1 *Kings 14

₁At that time Jeroboam's son Abijah became sick. ₂Jeroboam said to his wife: ‘Cover your face so that no one will know you are my wife and go the town of Shiloh. That is where the prophet Ahijah lives. He is the prophet who said I will be king of the people of Israel. ₃Take 10 loaves of bread and cakes and a jar of honey and go to him. He will tell you what will happen to our child.’

₄Jeroboam's wife did what he said. She went to Shiloh to the house of Ahijah. Ahijah was very old, and he could not see anymore. ₅The Lord said to him: ‘Jeroboam's wife is coming to you to ask what will happen to her son because he is sick. You must tell her what I say to you.’

The woman's face was covered ₆but when Ahijah heard her coming in through the door, he said: ‘Come in, wife of Jeroboam. Why is your face covered? I have a bad message for you. ₇You must go and tell Jeroboam: The Lord God of Israel says: “I chose you out of all the people and I made you rule my people Israel. ₈I took the kingdom away from the family of David and I gave it to you. But you have not been like my servant David. He served Me with all his heart and he did what I like.

₉But you have done worse things than everyone who was king before you. You have made other gods and idols from gold. You have turned away from Me and made Me angry. ₁₀Jeroboam, I will now bring trouble to your family. You will suffer, and all the men in your family will die, those who are slaves and those who are free. I will destroy your family like fire burning up cow dung. ₁₁When one of Jeroboam's children or his descendants dies in a town, the dogs will eat his body, and when one of them dies in the field, the birds will eat him. This will surely happen.”

₁₂And you, wife of Jeroboam, stand up and go home. Your child will die when you go into the city. ₁₃All the people of Israel will mourn for him and they will bury him. He is the only one of the descendants of Jeroboam who will be buried in a grave, because the Lord, the God of Israel, has seen that this is the only child in the family of Jeroboam who is good. ₁₄The Lord will soon choose a king who will come and he will kill all of Jeroboam's family. ₁₅The Lord will punish the people of Israel. They will be afraid and tremble like a reed in the river. He will throw them away, out of this good land that He gave their forefathers, and He will chase these people away as far as the Euphrates River. He will do it because they made sacred_pillars and they made the Lord angry. ₁₆The Lord will leave Israel and He will not help them again because Jeroboam sinned and made the people of Israel do all these sins.’

₁₇Jeroboam's wife got up and she went back to the town of Tirzah. When she walked through the door of the palace, the child died. ₁₈The people of Israel buried him and they all mourned for him. It happened as the Lord had told his servant Ahijah the prophet to say that it would happen.

₁₉All the other things that Jeroboam did, and how he went to fight and how he ruled, are written in the book of the history of the kings_of_Israel. ₂₀Jeroboam was king for 22 years. He died and his son Nadab became king after him.

₂₁Rehoboam, son of Solomon, ruled in the land_of_Judah. He was 41 years old when he became king and he was king in Jerusalem for 17 years. The Lord had chosen Jerusalem from all the towns of the tribes_of_Israel. The Lord chose Jerusalem to belong to Him. The name of Rehoboam's mother was Naamah, and she was an Ammonite woman.

₂₂The people of Judah sinned_against the Lord and did things that the Lord said were wrong. They made Him very angry when they did those sins. They made Him more angry than their forefathers had. ₂₃They built places_of_sacrifice to worship false gods and sacred_pillars on every high hill and under every green tree. ₂₄There were also men who were temple-prostitutes in the land. The people of Judah did very bad things, things which the Lord hates. They did the same things as people from other nations, and the Lord had chased away those nations and He had given their land to the Israelites.

₂₅In the 5th year after Rehoboam became king, King Shishak of Egypt attacked Jerusalem. ₂₆He took all the treasures in the temple of the Lord and in the palace, and also the gold shields that Solomon had made. ₂₇King Rehoboam then made bronze shields and he put them where the shields of gold had been and he gave the shields to the leaders of the guards who stood before the palace. ₂₈Every time the king went to the temple, the guards carried the shields. After he came back, they put the shields back in the room where the guards stayed.

₂₉All the other things that Rehoboam did are written in the book of the history of the kings_of_Judah. ₃₀There was war_between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the time. ₃₁Rehoboam died and they buried him with his forefathers in the City of David. His mother's name was Naamah, and she was an Ammonite woman. Rehoboam's son, Abijah, became king after him.