Jeroboam’s Son Dies

14 At that time, Jeroboam’s son, Abijah, became very sick. ²Jeroboam said to his wife, “Go to Shiloh. Go see the prophet Ahijah. Ahijah is the man that said that I would become king of Israel. Dress yourself so people won’t know that you are my wife. ³Give the prophet ten loaves of bread, some cakes, and a jar of honey. Then ask him what will happen to our son. The prophet Ahijah will tell you.” ⁴So the king’s wife did what he said. She went to Shiloh. She went to the home of Ahijah the prophet. Ahijah was very old and had become blind. ⁵But the Lord said to him, “Jeroboam’s wife is coming to ask you about her son. He is sick.” The Lord told Ahijah what he should say. Jeroboam’s wife came to Ahijah’s house. She was trying to not let people know who she was. ⁶Ahijah heard her coming to the door. So Ahijah said, “Come in, Jeroboam’s wife. Why are you trying to make people think you are someone else? I have some bad news for you. ⁷Go back and tell Jeroboam that this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says. The Lord says, ‘Jeroboam, I chose you from among all the people of Israel. I made you the ruler of my people. ⁸David’s family was ruling the kingdom of Israel. But I took the kingdom away from them and I gave it to you. But you are not like my servant David. He always obeyed my commands. He followed me with his whole heart. He did only the things that I accepted. ⁹But you have done many great sins. Your sins are much worse than the sins of any person that ruled before you. You have quit following me. You made idols and other gods. This has made me very angry. ¹⁰So, Jeroboam, I will bring troubles to your family. I will kill all of the men in your family. I will destroy your family completely, like fire completely destroys dung. ¹¹Any person from your family that dies in the city will be eaten by dogs. And any person from your family that dies in the fields will be eaten by birds. The Lord has spoken.’” ¹²Then the prophet Ahijah continued talking to Jeroboam’s wife. He said, “Now go home. As soon as you enter your city, your son will die. ¹³All Israel will cry for him and bury him. Your son will be the only person in Jeroboam’s family that will be buried. This is because he is the only one in Jeroboam’s family that pleased the Lord God of Israel. ¹⁴The Lord will put a new king over Israel. That new king will destroy Jeroboam’s family. This will happen very soon. ¹⁵Then the Lord will hit Israel. The people of Israel will be very scared—they will shake like tall grass in the water. The Lord will pull up Israel from this good land. This is the land that he gave their ancestors. He will scatter them on the other side of the Euphrates River. This will happen because the Lord is angry with the people. The people made him angry when they made special poles to worship Asherah.* ¹⁶Jeroboam sinned. And then Jeroboam made the people of Israel sin. So the Lord will let the people of Israel be defeated.” ¹⁷Jeroboam’s wife went back to Tirzah. As soon as she walked into the house, the boy died. ¹⁸All Israel buried him and cried for him. This happened exactly the way the Lord said it would. The Lord used his servant, the prophet Ahijah, to say these things. ¹⁹King Jeroboam did many other things. He fought wars and continued to rule the people. All the things he did are written in the book The History of the Kings of Israel. ²⁰Jeroboam ruled as king for 22 years. Then he died and was buried with his ancestors.* His son Nadab became the new king after him. ²¹At the time that Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, became king of Judah, he was 41 years old. Rehoboam ruled in the city of Jerusalem for 17 years. This is the city in which the Lord chose to be honored. He chose this city from all the other cities of Israel. Rehoboam’s mother was Naamah. She was an Ammonite. ²²The people of Judah also sinned {and did} things that the Lord said were wrong. The people did more things to make the Lord angry at them. These people were worse than their fathers that lived before them. ²³The people built high places, stone memorials, and sacred poles.* They built them on every high hill and under every green tree. ²⁴There were men who served other gods by selling their bodies for sex.* So the people of Judah did many bad things. The people that had lived in the land before them did those same evil things. And God took the land away from those people and gave it to the people of Israel. ²⁵During the fifth year that Rehoboam was king, King Shishak of Egypt fought against Jerusalem. ²⁶Shishak took the treasures from the Lord’s temple and from the king’s palace. He even took the gold shields that David had taken from the officers of Hadadezer, king of Aram. David had taken these shields to Jerusalem. But Shishak took all the gold shields. ²⁷So king Rehoboam made more shields to put in their places. But these shields were made from bronze, {not gold}. He gave the shields to the men who were guarding the palace gates. ²⁸Every time the king went to the Lord’s temple, the guards went with him. They carried the shields. After they were finished, they put the shields back on the wall in the guard room. ²⁹All the things that king Rehoboam did are written in the book The History of the Kings of Judah. ³⁰Rehoboam and Jeroboam were always fighting a war against each other. ³¹Rehoboam died and was buried with his ancestors.* He was buried with his ancestors in the City of David.* (His mother was Naamah. She was an Ammonite.) Rehoboam’s son, Abijah became the next king after him.

Asherah An important Canaanite goddess. At this time, the people thought she was the wife of Baal. died … ancestors Literally, “slept with his ancestors.” high places, stone memorials, sacred poles People used these things to worship false gods. men who served other gods by selling their bodies for sex Sexual sins like this were a part of the way people worshiped the Canaanite gods. died … ancestors Literally, “slept with his ancestors.” City of David The southeast and oldest part of the city of Jerusalem.

Abijah, King of Judah

15 Abijah became the new king of Judah. This was during the 18th year that Jeroboam son of Nebat ruled Israel. ²Abijah ruled in Jerusalem for three years. His mother’s name was Maacah. She was Absalom’s daughter. ³He did all the same sins that his father before him had done. Abijah was not faithful to the Lord his God. In this way, he was not like his grandfather, David. ⁴{The Lord loved David.} So for him, the Lord gave Abijah a kingdom in Jerusalem. And the Lord allowed him to have a son. The Lord also allowed Jerusalem to be safe. He did this for David. ⁵David had always done the right things that the Lord wanted. He had always obeyed the Lord’s commands. The only time David did not obey the Lord was the time David sinned against Uriah the Hittite. ⁶Rehoboam and Jeroboam were always fighting a war against each other.* ⁷Everything else that Abijah did are written in the book The History of the Kings of Judah. There was war between Abijah and Jeroboam during the whole time that Abijah was king. ⁸When Abijah died he was buried in the City of David.* Abijah’s son Asa became the new king after him.

Asa, King of Judah

⁹During Jeroboam’s 20th year as king over Israel, Asa became king of Judah. ¹⁰Asa ruled in Jerusalem for 41 years. His grandmother’s name was Maacah. And Maacah was the daughter of Absalom. ¹¹Asa did the good things that the Lord said are right, like his ancestor* David did. ¹²During that time there were men who served other gods by selling their bodies for sex. Asa forced those men to leave the country. Asa also took away the idols that his ancestors had made. ¹³Asa also removed his grandmother, Maacah, from being queen. Maacah had made one of those terrible images of the goddess Asherah. Asa cut down this terrible image. He burned it in Kidron Valley. ¹⁴Asa did not destroy the high places,* but he was faithful to the Lord all his life. ¹⁵Asa and his father had given some things to God. They gave gifts of gold, silver, and other things. Asa put all those things in the temple. ¹⁶During the time that King Asa was king of Judah, he was always fighting against Baasha, the king of Israel. ¹⁷Baasha fought against Judah. Baasha wanted to stop people from going into or coming out of Asa’s country of Judah. So he made the city of Ramah very strong. ¹⁸So Asa took silver and gold from the treasuries of the Lord’s temple and the king’s palace. He gave the silver and gold to his servants and sent them to Ben Hadad, the king of Aram. Ben Hadad was the son of Tabrimmon. Tabrimmon was the son of Hezion. Damascus was Ben Hadad’s capital city. ¹⁹Asa sent this message, “My father and your father had a peace agreement. Now I want to make a peace agreement with you. I am sending you this gift of gold and silver. Please break your treaty with Baasah the king of Israel so he will get out of my country and leave us alone.” ²⁰King Ben Hadad made that agreement with King Asa and sent his army to fight against the Israelite towns of Ijon, Dan, Abel Beth Maacah, the towns near Lake Galilee, and the area of Naphtali. ²¹Baasha heard about these attacks. So he stopped building Ramah stronger. He left that town and moved back to Tirzah. ²²Then king Asa gave an order to all of the people of Judah. Every person had to help. They went to Ramah and took all the stones and wood that Baasha was using to make that city strong. They carried those things to Geba in the land of Benjamin and to Mizpah. Then King Asa built those two towns much stronger. ²³All the other things about Asa, the great things he did, and the cities he built are written in the book The History of the Kings of Judah. When Asa became old, he had a disease on his feet. ²⁴Asa died and he was buried in the City of David,* his ancestor. Then Jehoshaphat, Asa’s son, became the new king after him.

Nadab, King of Israel

²⁵During Asa’s second year as king of Judah, Nadab, son of Jeroboam, became king of Israel. Nadab ruled over Israel for two years. ²⁶Nadab did bad things against the Lord. He sinned the same way his father Jeroboam had sinned. And Jeroboam also caused the people of Israel to sin. ²⁷Baasha was the son of Ahijah. They were from the family group of Issachar. Baasha made a plan to kill King Nadab. This was during the time that Nadab and all Israel were fighting against the town of Gibbethon. This was a Philistine town. At that place Baasha killed Nadab. ²⁸This happened during the third year that Asa was the king of Judah. And Baasha became the next king of Israel.

Baasha, King of Israel

²⁹At the time Baasha became the new king, he killed everyone in Jeroboam’s family. Baasha left no person in Jeroboam’s family alive. This happened the way the Lord said it would. The Lord spoke through his servant Ahijah from Shiloh. ³⁰This happened because King Jeroboam had done many sins. And Jeroboam had caused the people of Israel to do many sins. Jeroboam made the Lord, the God of Israel, very angry. ³¹The other things that Nadab did are written in the book The History of the Kings of Israel. ³²All during the time that Baasha ruled over Israel, he was fighting wars against Asa, king of Judah. ³³Baasha, son of Ahijah, became king of Israel during the third year that Asa ruled over Judah. Baasha ruled in Tirzah for 24 years. ³⁴But Baasha did the things that the Lord said were wrong. He did the same sins that his father Jeroboam had done. Jeroboam caused the people of Israel to sin.

Verse 6 This verse is not in the ancient Greek translation. City of David The southeast and oldest part of the city of Jerusalem. ancestor Literally, “fathers.” This means a person’s parents, grandparents, and all the people they are descended from. high places Places for worshiping God or false gods. These places were often on the hills and mountains.