Discovery Box1 Kings 14:6-31
Context14:6 When Ahijah heard the sound of her footsteps as she came through the door, he said, “Come on in, wife of Jeroboam! Why are you pretending to be someone else? I have been commissioned to give you bad news. 1 14:7 Go, tell Jeroboam, ‘This is what the Lord God of Israel says: “I raised you up 2 from among the people and made you ruler over my people Israel. 14:8 I tore the kingdom away from the Davidic dynasty and gave it to you. But you are not like my servant David, who kept my commandments and followed me wholeheartedly by doing only what I approve. 3 14:9 You have sinned more than all who came before you. You went and angered me by making other gods, formed out of metal; you have completely disregarded me. 4 14:10 So I am ready to bring disaster 5 on the dynasty 6 of Jeroboam. I will cut off every last male belonging to Jeroboam in Israel, including even the weak and incapacitated. 7 I will burn up the dynasty of Jeroboam, just as one burns manure until it is completely consumed. 8 14:11 Dogs will eat the members of your family 9 who die in the city, and the birds of the sky will eat the ones who die in the country.”’ Indeed, the Lord has announced it!
14:12 “As for you, get up and go home. When you set foot in the city, the boy will die. 14:13 All Israel will mourn him and bury him. He is the only one in Jeroboam’s family 10 who will receive a decent burial, for he is the only one in whom the Lord God of Israel found anything good. 14:14 The Lord will raise up a king over Israel who will cut off Jeroboam’s dynasty. 11 It is ready to happen! 12 14:15 The Lord will attack Israel, making it like a reed that sways in the water. 13 He will remove Israel from this good land he gave to their ancestors 14 and scatter them beyond the Euphrates River, 15 because they angered the Lord by making Asherah poles. 16 14:16 He will hand Israel over to their enemies 17 because of the sins which Jeroboam committed and which he made Israel commit.”
14:17 So Jeroboam’s wife got up and went back to 18 Tirzah. As she crossed the threshold of the house, the boy died. 14:18 All Israel buried him and mourned for him, just as the Lord had predicted 19 through his servant the prophet Ahijah.
14:19 The rest of the events of Jeroboam’s reign, including the details of his battles and rule, are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the Kings of Israel. 20 14:20 Jeroboam ruled for twenty-two years; then he passed away. 21 His son Nadab replaced him as king.
14:21 Now Rehoboam son of Solomon ruled in Judah. He 22 was forty-one years old when he became king and he ruled for seventeen years in Jerusalem, 23 the city the Lord chose from all the tribes of Israel to be his home. 24 His mother was an Ammonite woman 25 named Naamah.
14:22 Judah did evil in the sight of 26 the Lord. They made him more jealous by their sins than their ancestors had done. 27 14:23 They even built for themselves high places, sacred pillars, and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree. 14:24 There were also male cultic prostitutes 28 in the land. They committed the same horrible sins as the nations 29 that the Lord had driven out from before the Israelites.
14:25 In King Rehoboam’s fifth year, King Shishak of Egypt attacked Jerusalem. 14:26 He took away the treasures of the Lord’s temple and of the royal palace; he took everything, including all the golden shields that Solomon had made. 14:27 King Rehoboam made bronze shields to replace them and assigned them to the officers of the royal guard 30 who protected the entrance to the royal palace. 14:28 Whenever the king visited the Lord’s temple, the royal guard carried them and then brought them back to the guardroom.
14:29 The rest of the events of Rehoboam’s reign, including his accomplishments, are recorded in the scroll called the Annals of the
Kings of Judah. 31 14:30 Rehoboam and Jeroboam were continually at war with each other. 14:31 Rehoboam passed away 32 and was buried with his ancestors in the city of David. His mother was an Ammonite named Naamah. His son Abijah 33 replaced him as king.
[14:6] 1 tn Heb “I am sent to you [with] a hard [message].”
[14:7] 2 tn The Hebrew text has “because” at the beginning of the sentence. In the Hebrew text vv. 7-11 are one long sentence comprised of a causal clause giving the reason for divine punishment (vv. 7-9) and the main clause announcing the punishment (vv. 10-11). The translation divides this lengthy sentence for stylistic reasons.
[14:8] 3 tn Heb “what was right in my eyes.”
[14:9] 4 tn Heb “you went and you made for yourself other gods, metal [ones], angering me, and you threw me behind your back.”
[14:10] 5 sn Disaster. There is a wordplay in the Hebrew text. The word translated “disaster” (רָעָה, ra’ah) is from the same root as the expression “you have sinned” in v. 9 (וַתָּרַע [vattara’], from רָעַע, [ra’a’]). Jeroboam’s sins would receive an appropriate punishment.
[14:10] 7 tn Heb “and I will cut off from Jeroboam those who urinate against a wall (including both those who are) restrained and let free (or “abandoned”) in Israel.” The precise meaning of the idiomatic phrase עָצוּר וְעָזוּב (’atsur vÿ’azuv) is uncertain. For various options see HALOT 871 s.v. עצר 6 and M. Cogan and H. Tadmor, II Kings (AB), 107. The two terms are usually taken as polar opposites (“slaves and freemen” or “minors and adults”), but Cogan and Tadmor, on the basis of contextual considerations (note the usage with אֶפֶס [’efes], “nothing but”) in Deut 32:36 and 2 Kgs 14:26, argue convincingly that the terms are synonyms, meaning “restrained and abandoned,” and refer to incapable or incapacitated individuals.
[14:10] 8 tn The traditional view understands the verb בָּעַר (ba’ar) to mean “burn.” Manure was sometimes used as fuel (see Ezek 4:12, 15). However, an alternate view takes בָּעַר as a homonym meaning “sweep away” (HALOT 146 s.v. II בער). In this case one might translate, “I will sweep away the dynasty of Jeroboam, just as one sweeps away manure it is gone” (cf. ASV, NASB, TEV). Either metaphor emphasizes the thorough and destructive nature of the coming judgment.
[14:11] 9 tn The Hebrew text has “belonging to Jeroboam” here.
[14:14] 12 tn Heb “This is the day. What also now?” The precise meaning of the second half of the statement is uncertain.
[14:15] 13 tn The elliptical Hebrew text reads literally “and the
[14:15] 14 tn Heb “fathers” (also in vv. 22, 31).
[14:15] 15 tn Heb “the River.” In biblical Hebrew this is a typical reference to the Euphrates River. The name “Euphrates” has been supplied in the translation for clarity.
[14:15] 16 tn Heb “because they made their Asherah poles that anger the
[14:16] 17 tn Heb “and he will give [up] Israel.”
[14:17] 18 tn Heb “went and entered.”
[14:18] 19 tn Heb “according to the word of the
[14:19] 20 tn Heb “As for the rest of the events of Jeroboam, how he fought and how he ruled, are they not written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Israel?”
[14:20] 21 tn Heb “lay down with his fathers.”
[14:21] 22 tn Heb “Rehoboam.” The proper name has been replaced by the pronoun (“he”) in the translation for stylistic reasons.
[14:21] 23 map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.
[14:21] 24 tn Heb “the city where the
[14:21] 25 tn Heb “an Ammonite”; the word “woman” is implied.
[14:22] 26 tn Heb “in the eyes of.”
[14:22] 27 tn Heb “and they made him jealous more than all which their fathers had done by their sins which they sinned.”
[14:24] 28 tc The Old Greek translation has “a conspiracy” rather than “male cultic prostitutes.”
[14:24] 29 tn Heb “they did according to all the abominable acts of the nations.”
[14:29] 31 tn Heb “As for the rest of the events of Rehoboam, and all which he did, are they not written on the scroll of the events of the days of the kings of Judah?”
[14:31] 32 tn Heb “lay down with his fathers.”
[14:31] 33 tn In the Hebrew text the name is spelled “Abijam” here and in 1 Kgs 15:1-8.
