1 Kings 14 - Easy To Read Version

¹ At that time, Jeroboam’s son, Abijah, became very sick.

² Jeroboam said to his wife, “Go to Shiloh. Go see the prophet Ahijah. Ahijah is the man that said that I would become king of Israel. Dress yourself so people won’t know that you are my wife.

³ Give the prophet ten loaves of bread, some cakes, and a jar of honey. Then ask him what will happen to our son. The prophet Ahijah will tell you.”

⁴ So the king’s wife did what he said. She went to Shiloh. She went to the home of Ahijah the prophet. Ahijah was very old and had become blind.

⁵ But the Lord said to him, “Jeroboam’s wife is coming to ask you about her son. He is sick.” The Lord told Ahijah what he should say.

⁶ Ahijah heard her coming to the door. So Ahijah said, “Come in, Jeroboam’s wife. Why are you trying to make people think you are someone else? I have some bad news for you.

⁷ Go back and tell Jeroboam that this is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says. The Lord says, ‘Jeroboam, I chose you from among all the people of Israel. I made you the ruler of my people.

⁸ David’s family was ruling the kingdom of Israel. But I took the kingdom away from them and I gave it to you. But you are not like my servant David. He always obeyed my commands. He followed me with his whole heart. He did only the things that I accepted.

⁹ But you have done many great sins. Your sins are much worse than the sins of any person that ruled before you. You have quit following me. You made idols and other gods. This has made me very angry.

¹⁰ So, Jeroboam, I will bring troubles to your family. I will kill all of the men in your family. I will destroy your family completely, like fire completely destroys dung.

¹¹ Any person from your family that dies in the city will be eaten by dogs. And any person from your family that dies in the fields will be eaten by birds. The Lord has spoken.’”

¹² Then the prophet Ahijah continued talking to Jeroboam’s wife. He said, “Now go home. As soon as you enter your city, your son will die.

¹³ All Israel will cry for him and bury him. Your son will be the only person in Jeroboam’s family that will be buried. This is because he is the only one in Jeroboam’s family that pleased the Lord God of Israel.

¹⁴ The Lord will put a new king over Israel. That new king will destroy Jeroboam’s family. This will happen very soon.

¹⁵ Then the Lord will hit Israel. The people of Israel will be very scared—they will shake like tall grass in the water. The Lord will pull up Israel from this good land. This is the land that he gave their ancestors. He will scatter them on the other side of the Euphrates River. This will happen because the Lord is angry with the people. The people made him angry when they made special poles to worship Asherah. [175]

¹⁶ Jeroboam sinned. And then Jeroboam made the people of Israel sin. So the Lord will let the people of Israel be defeated.”

¹⁷ Jeroboam’s wife went back to Tirzah. As soon as she walked into the house, the boy died.

¹⁸ All Israel buried him and cried for him. This happened exactly the way the Lord said it would. The Lord used his servant, the prophet Ahijah, to say these things.

¹⁹ King Jeroboam did many other things. He fought wars and continued to rule the people. All the things he did are written in the book The History of the Kings of Israel.

²⁰ Jeroboam ruled as king for 22 years. Then he died and was buried with his ancestors. [176] His son Nadab became the new king after him.

²¹ At the time that Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, became king of Judah, he was 41 years old. Rehoboam ruled in the city of Jerusalem for 17 years. This is the city in which the Lord chose to be honored. He chose this city from all the other cities of Israel. Rehoboam’s mother was Naamah. She was an Ammonite.

²² The people of Judah also sinned {and did} things that the Lord said were wrong. The people did more things to make the Lord angry at them. These people were worse than their fathers that lived before them.

²³ The people built high places, stone memorials, and sacred poles. [177] They built them on every high hill and under every green tree.

²⁴ There were men who served other gods by selling their bodies for sex. [178] So the people of Judah did many bad things. The people that had lived in the land before them did those same evil things. And God took the land away from those people and gave it to the people of Israel.

²⁵ During the fifth year that Rehoboam was king, King Shishak of Egypt fought against Jerusalem.

²⁶ Shishak took the treasures from the Lord’s temple and from the king’s palace. He even took the gold shields that David had taken from the officers of Hadadezer, king of Aram. David had taken these shields to Jerusalem. But Shishak took all the gold shields.

²⁷ So king Rehoboam made more shields to put in their places. But these shields were made from bronze, {not gold}. He gave the shields to the men who were guarding the palace gates.

²⁸ Every time the king went to the Lord’s temple, the guards went with him. They carried the shields. After they were finished, they put the shields back on the wall in the guard room.

²⁹ All the things that king Rehoboam did are written in the book The History of the Kings of Judah.

³⁰ Rehoboam and Jeroboam were always fighting a war against each other.

³¹ Rehoboam died and was buried with his ancestors. [179] He was buried with his ancestors in the City of David. [180] (His mother was Naamah. She was an Ammonite.) Rehoboam’s son, Abijah became the next king after him.