1 Kings14chapter 14

1 Kings 14:1

“At that time - The phrase here connects the narrative which follows with Jeroboam’s persistence in his evil courses. The event related is the first judgment upon him for his obduracy, the beginning of the cutting off of his house from the face of the earth. Abijah - We see by this name that Jeroboam did not intend to desert the worship of Yahweh, since its signification is “Yahweh is my father,” or “Yahweh is my desire” Job 34:36.”

1 Kings 14:1

“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. His dignity as a prince, his age as a young prince, and his interest in heaven as a pious prince, could not exempt him from sickness, dangerous sickness.”

1 Kings 14:2

“Disguise thyself - Jeroboam fears that even Ahijah the Shilonite, who in some sort made him king, will scarcely give his queen a favorable answer. The king’s conscience tells him that he has not performed the conditions on which he was promised “a sure house” 1Ki 11:38.”

1 Kings 14:2

“Jeroboam said to his wife, Arise, I pray thee, and disguise thyself--His natural and intense anxiety as a parent is here seen, blended with the deep and artful policy of an apostate king.”

1 Kings 14:2-3

“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. Jeroboam's great desire, under this affliction, is to know what shall become of the child, whether he will live or die.”

1 Kings 14:3

“See the marginal reference The presents here were selected for the purpose of deception, being such as a poor country person would have been likely to bring. Jeroboam counted also on Ahijah’s blindness 1Ki 14:4 as favoring his plan of deception (compare Gen 27:1, Gen 27:22). Cracknels - See the margin. The Hebrew word is thought to mean a kind of cake which crumbled easily.”

1 Kings 14:3-11

“And take with thee ten loaves, and cracknels, and a cruse of honey, and go to him--This was a present in unison with the peasant character she assumed. Cracknels are a kind of sweet seed-cake.”

1 Kings 14:5

“Feign herself to be another woman - literally, “she shall make herself strange,” i. e., “she shall come in disguised.” So 1Ki 14:6.”

1 Kings 14:6

“For I am sent to thee - Rather, “I also am sent to thee.” As thou hast a message to me from thy husband, so have I a message to thee from the Lord.”

1 Kings 14:6

“AHIJAH the Prophet was blind. Did I not tell you this morning that God's servants could be happy without the light of the sun? If God should be pleased to deprive their natural eyes of the pleasures of light their souls would not be without joy, for as in the New Jerusalem, so in the renewed heart—"the glory of God does lighten it and the Lamb is its Light. " Doubtless this was the case with that venerable Prophet. He was not like Moses, whose eyes did not wax dim and whose natural strength did not abate.”

1 Kings 14:7

“As Jeroboam’s appointment to the kingdom had been formally announced to him by the prophet Ahijah, so the same prophet is commissioned to acquaint him with his forfeiture of it. Compare 1Sa 15:26-28.”

1 Kings 14:7-16

“David - Who though he fell into some sins, yet, first, he constantly persevered in the true worship of God; from which thou art revolted. Secondly, he heartily repented of, and turned from all his sins whereas thou art obstinate and incorrigible.”

1 Kings 14:9

“Above all that were before thee - i. e., above all previous rulers of the people, whether Judges or kings. Hereto none of the rulers of Israel had set up the idolatrous worship of ephod, teraphim, and the like Jdg 18:17, as a substitute for the true religion, or sought to impose an idolatrous system on the nation. Gideon’s ephod “became a snare” contrary to his intention Jdg 8:27. Solomon’s high places were private - built for the use of his wives, and not designed to attract the people.”

1 Kings 14:9

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

1 Kings 14:10

“Therefore, behold, I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam,.... Calamities, destruction, and ruin: and will cut off from Jeroboam him that pisseth against the wall; not leave a dog of his, or rather a male, see 1Sa 25:22. and him that is shut up and left in Israel; in garrisons or in prisons, in cities or in fields, or in whatsoever situation or circumstances they may be.”

1 Kings 14:10

“All the males of the family of Jeroboam were put to death by Baasha 1Ki 15:28-29. The phrase “will cut off,” etc., appears to have been a common expression among the Jews from the time of David 1Sa 25:22 to that of Jehu 2Ki 9:8, but scarcely either before or after. We may suspect that, where the author of Kings uses it, he found it in the documents which he consulted. Him that is shut up and left in Israel - See the marginal reference note.”

1 Kings 14:10-11

“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.”

1 Kings 14:11

“Him that dieth of Jeroboam in the city shall the dogs eat, and him that dieth in the fields shall the fowls of the air eat,.... The meaning is, that they should have no burial: for the Lord hath spoken it; and therefore shall be fulfilled, for what he hath said he will do, Num 23:19.”

1 Kings 14:11

“The dogs are the chief scavengers of Oriental cities (compare Psa 59:6, Psa 59:14). And the vulture is the chief scavenger in the country districts, assisted sometimes by kites and crows (see Job 39:27-30, where the vulture, not the eagle, is intended). Vultures are very abundant in Palestine.”

1 Kings 14:12

“There is therefore no absurdity in the prophets [of the Jews] having uttered predictions even about events of no importance, to soothe those who desire such things, as when Samuel prophesies regarding three donkeys that were lost, or when mention is made in the third book of Kings respecting the sickness of a king's son.”

1 Kings 14:13

“In him there is found some good thing - Far be it from God to destroy the righteous with the wicked; God respects even a little good, because it is a seed from himself. The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed.”

1 Kings 14:13

“WE must take the text, of course, with definite and full reference to its historical context. It seems that in the wicked house and family of Jeroboam, there was one godly child—and death, which very often mysteriously cuts down the green wheat, while it leaves the hemlock to ripen—seized upon this one and laid him low.”

1 Kings 14:13

“Some good - Pious intentions of taking away the calves, and of permitting or obliging his people to go up to Jerusalem to worship, if God gave him life and authority to do it, and of trusting God with his kingdom. In the house - Which is added for his greater commendation; he was good in the midst of so many temptations and wicked examples; a good branch of a bad flock.”

1 Kings 14:14

“Moreover the Lord shall raise up a king over Israel,.... Baasha is meant, 1Ki 15:29. who shall cut off the house of Jeroboam that day; immediately, as soon as on the throne, he should destroy his whole family, as he did, 1Ki 15:29, but what? even now; shall it be that day? yes; even at that very time, and which will be very quickly from this time; for as it may be supposed this was said at the latter end of Jeroboam's reign, and his son and successor reigned but two years ere this prophecy was accomplished.”

1 Kings 14:14

The Hebrew text of this verse appears to be defective in this place. No satisfactory sense can be obtained from it. The true meaning of the original passage is possibly: “Yahweh shall raise up a king who will destroy the house of Jeroboam on the day that he is raised up. What do I say? He will destroy it even now.”

1 Kings 14:15

“The general prophecy of Moses Deu 29:28, that the disobedient Israelites would be rooted up out of their land, and cast into another land, is here for the first time repeated, and is definitively applied to the ten tribes, which are to be removed “beyond the river” (the Euphrates, 1Ki 4:21, 1Ki 4:24), and “scattered.” On the fulfillment of this prophecy, and especially on the “scattering” of the ten tribes, see 2Ki 17:6 note. Groves - See Exo 34:13 note.”

1 Kings 14:15

“Is shaken - Hither and thither, with every wind. So shall the kingdom and people of Israel be always in an unquiet and unsettled posture, tossed to and fro by foreign invasions and civil wars; by opposite kings and factions, and by the dissensions of the people.”

1 Kings 14:16

“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.”

1 Kings 14:17

“Jeroboam had by this time removed from Shechem, and established a new capital in Tirzah, one of the old Canaanite towns Jos 12:24 - a town of great reputation for beauty, counted in that respect on a par with Jerusalem Son 6:4. Tirzah is perhaps to be identified with “Telluzah,” a place in the mountains about 9 miles distant from Shechem (Nablous) (or with Teiasir - Conder). It may have been the palatial residence of the kings rather than the actual capital of the country. It remained the capital until Omri built Samaria 1Ki 16:23-”

1 Kings 14:17

“Tirzah - An ancient and royal city, in a pleasant place, where the kings of Israel had a palace, whither Jeroboam was now removed from Shechem, either for his pleasure, or for his son's recovery, by the healthfulness of the place. The threshold - Of the king's house, which probably was upon, or by the wall of the city, and near the gate.”

1 Kings 14:18

“Mourned - And justly: not only for the loss of an hopeful prince, but because his death plucked up the floodgates, at which an inundation of judgments broke in.”

1 Kings 14:19

“The wars of Jeroboam may be divided into: (1) his wars with Rehoboam (see 1Ki 14:25, 1Ki 14:30); and (2) his war with Abijam (see the marginal reference). The book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel - (of Judah, 1Ki 14:29). See the Introduction.”

1 Kings 14:19

“The chronicles - not that canonical book of chronicles; for that was written long after this book: but a book of civil records, the annals, wherein all remarkable passages were recorded by the king's command from day to day; out of which the sacred penman by the direction of God's spirit, took those passages which were most useful for God's honour, and mens edification.”

1 Kings 14:20

“And the days which Jeroboam reigned were twenty two years,.... So that he outlived Rehoboam five years, and lived to the second year of the reign of his grandson Asa: and he slept with his fathers; or died as they did: and Nadab his son reigned in his stead; who perhaps was younger than Abijah, whose sickness and death are before related.”

1 Kings 14:21

“On the age of Rehoboam at his accession, see 1Ki 12:8 note. The 17 years of his reign must have been complete, or a little more than complete, if Abijam ascended the throne in the “eighteenth” year of Jeroboam 1Ki 15:1.”

1 Kings 14:21

“Forty one years - Therefore he was born a year before Solomon was king, as appears from chap. xi, 42, this is noted as an aggravation of Rehoboam's folly, that he was old enough to have been wiser.”

1 Kings 14:21-31

“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 to cross him, but it proved to have a very bad influence upon posterity.”

1 Kings 14:22

“And Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord,.... At the end of three years, from the beginning of the reign of Rehoboam: and they provoked him to jealousy, with their sins which they had committed, above all that their fathers had done; that is, with their idolatries; for they were the sins which moved the Lord to jealousy, and provoked the eyes of his glory; in which they had outdone not the ten tribes, but their fathers, in the times of Moses, Joshua, and the judges, and of their kings before their separation, Saul, David, and Solomon.”

1 Kings 14:22

“This defection of Judah did not take place until Rehoboam’s fourth year (marginal reference). They provoked him to jealousy - Compare Exo 20:5; and on the force of the metaphor involved in the word, see Exo 34:15 note.”

1 Kings 14:22

“In the sight of the Lord - In contempt and defiance of him, and the tokens of his special presence. Jealousy - As the adulterous wife provokes her husband, by breaking the marriage covenant.”

1 Kings 14:23

“The words “they also” are emphatic. Not only did the Israelites make themselves high places 1Ki 12:31; 1Ki 13:32, but the people of Judah also. The “high places,” which are said to have been “built,” were probably small shrines or tabernacles hung with bright-colored tapestry Eze 16:16, like the “sacred tent” of the Carthaginians. The “images” were rather “pillars” (Gen 28:18 note). Groves - See 1Ki 14:15, note.”

1 Kings 14:23

“Groves - Not only after the manner of the Heathens and Israelites, but against a direct and particular prohibition. Under every green tree - The people were universally corrupted: which is prodigious, all things considered, and is a clear evidence of the greatness and depth of the original corruption of man's nature.”

1 Kings 14:24

“And there were also Sodomites in the land, Such as were addicted to unnatural lusts between men and men, which the men of Sodom were guilty of, from whence they had their name: Jarchi interprets the word adultery and some versions render it whoremongers; and filthy actions of this nature, both by men and women, usually attended idolatrous practices among the heathens; in their temples and groves such wickednesses were privately perpetrated: and they did according to all the abominations of the nations which the Lord cast out before the children of Israel; the Canaanites, of whose uncleannesses, incests, and bestialities, see Lev 18:”

1 Kings 14:24

“There were also sodomites in the land - קדשים kedeshim, consecrated persons; persons who had devoted themselves, in practices of the greatest impurity, to the service of the most impure idols.”

1 Kings 14:24

“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 Lord was righteous.”

1 Kings 14:25

“The examination of the famous inscription of Shishak at Karnak has resulted in the proof that the expedition commemorated was directed against Palestine, and has further thrown a good deal of light on the relations of the two kingdoms at the period. Of the fifteen fenced cities fortified by Rehoboam in the early part of his reign 2Ch 11:5-12, three, Shoco, Adoraim, and Aijalon are distinctly mentioned among Shishak’s conquests. Other towns of Judah or Benjamin also occur.”

1 Kings 14:25

“Fifth year - Presently after his and his people's apostacy, which was not 'till his fourth year: while apostate, Israel enjoyed peace and some kind of prosperity, of which difference, two reasons may be given: first, Judah's sins were committed against clearer light, and more powerful means and remedies of all sorts, and therefore deserved more severe and speedy judgments.”

1 Kings 14:26

“He took away the treasures - All the treasures which Solomon had amassed, both in the temple and in his own houses; a booty the most immense ever acquired in one place. All the shields of gold which Solomon had made - These were three hundred in number, and were all made of beaten gold. See a computation of their value in the note on 1Ki 10:17 (note).”

1 Kings 14:26

“Secondly, it is probable David and Solomon in their building and altering the city, had more respect to state and magnificence than to its defense, as having no great cause to fear the invasion of any enemies. And it is certain, that after the division between Judah and Israel, the kings of Judah added very much to the fortifications of it.”

1 Kings 14:27

“And King Rehoboam made in their stead brazen shields,.... For the king of Egypt had so stripped him of his gold, that he was not able to replace golden ones: and committed them into the hands of the chief of the guard; or "runners" (p), that went before the king, or attended him as his bodyguard when he went abroad: which kept the door of the king's house; which kept guard night and day in their turns. (p) הרצים "cursorum", Pagninus, Montanus, &c.”

1 Kings 14:27-28

“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. We commend Rehoboam for going to the house of the Lord, perhaps the oftener for the rebuke he had been under, and do not condemn him for going in pomp.”

1 Kings 14:28

“It appears from this verse that Rehoboam, notwithstanding that he encouraged, and perhaps secretly practiced, idolatry (1Ki 14:22-24, compare 1Ki 15:3, 1Ki 15:12; 2Ch 12:1), maintained a public profession of faith in Yahweh, and attended in state the temple services. Compare the conduct of Solomon, 1Ki 9:25.”

1 Kings 14:29

“Now the rest of the acts of Rehoboam and all that he did,.... In the course of his reign, that was memorable: are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? who had annalists or historiographers to write for them, as the kings of Israel had, 1Ki 14:19, in the writing of which, especially with respect to genealogies, Shemaiah the prophet, and Iddo the seer, were concerned, 2Ch 12:15.”

1 Kings 14:30

“Was war - Not an invasive war with potent armies, which was forbidden, chap. xii, 24, and not revived 'till Abijam's reign, 2 Chron. xiii, 1-3, but a defensive war from those hostilities which by small parties and skirmishes they did to one another.”

1 Kings 14:31

“And Rehoboam slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David,.... Where David and Solomon were buried, 1Ki 2:10 and his mother's name was Naamah, an Ammonitess; which is repeated, that it might be observed as what was the leading step to his idolatry, and the means of his continuing in it: and Abijam his son reigned in his stead; of whom there is a further account in the following chapter.”

1 Kings 14:31

“Slept with his fathers and was buried ... - Compare 1Ki 11:43. The expression is a sort of formula, and is used with respect to all the kings of Judah, except two or three. The writer probably regards the fact, which he records so carefully, as a continuation of God’s mercy to David. His mother’s name ... - The mention of the queen-mother so regularly in the account of the kings of Judah is thought to indicate that she had an important position in the state.”