Ahijah’s Prophecy against Jeroboam 1 UST Shortly after Jeroboam chose to ignore Yahweh’ s warning about the hilltop shrines, his son Abijah became very sick. BSB BSB: At that time Abijah son of Jeroboam became ill,
2 UST Jeroboam told his wife,“I want you to disguise yourself so that no one will recognize that you are my wife. Then go to the city of Shiloh. That is where the prophet Ahijah lives. He is the man who met me and told me that I would become the king of Israel. BSB BSB: and Jeroboam said to his wife, “Now get up, disguise yourself so they will not recognize you as my wife, and go to Shiloh. For Ahijah the prophet is there; it was he who spoke about my kingship over this people.
3 UST Take with you ten loaves of bread, some small flat cakes, and a jar of honey. Give them to him{ as gifts}. Tell him about our son, and he will tell you whether he will become well again.” BSB BSB: Take with you ten loaves of bread, some cakes, and a jar of honey, and go to him. He will tell you what will become of the boy.”
4 UST So that is what his wife did. She went to Shiloh, to Ahijah’ s house. Ahijah was not able to see, since he was very old and his eyes were no longer healthy. BSB BSB: Jeroboam’s wife did as instructed; she arose and went to Shiloh and arrived at Ahijah’s house. Now Ahijah could not see, for his eyes were dim because of his age.
5 UST But{ before she got there,} Yahweh told Ahijah that Jeroboam’ s wife was coming to inquire about their son, who was very sick. He told him that when she arrived, she would be pretending to be someone else. Yahweh told Ahijah what he should say to her. BSB BSB: But the LORD had said to Ahijah, “Behold, the wife of Jeroboam is coming to ask you about her son, for he is ill. You are to say such and such to her, because when she arrives, she will be disguised.”
6 UST So when Ahijah heard her footsteps as she entered the doorway, he said to her,“Come in. I know you are Jeroboam’ s wife, so do not pretend that you are someone else. Yahweh has told me to tell you some bad news. BSB BSB: So when Ahijah heard the sound of her feet entering the door, he said, “Come in, wife of Jeroboam! Why are you disguised? For I have been sent to you with bad news.
7 UST Go back and tell Jeroboam this message from Yahweh, the God whom we Israelites worship:‘I chose you from among the common people and enabled you to become the king of{ most of} my Israelite people. BSB BSB: Go, tell Jeroboam that this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘I raised you up from among the people and appointed you ruler over My people Israel.
8 UST I stopped David’ s descendants from ruling most of the people of the kingdom of Israel, and I allowed you to become the king of those Israelites instead. But you have not been like David, who served me very well. He obeyed my commandments very sincerely and wanted to do only things that I considered to be right. BSB BSB: I tore the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it to you. But you have not been like My servant David, who kept My commandments and followed Me with all his heart, doing only what was right in My eyes.
9 UST But you have done more wicked things than any of the men who were kings of Israel before you. You have rejected me, and you have made me very angry by making metal images of other gods{ so that you and others could worship them}. BSB BSB: 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 Me behind your back.
10 UST Therefore, I am going to make terrible things happen to your family. I will allow someone to kill all of the males in your household, whether they are family members or servants, no matter where they live in your kingdom. I will completely destroy your family, just as fire completely destroys dung when people burn it. BSB BSB: 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 burn up the house of Jeroboam as one burns up dung until it is gone!
11 UST Dogs will eat the bodies of any members of your household who die in cities. Scavenger birds will eat the bodies of any members of your household who die in the countryside.’ This will surely happen, since Yahweh has said that it will happen. BSB BSB: Anyone belonging to Jeroboam who dies in the city will be eaten by dogs, and anyone who dies in the field will be eaten by the birds of the air.’ For the LORD has spoken.
12 UST So go back home. As soon as you return to the city where you live, your son will die. BSB BSB: As for you, get up and go home. When your feet enter the city, the child will die.
13 UST People throughout Israel will mourn for him, and you will be able to bury him. He is the only one in Jeroboam’ s family who will receive a proper burial, because he is the only person in Jeroboam’ s family whose actions have pleased Yahweh. BSB BSB: All Israel will mourn for him and bury him. For this is the only one belonging to Jeroboam who will receive a proper burial, because only in him has the LORD, the God of Israel, found any good in the house of Jeroboam.
14 UST Yahweh will enable a different man to become the king of Israel. That man will kill all of Jeroboam’ s family. This will happen very soon. In fact, Yahweh has already begun to make it happen. BSB BSB: Moreover, the LORD will raise up for Himself a king over Israel who will cut off the house of Jeroboam. This is the day—yes, even today!
15 UST Yahweh will punish the people of Israel. He will unsettle them, just as the strong, flowing water of a river unsettles the reeds that grow on its banks. He will finally expel the Israelite people from this good land that he gave to our ancestors. The Israelites have worshiped statues of the goddess Asherah, and by doing that, they have made Yahweh very angry. As a result, he will allow enemies to take them as captives into lands on the far side of the Euphrates River. BSB BSB: For the LORD will strike Israel as a reed is shaken in the water. He will uproot Israel from this good land that He gave their fathers, and He will scatter them beyond the Euphrates, because they have made their Asherah poles, provoking the LORD to anger.
16 UST Yahweh will abandon the Israelite people because Jeroboam committed these sins of idolatry and led the Israelite people to commit them as well.” BSB BSB: So He will give Israel over on account of the sins Jeroboam has committed and has caused Israel to commit.”
17 UST Then Jeroboam’ s wife got up and left, and she traveled back home to the city of Tirzah. Just as she was walking through the door of her house, her son died. BSB BSB: Then Jeroboam’s wife got up and departed for Tirzah, and as soon as she stepped over the threshold of the house, the boy died.
18 UST People throughout Israel mourned for him, and his family was able to bury him. That is just what Yahweh had told the prophet Ahijah, his servant, to say would happen. BSB BSB: And they buried him, and all Israel mourned for him, according to the word that the LORD had spoken through His servant Ahijah the prophet.
Nadab Succeeds Jeroboam 19 UST The book in which the kings of Israel recorded what happened during their reigns describes further things that Jeroboam did, including the wars that his army fought and how he ruled. BSB BSB: As for the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, how he waged war and how he reigned, they are indeed written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel.
20 UST Jeroboam ruled for 22 years. Then he died, and his son Nadab became the next king. BSB BSB: And the length of Jeroboam’s reign was twenty-two years, and he rested with his fathers, and his son Nadab reigned in his place.
Rehoboam Reigns in Judah (2 Chronicles 12:13–14)
21 UST Meanwhile, Solomon’ s son Rehoboam was ruling Judah. He had been 41 years old when he started to rule, and he ruled for 17 years. He ruled in Jerusalem, the city that Yahweh chose to be the place where the Israelites would worship him. Rehoboam’ s mother’ s name was Naamah the Ammonitess. BSB BSB: 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 from all the tribes of Israel in which to put His Name. His mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonite.
22 UST The people of the kingdom of Judah did many things that Yahweh had told the Israelites were evil. They committed more sins than their ancestors had committed. This made Yahweh very angry, because they were worshiping idols, and they should have been worshiping only him. BSB BSB: And Judah did evil in the sight of the LORD, and by the sins they committed they provoked Him to jealous anger more than all their fathers had done.
23 UST Just as the northern Israelites had done, the Judeans built places to worship foreign gods. On high hills and under big trees, they built shrines and set up stone pillars and made wooden images to represent the goddess Asherah. BSB BSB: They also built for themselves high places, sacred pillars, and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree.
24 UST There were also male shrine prostitutes at these places of worship. The Israelite people did the same disgraceful things that the people had done whom Yahweh had forced to leave so that the Israelites could possess the land. BSB BSB: 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.
Shishak Raids Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 12:1–12)
26 UST { They defeated the Judeans, and then} his soldiers took away the valuable things they found in Yahweh’ s temple and in the royal palace. They also took many other valuable things they found. Because they took the gold shields that Solomon’ s workers had made, BSB BSB: He seized the treasures of the house of the LORD and of the royal palace. He took everything, including all the gold shields that Solomon had made.
27 UST King Rehoboam had his workers make bronze shields to replace them. He had the officers of the soldiers who guarded the entrance to his palace take care of these shields. BSB BSB: 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.
28 UST Whenever the king was going to come into the temple, those guards got those shields and held them, and{ after he left the temple,} they returned the shields to their storeroom. BSB BSB: And whenever the king entered the house of the LORD, the guards would bear the shields, and later they would return them to the guardroom.
29 UST The book in which the kings of Judah recorded what happened during their reigns describes further things that Rehoboam did. BSB BSB: As for the rest of the acts of Rehoboam, along with all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah?
30 UST The armies of Rehoboam and Jeroboam were continually at war with one another. BSB BSB: There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam throughout their days.
31 UST Then Rehoboam died, and people buried him in the part of Jerusalem that people call the City of David. That is where people had buried his ancestors. Rehoboam’ s mother Naamah was an Ammonitess{, and that is why he became devoted to idol worship}. After Rehoboam died, his son Abijam became the next king. BSB BSB: And Rehoboam rested with his fathers and was buried with them in the City of David; his mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonite. And his son Abijam reigned in his place.
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