Matthew Henry

and the prophet cried out to the man of God who had come from Judah, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Because you have defied the word of the LORD…

“It was, in one word, disobedience to an express command. Judgment is given upon it: Thy carcase shall not come to the sepulchre of thy fathers, that is, "Thou shalt never reach thy own house, but shalt be a carcase quickly, nor shall thy dead…”

And after the man of God had finished eating and drinking, the old prophet who had brought him back saddled the donkey for him.

“Had he never read that man lives not by bread alone? That his death was for the glory of God; for by this it appeared, (1.)”

So the old prophet lifted up the body of the man of God, laid it on the donkey, and brought it back to his own city to mourn for him…

“If there by any truth in the vulgar opinion, surely the corpse bled afresh when he touched it, for he was in effect the murderer, and it was but a poor reparation for the injury to inter the dead body.”

After he had buried him, the prophet said to his sons, “When I die, you must bury me in the tomb where the man of God is buried.

“"Gather not my soul with the sinners of Beth-el, but with the man of God." The reason he gives is because what he cried against the altar of Beth-el, that men's bones should be burnt upon it, shall surely come to pass,”

for the message that he cried out by the word of the LORD against the altar in Bethel and against all the shrines on the high places in the cities…

“He consults his own interest. It was foretold that men's bones should be burnt upon Jeroboam's altar: "Lay mine (says he) close to his, and then they will not be disturbed;" and it was, accordingly, their security, as we find, 2 Kings xxiii.”

And this was the sin of the house of Jeroboam that led to its extermination and destruction from the face of the earth.

“Note, The diminution, disquiet, and desolation of families, are the fruit of sin; he promised himself that the calves would secure the crown to his family, but it proved they lost it, and sunk his family.”

At that time Abijah son of Jeroboam became ill,

“It is probable that he was his eldest son, and heir-apparent to the crown; for at his death all the kingdom went into mourning for him, ch. xiii.”

and Jeroboam said to his wife, “Now get up, disguise yourself so they will not recognize you as my wife, and go to Shiloh.

“The withering of this branch of the family would, perhaps, be as sore an affliction to him as the withering of that branch of his body, ch. xiii. Such is the force of natural affection; our children are ourselves but once removed.”

You have done more evil than all who came before you. You have proceeded to make for yourself other gods and molten images to provoke Me, and you have flung…

“Saul, that was rejected, never worshipped idols; Solomon did it but occasionally, in his dotage, and never made Israel to sin.”

Because of all this, behold, I am bringing disaster on the house of Jeroboam: I will cut off from Jeroboam every male, both slave and free, in Israel; I will…

“They shall be taken away as dung, which is loathsome and which men are glad to be rid of. He worshipped dunghill-deities, and God removed his family as a great dunghill. Noble and royal families, if wicked, are no better in God's account.”

As for you, get up and go home. When your feet enter the city, the child will die. All Israel will mourn for him and bury him.

“(1.) In mercy to him, lest, if he live, he be infected with the sin, and so involved in the ruin, of his father's house.”

So He will give Israel over on account of the sins Jeroboam has committed and has caused Israel to commit.”

“This was fulfilled in the captivity of the ten tribes by the king of Assyria. Families and kingdoms are ruined by sin, ruined by the wickedness of the heads of them. Jeroboam did sin, and made Israel to sin.”

Meanwhile, Rehoboam son of Solomon reigned in Judah. He was forty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city the LORD had chosen…

“It was strange that David would marry his son Solomon to an Ammonitess (for it was done while he lived), but it is probable that Solomon was in love with her, because she was Naamah, a beauty (so it signifies), and his father was loth…”

There were even male shrine prostitutes in the land. They imitated all the abominations of the nations the LORD had driven out before the Israelites.

“They dishonoured God by one sin and then God left them to dishonour themselves by another. They profaned the privileges of a holy nation, therefore God gave them up to their own hearts' lusts, to imitate the abominations of the accursed Canaanites; and herein the…”

Then King Rehoboam made bronze shields in their place and committed them to the care of the captains of the guard on duty at the entrance to the royal palace.

“This was an emblem of the diminution of his glory. Sin makes the gold become dim, changes the most fine gold, and turns it into brass.”

And Abijam walked in all the sins that his father before him had committed, and his heart was not as fully devoted to the LORD his God as the heart…

“He makes a better figure, 2 Chron. xiii. , where we have an account of his war with Jeroboam, the speech which he made before the armies engaged, and the wonderful victory he obtained by the help of God.”

Nevertheless, for the sake of David, the LORD his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem by raising up a son to succeed him and to make Jerusalem strong.

“David was guilty of other faults, but they were nothing in comparison of that; yet even that being repented of, though it be mentioned for warning to others, did not prevail to throw him out of the covenant, nor to cut off the entail of…”

and he reigned in Jerusalem forty-one years. His grandmother’s name was Maacah daughter of Abishalom.

“In the account we have of the kings of Judah we find the number of the good kings and the bad ones nearly equal; but then we may observe, to our comfort, that the reign of the good kings was generally long, but that of…”

And Asa did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, as his father David had done.

“He did as did David his father, kept close to God, and to his instituted worship, was hearty and zealous for that, which gave him this honourable character, that he was like David, though he was not a prophet, or psalmist, as David was.”

He banished the male shrine prostitutes from the land and removed all the idols that his fathers had made.

“His father having made them, he was the more concerned to remove them, that he might cut off the entail of the curse, and prevent the visiting of that iniquity upon him and his.”

The high places were not removed, but Asa’s heart was fully devoted to the LORD all his days.

“This affords us a comfortable note, That those may be found honest and upright with God, and be accepted of him, who yet, in some instances, come short of doing the good they might and should do.”

Now there was war between Asa and Baasha king of Israel throughout their days.

“This was the effect of the division of the kingdoms, that they were continually vexing one another, and so weakened one another, which made them both an easier prey to the common enemy.”

So Asa withdrew all the silver and gold that remained in the treasuries of the house of the LORD and the royal palace.

“Here he sinned, (1.) In tempting Benhadad to break his league, and so to violate the public faith. If he did wrong in doing it, as certainly he did, Asa did wrong in persuading him to do it. (2.)”

Then King Asa summoned all the men of Judah, with no exceptions, and they carried away the stones of Ramah and the timbers Baasha had used for building.

“But, though the design prospered, we find it was displeasing to God; and though Asa valued himself upon the policy of it, and promised himself that it would effectually secure his peace, he was told by the prophet that he had done foolishly, and that…”

In the third year of Asa’s reign over Judah, Baasha killed Nadab and reigned in his place.

“He thought it not enough to imprison or banish them, but he destroyed them, left not only no males (as was foretold, ch. xiv. 10 ), but none that breathed. Herein he was barbarous, but God was righteous.”