1 At that time Abiiah the sonne of Ieroboam fell sicke.
2 And Ieroboam said to his wife, Arise, I pray thee, and disguise thy selfe, that thou be not knowen to be the wife of Ieroboam: and get thee to Shiloh: Behold, there is Ahiiah the Prophet, which told mee that I should be king ouer this people.
3 And take with thee ten loaues, and cracknels, and a cruse of honie, and goe to him: he shall tell thee what shall become of the childe.
4 And Ieroboams wife did so, and arose, and went to Shiloh, and came to the house of Ahiiah: but Ahiiah could not see, for his eyes were set by reason of his age.
5 ¶ And the Lord said vnto Ahiiah, Behold, the wife of Ieroboam commeth to aske a thing of thee for her sonne, for hee is sicke: thus and thus shalt thou say vnto her: for it shall be when shee commeth in, that shee shall faine her selfe to be another woman.
6 And it was so, when Ahiiah heard the sound of her feet, as she came in at the doore, that hee said, Come in, thou wife of Ieroboam, why fainest thou thy selfe to be another? for I am sent to thee with heauie tidings.
7 Goe, tell Ieroboam, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Forasmuch as I exalted thee from among the people, and made thee prince ouer my people Israel,
8 And rent the kingdome away from the house of Dauid, and gaue it thee: and yet thou hast not beene as my seruant Dauid, who kept my Commandements, and who followed mee with all his heart, to doe that onely which was right in mine eyes,
9 But hast done euill aboue all that were before thee: for thou hast gone and made thee other gods, and molten images, to prouoke me to anger, and hast cast me behinde thy backe:
10 Therefore behold, I will bring euill vpon the house of Ieroboam, and will cut off from Ieroboam, him that pisseth against the wall, and him that is shut vp and left in Israel, and will take away the remnant of the house of Ieroboam, as a man taketh away dung, till it be all gone.
11 Him that dieth of Ieroboam in the citie, shall the dogs eate: and him that dieth in the field, shall the foules of the aire eate: for the Lord hath spoken it.
12 Arise thou therefore, get thee to thine owne house: and when thy feete enter into the citie, the child shall die.
13 And all Israel shall mourne for him, and bury him: for he onely of Ieroboam shal come to the graue, because in him there is found some good thing toward the Lord God of Israel, in the house of Ieroboam.
14 Moreouer, the Lord shall raise him vp a king ouer Israel, who shal cut off the house of Ieroboam that day: but what? euen now.
15 For the Lord shall smite Israel, as a reede is shaken in the water, and hee shall root vp Israel out of this good land, which hee gaue to their fathers, and shall scatter them beyond the Riuer, because they haue made their groues, prouoking the Lord to anger.
16 And hee shall giue Israel vp, because of the sinnes of Ieroboam, who did sinne, & who made Israel to sinne.
17 ¶ And Ieroboams wife arose, and departed, and came to Tirzah: and when shee came to the threshold of the doore, the child died.
18 And they buried him, and all Israel mourned for him, according to the word of the Lord, which hee spake by the hand of his seruant Ahiiah the Prophet.
19 And the rest of the actes of Ieroboam, how hee warred, and how hee reigned, behold, they are written in the booke of the Chronicles of the kings of Israel.
20 And the dayes which Ieroboam reigned, were two and twentie yeeres: and he slept with his fathers, and Nadab his sonne reigned in his stead.
21 ¶ And Rehoboam the sonne of Solomon reigned in Iudah: Rehoboam was fourtie and one yeeres olde when he began to reigne, and hee reigned seuenteene yeeres in Ierusalem, the citie which the Lord did chuse out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his Name there: and his mothers name was Naamah an Ammonitesse.
22 And Iudah did euill in the sight of the Lord, and they prouoked him to iealousie with their sinnes which they had committed, aboue all that their fathers had done.
23 For they also built them high places, and images, and groues on euery high hill, and vnder euery greene tree.
24 And there were also Sodomites in the land, and they did according to all the abominations of the nations which the Lord cast out before the children of Israel.
25 ¶ And it came to passe in the fift yeere of king Rehoboam, that Shishak king of Egypt came vp against Ierusalem:
26 And he tooke away the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the kings house, hee euen tooke away all: and he tooke away all the shields of gold which Solomon had made.
27 And king Rehoboam made in their stead brasen shields, and committed them vnto the hands of the chiefe of the guard, which kept the doore of the kings house.
28 And it was so, when the king went into the house of the Lord, that the guard bare them, and brought them backe into the guard-chamber.
29 ¶ Nowe the rest of the actes of Rehoboam, and all that hee did, are they not written in the booke of the Chronicles of the kings of Iudah?
30 And there was warre betweene Rehoboam and Ieroboam all their dayes.
31 And Rehoboam slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of Dauid: and his mothers name was Naamah an Ammonitesse. And Abijam his sonne reigned in his stead.
Abijah being sick, his mother consults Ahijah. (1-6) The destruction of Jeroboam's house. (7-20) Rehoboam's wicked reign. (21-31)1-6 "At that time," when Jeroboam did evil, his child sickened. When sickness comes into our families, we should inquire whether there may not be some particular sin harboured in our houses, which the affliction is sent to convince us of, and reclaim us from. It had been more pious if he had desired to know wherefore God contended with him; had begged the prophet's prayers, and cast away his idols from him; but most people would rather be told their fortune, than their faults or their duty. He sent to Ahijah, because he had told him he should be king. Those who by sin disqualify themselves for comfort, yet expect that their ministers, because they are good men, should speak peace and comfort to them, greatly wrong themselves and their ministers. He sent his wife in disguise, that the prophet might only answer her question concerning her son. Thus some people would limit their ministers to smooth things, and care not for having the whole counsel of God declared to them, lest it should prophesy no good concerning them, but evil. But she shall know, at the first word, what she has to trust to. Tidings of a portion with hypocrites will be heavy tidings. God will judge men according to what they are, not by what they seem to be.
7-20 Whether we keep an account of God's mercies to us or not, he does; and he will set them in order before us, if we are ungrateful, to our greater confusion. Ahijah foretells the speedy death of the child then sick, in mercy to him. He only in the house of Jeroboam had affection for the true worship of God, and disliked the worship of the calves. To show the power and sovereignty of his grace, God saves some out of the worst families, in whom there is some good thing towards the Lord God of Israel. The righteous are removed from the evil to come in this world, to the good to come in a better world. It is often a bad sign for a family, when the best in it are buried out of it. Yet their death never can be a loss to themselves. It was a present affliction to the family and kingdom, by which both ought to have been instructed. God also tells the judgments which should come upon the people of Israel, for conforming to the worship Jeroboam established. After they left the house of David, the government never continued long in one family, but one undermined and destroyed another. Families and kingdoms are ruined by sin. If great men do wickedly, they draw many others, both into the guilt and punishment. The condemnation of those will be severest, who must answer, not only for their own sins, but for sins others have been drawn into, and kept in, by them.
21-31 Here is no good said of Rehoboam, and much said to the disadvantage of his subjects. The abounding of the worst crimes, of the worst of the heathen, in Jerusalem, the city the Lord had chosen for his temple and his worship, shows that nothing can mend the hearts of fallen men but the sanctifying grace of the Holy Spirit. On this alone may we depend; for this let us daily pray, in behalf of ourselves and all around us. The splendour of their temple, the pomp of their priesthood, and all the advantages with which their religion was attended, could not prevail to keep them close to it; nothing less than the pouring out the Spirit will keep God's Israel in their allegiance to him. Sin exposes, makes poor, and weakens any people. Shishak, king of Egypt, came and took away the treasures. Sin makes the gold become dim, changes the most fine gold, and turns it into brass.
Commentary by Matthew Henry, 1710.