Jeroboam’s wife got up and left and came to Tirzah. As she came to the door of the house, the child died. ¹⁸ And all Israel buried him and had sorrow for him, as the Word of God was spoken through His servant Ahijah the man who spoke for God.

The Death of Jeroboam

¹⁹ Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, how he made war and how he ruled, are written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel. ²⁰ Jeroboam ruled for twenty-two years. Then he died and his son Nadab ruled in his place.

Rehoboam Rules Judah

²¹ Now Solomon’s son Rehoboam ruled in Judah. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king. And he ruled for seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city the Lord had chosen from all the families of Israel to put His name there. The name of Rehoboam’s mother was Naamah of Ammon. ²² Judah did what was sinful in the eyes of the Lord. They made Him jealous with their sins, more than all their fathers had done. ²³ For they built for themselves high places, holy objects and false gods on every high hill and under every green tree. ²⁴ In their religion there were men in the land who sold the use of their bodies. They did all the hated things of the nations which the Lord drove away before the people of Israel.

²⁵ In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak the king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem. ²⁶ He took away the riches of the Lord’s house and the riches of the king’s house. He took everything. He even took all the body coverings of gold which Solomon had made. ²⁷ So King Rehoboam made body coverings of brass in their place. He put them in the care of the captain of the soldiers who watched the door of the king’s house. ²⁸ Every time the king went into the house of the Lord, the soldiers would carry them and return them again to their room.

²⁹ Now the rest of the acts of Rehoboam and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? ³⁰ There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam always. ³¹ Rehoboam died and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. His mother’s name was Naamah of Ammon. And his son Abijam became king in his place.

Abijam Rules Judah

15 In the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam the son of Nabat, Abijam became king over Judah. ² He ruled for three years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Maacah the daughter of Abishalom. ³ And he walked in all the sins which his father had done before him. He was not faithful to the Lord with all his heart, like the heart of his father David. ⁴ But the Lord his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem because of David. He gave him a son to rule after him and to keep Jerusalem strong. ⁵ Because David did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. He did not turn away from anything the Lord told him to do all the days of his life, except in what happened with Uriah the Hittite. ⁶ And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days of his life.

⁷ Now the rest of the acts of Abijam and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? And there was war between Abijam and Jeroboam. ⁸ Abijam died and they buried him in the city of David. His son Asa became king in his place.

Asa Rules Judah

⁹ In the twentieth year of Jeroboam the king of Israel, Asa began to rule as king of Judah. ¹⁰ He ruled for forty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Maacah the daughter of Abishalom. ¹¹ And Asa did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, like David his father. ¹² He sent away the men from the land who sold the use of their bodies in their religion. He took away all the false gods his father had made. ¹³ He stopped his mother Maacah from being queen mother, because she had made a hated object of the false goddess Asherah. And Asa cut down her hated object and burned it at the river Kidron. ¹⁴ The high places were not taken away. But Asa was faithful to the Lord with all his heart for all his days. ¹⁵ He brought into the house of the Lord the holy things of his father and his own holy things, silver, gold, and holy objects.

¹⁶ There was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their days. ¹⁷ Baasha king of Israel went up against Judah. He built walls around Ramah to stop anyone from going out or coming in to Asa king of Judah. ¹⁸ Then Asa took all the silver and the gold which were left in the storerooms of the Lord’s house and the king’s house, and gave them to his servants. King Asa sent them to Ben-hadad the son of Tabrimmon, the son of Hezion, king of Syria, who lived in Damascus. Asa said, ¹⁹ “Let there be an agreement of peace between me and you, as between my father and your father. See, I have sent you a gift of silver and gold. Go and break your agreement of peace with Baasha king of Israel, so that he will leave me.” ²⁰ Ben-hadad listened to King Asa and sent the captains of his armies against the cities of Israel. He destroyed Ijon, Dan, Abel-bethmaacah, all Chinneroth, and all the land of Naphtali. ²¹ When Baasha heard about it, he stopped building a wall around Ramah, and stayed in Tirzah. ²² Then King Asa made the news known to all Judah. There was no one who did not hear it. They carried away the stones of Ramah and its pieces of wood with which Baasha had built. And King Asa used them to build Geba of Benjamin and Mizpah.

²³ Now the rest of all the acts of Asa and all his strength and all he did and the cities he built, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? But when he was old he had a disease in his feet. ²⁴ Asa died and was buried with his fathers in the city of his father David. His son Jehoshaphat ruled in his place.

Nadab Rules Israel

²⁵ Jeroboam’s son Nadab became king of Israel in the second year of Asa king of Judah. And he ruled over Israel for two years. ²⁶ He did what was sinful in the eyes of the Lord. He walked in the way of his father, and in his sin with which he made Israel sin. ²⁷ Then Baasha the son of Ahijah of the family of Issachar made plans against him. Baasha killed him at Gibbethon, which belonged to the Philistines. Nadab and all Israel had been gathering their army in battle around Gibbethon. ²⁸ So Baasha killed him in the third year of Asa king of Judah, and ruled in his place. ²⁹ As soon as he was king, Baasha killed all those of the family of Jeroboam. He did not leave to Jeroboam any person alive, destroying them all. It happened just as the word of the Lord was spoken through God’s servant Ahijah the Shilonite. ³⁰ It happened because of the sins of Jeroboam, which he sinned and which he made Israel sin. He made the Lord God of Israel angry.

³¹ Now the rest of the acts of Nadab and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel? ³² And there was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel all their days.

Baasha Rules Israel

³³ In the third year of Asa king of Judah, Baasha the son of Ahijah became king of all Israel at Tirzah. He ruled for twenty-four years. ³⁴ He did what was sinful in the eyes of the Lord. He walked in the way of Jeroboam and in his sin which he made Israel sin.