Go, tell Jeroboam, ‘Yahweh, the God of Israel, says: “Because I exalted you from among the people, and made you prince over my people Israel, and tore the kingdom away from David’s house, and gave it you; and yet you have not been as my servant David, who kept my commandments, and who followed me with all his heart, to do that only which was right in my eyes, but have done evil above all who were before you, and have gone and made for yourself other gods, molten images, to provoke me to anger, and have cast me behind your back; therefore, behold, I will bring evil on the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam everyone who urinates on a wall, he who is shut up and he who is left at large in Israel, and will utterly sweep away the house of Jeroboam, as a man sweeps away dung, until it is all gone. The dogs will eat he who belongs to Jeroboam who dies in the city; and the birds of the sky will eat he who dies in the field: for Yahweh has spoken it.” ’
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So when Ahijah heard the sound of her feet as she came in at the door, he said, “Come in, Jeroboam’s wife! Why do you pretend to be another? For I am sent to you with heavy news. Go, tell Jeroboam, ‘Yahweh, the God of Israel, says: “Because I exalted you from among the people, and made you prince over my people Israel, and tore the kingdom away from David’s house, and gave it you; and yet you have not been as my servant David, who kept my commandments, and who followed me with all his heart, to do that only which was right in my eyes, but have done evil above all who were before you, and have gone and made for yourself other gods, molten images, to provoke me to anger, and have cast me behind your back; therefore, behold, I will bring evil on the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam everyone who urinates on a wall, he who is shut up and he who is left at large in Israel, and will utterly sweep away the house of Jeroboam, as a man sweeps away dung, until it is all gone. The dogs will eat he who belongs to Jeroboam who dies in the city; and the birds of the sky will eat he who dies in the field: for Yahweh has spoken it.” ’ Arise therefore, and go to your house. When your feet enter into the city, the child will die. All Israel will mourn for him and bury him; for he only of Jeroboam will come to the grave, because in him there is found some good thing toward Yahweh, the God of Israel, in the house of Jeroboam. Moreover Yahweh will raise up a king for himself over Israel, who will cut off the house of Jeroboam. This is the day! What? Even now. For Yahweh will strike Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water; and he will root up Israel out of this good land which he gave to their fathers, and will scatter them beyond the River, because they have made their Asherah poles, provoking Yahweh to anger. He will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, which he has sinned, and with which he has made Israel to sin.”
Parallel Translations
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Go, tell Jeroboam, ‘Yahweh, the God of Israel, says: “Because I exalted you from among the people, and made you prince over my people Israel,
and tore the kingdom away from David’s house, and gave it you; and yet you have not been as my servant David, who kept my commandments, and who followed me with all his heart, to do that only which was right in my eyes,
but have done evil above all who were before you, and have gone and made for yourself other gods, molten images, to provoke me to anger, and have cast me behind your back;
therefore, behold, I will bring evil on the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam everyone who urinates on a wall, he who is shut up and he who is left at large in Israel, and will utterly sweep away the house of Jeroboam, as a man sweeps away dung, until it is all gone.
The dogs will eat he who belongs to Jeroboam who dies in the city; and the birds of the sky will eat he who dies in the field: for Yahweh has spoken it.” ’
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Go, tell Jeroboam, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Forasmuch as I exalted thee from among the people, and made thee prince over my people Israel,
And rent the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it thee: and yet thou hast not been as my servant David, who kept my commandments, and who followed me with all his heart, to do that only which was right in mine eyes;
But hast done evil above all that were before thee: for thou hast gone and made thee other gods, and molten images, to provoke me to anger, and hast cast me behind thy back:
Therefore, behold, I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam him that pisseth against the wall, and him that is shut up and left in Israel, and will take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam, as a man taketh away dung, till it be all gone.
Him that dieth of Jeroboam in the city shall the dogs eat; and him that dieth in the field shall the fowls of the air eat: for the LORD hath spoken it.
Show all 3 translations
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Go, tell Jeroboam: Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel: Forasmuch as I exalted thee from among the people, and made thee prince over My people Israel,
and rent the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it thee; and yet thou hast not been as My servant David, who kept My commandments, and who followed Me with all his heart, to do that only which was right in Mine eyes;
but hast done evil above all that were before thee, and hast gone and made thee other gods, and molten images, to provoke Me, and hast cast Me behind thy back;
therefore, behold, I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam every man-child, and him that is shut up and him that is left at large in Israel, and will utterly sweep away the house of Jeroboam, as a man sweepeth away dung, till it be all gone.
Him that dieth of Jeroboam in the city shall the dogs eat; and him that dieth in the field shall the fowls of the air eat; for the LORD hath spoken it.
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Cross-references (72)
- 1 Kings 15:5 (v8) because David did that which was right in Yahweh’s eyes, and didn’t turn away from anything that he commanded him all the days of his life,…
- Nehemiah 9:26 (v9) “Nevertheless they were disobedient, and rebelled against you, cast your law behind their back, killed your prophets that testified against…
- Psalms 50:17 (v9) since you hate instruction, and throw my words behind you?
- Ezekiel 23:35 (v9) “Therefore the Lord Yahweh says: ‘Because you have forgotten me, and cast me behind your back, therefore you also bear your lewdness and…
- 1 Kings 12:28 (v9) So the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold; and he said to them, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Look and behold…
Show all 72 cross-references
- 1 Kings 16:4 (v11) The dogs will eat Baasha’s descendants who die in the city; and he who dies of his in the field, the birds of the sky will eat.”
- 2 Chronicles 11:15 (v9) He himself appointed priests for the high places, for the male goats, and for the calves which he had made.
- Exodus 34:17 (v9) “You shall make no cast idols for yourselves.
- Deuteronomy 32:36 (v10) For Yahweh will judge his people, and have compassion on his servants, when he sees that their power is gone; that there is no one…
- 1 Kings 16:2 (v7) “Because I exalted you out of the dust, and made you prince over my people Israel, and you have walked in the way of Jeroboam, and have…
- 1 Kings 21:21 (v10) Behold, I will bring evil on you, and will utterly sweep you away and will cut off from Ahab everyone who urinates against a wall, and him…
- 2 Kings 14:26 (v10) For Yahweh saw the affliction of Israel, that it was very bitter; for all, slave and free, and there was no helper for Israel.
- 2 Samuel 12:7-8 (v7) Nathan said to David, “You are the man. This is what Yahweh, the God of Israel, says: ‘I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you…
- 1 Kings 11:33-38 (v8) because that they have forsaken me, and have worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of Moab, and Milcom the god…
- 2 Chronicles 28:1 (v8) Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. He didn’t do that which was right in Yahweh’s…
- Acts 13:22 (v8) When he had removed him, he raised up David to be their king, to whom he also testified, ‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after…
- Acts 13:36 (v8) For David, after he had in his own generation served the counsel of God, fell asleep, was laid with his fathers, and saw decay.
- 1 Corinthians 10:22 (v9) Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?
- 1 Kings 3:14 (v8) If you will walk in my ways, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as your father David walked, then I will lengthen your days.”
- 1 Kings 11:30-31 (v8) Ahijah took the new garment that was on him, and tore it in twelve pieces. He said to Jeroboam, “Take ten pieces; for Yahweh, the God of…
- 1 Kings 21:23-24 (v11) Yahweh also spoke of Jezebel, saying, “The dogs will eat Jezebel by the rampart of Jezreel. The dogs will eat he who dies of Ahab in the…
- 2 Kings 9:8-9 (v10) For the whole house of Ahab will perish. I will cut off from Ahab everyone who urinates against a wall, both him who is shut up and him who…
- 2 Chronicles 17:3 (v8) Yahweh was with Jehoshaphat, because he walked in the first ways of his father David, and didn’t seek the Baals,
- Psalms 78:40 (v9) How often they rebelled against him in the wilderness, and grieved him in the desert!
- Psalms 106:29 (v9) Thus they provoked him to anger with their deeds. The plague broke in on them.
- Psalms 115:4-8 (v9) Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men’s hands. They have mouths, but they don’t speak. They have eyes, but they don’t see. They…
- Isaiah 44:9-20 (v9) Everyone who makes a carved image is vain. The things that they delight in will not profit. Their own witnesses don’t see, nor know, that…
- Jeremiah 7:9-10 (v9) Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, burn incense to Baal, and walk after other gods that you have not known, then come…
- Jeremiah 10:14-16 (v9) Every man has become brutish and without knowledge. Every goldsmith is disappointed by his engraved image; for his molten image is…
- Jeremiah 15:3 (v11) “I will appoint over them four kinds,” says Yahweh: “the sword to kill, the dogs to tear, the birds of the sky, and the animals of the…
- Ezekiel 8:3 (v9) He stretched out the form of a hand, and took me by a lock of my head; and the Spirit lifted me up between earth and the sky, and brought…
- Ezekiel 8:17 (v9) Then he said to me, “Have you seen this, son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they…
- Revelation 19:17-18 (v11) I saw an angel standing in the sun. He cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the sky, “Come! Be gathered together to…
- Deuteronomy 9:8-16 (v9) Also in Horeb you provoked Yahweh to wrath, and Yahweh was angry with you to destroy you. When I had gone up onto the mountain to receive…
- Deuteronomy 9:24 (v9) You have been rebellious against Yahweh from the day that I knew you.
- Deuteronomy 32:16-17 (v9) They moved him to jealousy with strange gods. They provoked him to anger with abominations. They sacrificed to demons, not God, to gods…
- Deuteronomy 32:21 (v9) They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God. They have provoked me to anger with their vanities. I will move them to jealousy…
- Judges 5:8 (v9) They chose new gods. Then war was in the gates. Was there a shield or spear seen among forty thousand in Israel?
- 1 Samuel 2:27-30 (v7) A man of God came to Eli and said to him, “Yahweh says, ‘Did I reveal myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt in bondage…
- 1 Samuel 2:30 (v10) “Therefore Yahweh, the God of Israel, says, ‘I said indeed that your house and the house of your father should walk before me forever.’ But…
- 1 Samuel 15:16 (v7) Then Samuel said to Saul, “Stay, and I will tell you what Yahweh said to me last night.” He said to him, “Say on.”
- 1 Samuel 25:22 (v10) God do so to the enemies of David, and more also, if I leave of all that belongs to him by the morning light so much as one who urinates on…
- 1 Samuel 25:34 (v10) For indeed, as Yahweh, the God of Israel, lives, who has withheld me from harming you, unless you had hurried and come to meet me, surely…
- 1 Kings 12:24 (v7) ‘Yahweh says, “You shall not go up or fight against your brothers, the children of Israel. Everyone return to his house; for this thing is…
- 1 Kings 13:33-34 (v9) After this thing Jeroboam didn’t return from his evil way, but again made priests of the high places from among all the people. Whoever…
- 1 Kings 14:16 (v9) He will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, which he has sinned, and with which he has made Israel to sin.”
- 1 Kings 14:22 (v9) Judah did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins which they committed, above all that…
- 1 Kings 15:25-30 (v10) Nadab the son of Jeroboam began to reign over Israel in the second year of Asa king of Judah; and he reigned over Israel two years. He did…
- 1 Kings 15:34 (v9) He did that which was evil in Yahweh’s sight, and walked in the way of Jeroboam, and in his sin with which he made Israel to sin.
- 1 Kings 16:11 (v10) When he began to reign, as soon as he sat on his throne, he attacked all the house of Baasha. He didn’t leave him a single one who urinates…
- 1 Kings 16:31 (v9) As if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, he took as wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal…
- 1 Kings 21:19 (v11) You shall speak to him, saying, ‘Yahweh says, “Have you killed and also taken possession?” ’ You shall speak to him, saying, ‘Yahweh says,…
- 2 Kings 9:37 (v10) and the body of Jezebel will be as dung on the face of the field on Jezreel’s land, so that they won’t say, “This is Jezebel.” ’ ”
- 2 Kings 21:3 (v9) For he built again the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; and he raised up altars for Baal, and made an Asherah, as Ahab…
- 2 Kings 21:13 (v10) I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of Ahab’s house; and I will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipes a dish, wiping…
- 2 Kings 23:26 (v9) Notwithstanding, Yahweh didn’t turn from the fierceness of his great wrath, with which his anger burned against Judah, because of all the…
- 2 Chronicles 33:6 (v9) He also made his children to pass through the fire in the valley of the son of Hinnom. He practiced sorcery, divination, and witchcraft,…
- Job 20:7 (v10) yet he will perish forever like his own dung. Those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’
- Psalms 78:56 (v9) Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God, and didn’t keep his testimonies,
- Psalms 83:10 (v10) who perished at Endor, who became as dung for the earth.
- Psalms 106:19-20 (v9) They made a calf in Horeb, and worshiped a molten image. Thus they exchanged their glory for an image of a bull that eats grass.
- Isaiah 5:25 (v10) Therefore Yahweh’s anger burns against his people, and he has stretched out his hand against them and has struck them. The mountains…
- Isaiah 14:19 (v10) But you are cast away from your tomb like an abominable branch, clothed with the slain, who are thrust through with the sword, who go down…
- Isaiah 14:23 (v10) “I will also make it a possession for the porcupine, and pools of water. I will sweep it with the broom of destruction,” says Yahweh of…
- Isaiah 66:24 (v11) “They will go out, and look at the dead bodies of the men who have transgressed against me; for their worm will not die, nor will their…
- Jeremiah 8:2 (v10) They will spread them before the sun, the moon, and all the army of the sky, which they have loved, which they have served, after which…
- Ezekiel 26:4 (v10) They will destroy the walls of Tyre, and break down her towers. I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her a bare rock.
- Ezekiel 39:17-19 (v11) “You, son of man, the Lord Yahweh says: ‘Speak to the birds of every sort, and to every animal of the field, “Assemble yourselves, and…
- Amos 3:6 (v10) Does the trumpet alarm sound in a city, without the people being afraid? Does evil happen to a city, and Yahweh hasn’t done it?
- Zephaniah 1:17 (v10) I will bring distress on men, that they will walk like blind men, because they have sinned against Yahweh, and their blood will be poured…
- Malachi 2:3 (v10) Behold, I will rebuke your offspring, and will spread dung on your faces, even the dung of your feasts; and you will be taken away with it.
- Luke 14:34-35 (v10) Salt is good, but if the salt becomes flat and tasteless, with what do you season it? It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure…
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (18 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv7, 9, 10, 11 Which wast but a servant.
Which wast but a servant.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv7–11 1Ki 14:7 Go, tell Jeroboam, Thus saith the LORD…
1Ki 14:7 Go, tell Jeroboam, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Forasmuch as I exalted thee from among the people, and made thee prince over my people Israel,
Ver. 7. Forasmuch as I exalted thee.] God upbraideth not any unless it be in case of extreme ingratitude; as here, with Jas 1:5. Qui exprobat reposcit.
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And made thee prince.] Antecessorem, a leader to others, a loade-star upon whom all should fix their eyes, and shape their course.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv7–11 They were God’s people when Jeroboam was first set…
They were God’s people when Jeroboam was first set over them.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v7 When those that set up idols, and keep them…
When those that set up idols, and keep them up, go to enquire of the Lord, he determines to answer them, not according to the pretensions of their enquiry, but according to the multitude of their idols, Eze 14:4. So Jeroboam is answered here.
I. The prophet anticipates the enquiry concerning the child, and foretels the ruin of Jeroboam's house for the wickedness of it. No one else durst have carried such a message: a servant would have smothered it, but his own wife cannot be suspected of ill-will to him.
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1. God calls himself the Lord God of Israel. Though Israel had forsaken God, God had not cast them off, nor given them a bill of divorce for their whoredoms. He is Israel's God, and therefore will take vengeance on him who did them the greatest mischief he could do them, debauched them and drew them away from God.
2. He upbraids Jeroboam with the great favour he had bestowed upon him, in making him king, exalting him from among the people, the common people, to be prince over God's chosen Israel, and taking the kingdom from the house of David, to bestow it upon him. Whether we keep an account of God's mercies to us or no, he does, and will set even them in order before us, if we be ungrateful, to our greater confusion; otherwise he gives and upbraids not.
3. He charges him with his impiety and apostasy, and his idolatry particularly: Thou hast done evil above all that were before thee, Kg1 14:9. Saul, that was rejected, never worshipped idols; Solomon did it but occasionally, in his dotage, and never made Israel to sin. Jeroboam's calves, though pretended to be set up in honour of the God of Israel, that brought them up out of Egypt, yet are here called other gods, or strange gods, because in them he worshipped God as the heathen worshipped their strange gods, because by them he changed the truth of God into a lie and represented him as altogether different from what he is, and because many of the ignorant worshippers terminated their devotion in the image, and did not at all regard the God of Israel. Though they were calves of gold, the richness of the metal was so far from making them acceptable to God that they provoked him to anger, designedly affronted him, under colour of pleasing him. In doing this, (1.) He had not set David before him (Kg1 14:8): Thou hast not been as my servant David, who, though he had his faults and some bad ones, yet never forsook the worship of God nor grew loose nor cold to that; his faithful adherence to that gained him this honourable character, that he followed God with all his heart, and herein he was proposed for an example to all his successors. Those did not do well that did not do like David. (2.) He had not set God before him, but (Kg1 14:9), "Thou hast cast me behind thy back, my law, my fear; thou hast neglected me, forgotten me, and preferred thy policies before my precepts."
4. He foretels the utter ruin of Jeroboam's house, Kg1 14:10, Kg1 14:11. He thought, by his idolatry, to establish his government, and by that he not only lost it, but brought destruction upon his family, the universal destruction of all the males, whether shut up or left, married or unmarried. (1.) Shameful destruction. They shall be taken away as dung, which is loathsome and which men are glad to be rid of. He worshipped dunghill-deities, and God removed his family as a great dunghill. Noble and royal families, if wicked, are no better in God's account. (2.) Unusual destruction. Their very dead bodies should be meat for the dogs in the street, or the birds of prey in the field, Kg1 14:11. Thus evil pursues sinners. See this fulfilled, Kg1 15:29.
5. He foretels the immediate death of the sick child, Kg1 14:12, Kg1 14:13.
(1.) In mercy to him, lest, if he live, he be infected with the sin, and so involved in the ruin, of his father's house. Observe the character given of him: In him was found some good thing towards the Lord God of Israel, in the house of Jeroboam. He had an affection for the true worship of God and disliked the worship of the calves. Note, [1.] Those are good in whom are good things towards the Lord God of Israel, good inclinations, good intentions, good desires, towards him. [2.] Where there is but some good thing of that kind it will be found: God, who seeks it, sees it be it ever so little and is pleased with it. [3.] A little grace goes a great way with great people. It is so rare to find princes well affected to religion that, when they are so, they are worthy of double honour. [4.] Pious dispositions are in a peculiar manner amiable and acceptable when they are found in those that are young. The divine image in miniature has a peculiar beauty and lustre in it. [5.] Those that are good in bad times and places shine very brightly in the eyes of God. A good child in the house of Jeroboam is a miracle of divine grace: to be there untainted is like being in the fiery furnace unhurt, unsinged. Observe the care taken of him: he only, of all Jeroboam's family, shall die in honour, shall be buried, and shall be lamented as one that lived desired. Note, Those that are distinguished by divine grace shall be distinguished by divine providence. This hopeful child dies first of all the family, for God often takes those soonest whom he loves best. Heaven is the fittest place for them; this earth is not worthy of them.
(2.) In wrath to the family. [1.] It was a sign the family would be ruined when he was taken by whom it might have been reformed. The righteous are removed from the evil to come in this world, to the good to come in a better world. It is a bad omen to a family when the best in it are buried out of it; when what was valuable is picked out the rest is for the fire. [2.] It was likewise a present affliction to the family and kingdom, by which both ought to have been bettered; and this aggravated the affliction to the poor mother that she should not reach home time enough to see her son alive: When thy feet enter into the city, just then the child shall die. This was to be a sign to her of the accomplishment of the rest of the threatenings, as Sa1 2:34.
6. He foretels the setting up of another family to rule over Israel, Kg1 14:14. This was fulfilled in Baasha of Issachar, who conspired against Nadab the son of Jeroboam, in the second year of his reign, murdered him and all his family. "But what? Even now. Why do I speak of it as a thing at a distance? It is at the door. It shall be done even now." Sometimes God makes quick work with sinners; he did so with the house of Jeroboam. It was not twenty-four years from his first elevation to the final extirpation of his family.
7. He foretels the judgments which should come upon the people of Israel for conforming to the worship which Jeroboam had established. If the blind lead the blind, both the blind leaders and the blind followers shall fall into the ditch. It is here foretold, Kg1 14:15, (1.) That they should never be easy, nor rightly settled in their land, but continually shaken like a reed in the water. After they left the house of David, the government never continued long in one family, but one undermined and destroyed another, which must needs occasion great disorders and disturbances among the people. (2.) That they should, ere long, be totally expelled out of their land, that good land, and given up to ruin, Kg1 14:16. This was fulfilled in the captivity of the ten tribes by the king of Assyria. Families and kingdoms are ruined by sin, ruined by the wickedness of the heads of them. Jeroboam did sin, and made Israel to sin. If great men do wickedly, they involve many others both in the guilt and in the snare; multitudes follow their pernicious ways. They go to hell with a long train, and their condemnation will be the more intolerable, for they must answer, not only for their own sins, but for the sins which others have been drawn into and kept in by their influence.
II. Jeroboam's wife has nothing to say against the word of the Lord, but she goes home with a heavy heart to their house in Tirzah, a sweet delightful place, so the name signifies, famed for its beauty, Sol 6:4. But death, which will stain its beauty and embitter all its delights, cannot be shut out from it. Hither she came, and here we leave her attending the funeral of her son, and expecting the fate of her family. 1. The child died (Kg1 14:17), and justly did all Israel mourn, not only for the loss of so hopeful a prince, whom they were not worthy of, but because his death plucked up the flood-gates, and made a breach, at which an inundation of judgments broke in. 2. Jeroboam himself died soon after, Kg1 14:20. It is said (Ch2 13:20), The Lord struck him with some sore disease, so that he died miserably, when he had reigned twenty-two years, and left his crown to a son who lost it, and his life too, and all the lives of his family, within two years after. For a further account of him the reader is referred to the annals of his reign, drawn up by his own secretaries, or to the public records, like those in the Tower, called here, The Book or register, of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel, to which recourse might then be had; but, not being divinely inspired, these records are long since lost.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv7–11 And rent the kingdom away from the house of…
And rent the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it thee,.... Even ten parts out of twelve:
and yet thou hast not been as my servant David, who kept my commandments, and who followed me with all his heart, to do that only which was right in mine eyes; who never was guilty of idolatry, but always constantly and cordially attended the pure worship of God, and was careful to do everything in that according to the will of God, whatever else he might be deficient in.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv9–11 Above all - Above all the former kings of…
Above all - Above all the former kings of my people, as Saul, and Solomon, and Rehoboam. Images - Namely the golden calves: not as if they thought them to be other gods in a proper sense; for it is apparent they still pretended to worship the God of their fathers, but because God rejected their whole worship, and, howsoever they accounted it, he reckoned it a manifest defection from him, and a betaking themselves to other gods, or devils, as they are called, 2 Chron. xi, 15, whom alone they served and worshipped therein, whatsoever pretenses they had to the contrary. To provoke - Whereby thou didst provoke me. For otherwise this was not Jeroboam's design in it, but only to establish himself in the throne. Hast cast - Despised and forsaken me, and my commands, and my worship, as we do things which we cast behind our backs.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv8, 10, 11 Verse 8. And rent the kingdom away from the…
Verse 8. And rent the kingdom away from the house of David] That is, permitted it to be rent, because of the folly and insolence of Rehoboam.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv8–10 1Ki 14:8. Thou hast not been as my servant…
1Ki 14:8. Thou hast not been as my servant David — Who, though he fell into some sins, yet, 1st, He constantly persevered in the true worship of God; from which thou art revolted; 2d, He heartily repented of, and turned from all his sins, whereas thou art obstinate and incorrigible.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv7, 9, 10, 11 As Jeroboam’s appointment to the kingdom had been formally…
As Jeroboam’s appointment to the kingdom had been formally announced to him by the prophet Ahijah, so the same prophet is commissioned to acquaint him with his forfeiture of it. Compare 1Sa 15:26-28.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv9–11 Strange gods; that is, foreign gods: which expression destroys…
Strange gods; that is, foreign gods: which expression destroys the opinion of those who imagine that Jeroboam designed by his calves to worship the Lord God of Israel. (Challoner) --- Back. Literally, "body."
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv8, 10 thou hast not been as my servant David--David, though…
thou hast not been as my servant David--David, though he fell into grievous sins, repented and always maintained the pure worship of God as enjoined by the law.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv9–11 9. Cast me behind thy back — An expression…
9. Cast me behind thy back — An expression the exact opposite of having God before one’s eyes, and denoting in the strongest manner the utter rejection of the counsels of Jehovah. Compare Ezekiel xxiii, 35.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv9–11 9. but hast done evil above all that were…
9. but hast done evil above all that were before thee] This must refer not only to the kings who had preceded Jeroboam, but to the cases of idolatry in the earlier days, e.g. of the Judges. There had been no such instance of sin in the lives of David or of Saul, and Solomon’s transgression had been the building of temples and the setting up of images for his strange wives, who were already idolaters.
for thou hast gone] R.V. ‘and thou hast gone’. The conjunction is the simple copulative.
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other gods] So certain was the making of an image, even if it was to represent Jehovah, to lead to the introduction of false worship, that God speaks of it as already effected.
and hast cast me behind thy back] An expression indicative of the extremest contempt. It is used Neh_9:26 of the whole national sin which led to the captivity, and in Eze_23:35, where the prophet is describing the apostasy of Aholibah.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv7, 9, 10, 11 (7, 8) I exalted thee.—There is throughout a close…
(7, 8) I exalted thee.—There is throughout a close allusion to Ahijah’s prophecy (1Ki_11:31; 1Ki_11:37-38), which promised Jeroboam “a sure house, like that of David,” on condition of the obedience of David. The sin of Jeroboam lay in this—that he had had a full probation, with unlimited opportunities, and had deliberately thrown it away, in the vain hope of making surer the kingdom which God’s promise had already made sure. The lesson is, indeed, a general one. The resolution to succeed at all hazards, striking out new ways, with no respect for time-honoured laws and principles, is in all revolutions the secret of immediate success and ultimate disaster. But in the Scripture history, here as elsewhere, we are permitted to see the working of God’s moral government of the world, unveiled in the inspired declarations of His prophetic messenger.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv7–11 Go, tell Jeroboam, Thus saith the Lord Cod of…
Go, tell Jeroboam, Thus saith the Lord Cod of Israel, Forasmuch as I exalted thee from among the people (compare 2Sa_12:8; Psa_78:70; 1Ki_16:2) and made thee prince over my people Israel. God still claims dominion over Israel, despite the schism. They are still His people, and He is still their God,
Vers. 7-11.
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Hard Tidings.
Such is the character given by the prophet to the matter of the text (ver. 6). What we translate "heavy tidings" is, in the Hebrew, as in the margin, hard. The uses of the word (h in several places suggest that it should be here taken as indicating retributive judgments merited by one who had hardened his heart in sin. Observe
I PRIVILEGES INVOLVE RESPONSIBILITIES. Thus
1. Special favour calls for special gratitude.
(1) Jeroboam was "exalted from among the people." He was "an Ephrathite of Zereda," an obscure place, mentioned once, and that only in connection with his birth (ch1Ki 11:26). The names of his parents also had remained in obscurity but for the figure he cut in history.
(2) He was made "prince" over the "people of God." This was a splendid distinction. A people is great, not through its number or the extent of its territories, but from its virtues. (see Deu_7:6 Deu_14:2 Deu_26:18, Deu_26:19) What an influence has that people exerted upon human destinies!
(3) The kingdom rent from the house of David was given to him. Jeroboam, then, was placed in succession to that David who had led the armies of Israel to victory! Also to that Solomon who had built the temple, and who, in the earlier part of his career, fined the world with the fame of surpassing wisdom!
2. The favored are compared with their peers.
(1) Jeroboam was a compeer to David. Both were need from humble station David from the sheep, Jeroboam from the army. (1Ki_11:28) Both ascended the throne of Israel founded dynasties.
(2) But how do they compare? "David kept the commandments of God" followed Him "with all his heart." This did not Jeroboam. Melancholyrecord, he did nothing for God!
3. They are contrasted with their peers.
(1) Jeroboam "had done evil above all that were before him." More than Saul, who never worshipped idols. More than Solomon, who did not make Israel to sin.
(2) Jeroboam made "other gods; and" (or even) "molten images." Note: He intended his calves to represent the God of Israel; but the God of Israel Himself calls them "other gods." So are the images of Antichrist other gods though baptized with Christian names. This was worse than the idolatry of Solomon. The caricaturing of the true God is more offensive to Him than the worshipping of His creatures. Let the worshippers of barbarous pictures of the Holy Trinity, in which the Almighty is pourtrayed as a decrepit old man, and such like, seriously consider this.
(3) Jeroboam is described as having "cast" the God of Israel "behind his back." What a startling figure! How descriptive of the sin of those who now neglect God!
II RESPONSIBILITIES ABUSED PROVOKE JUDGMENTS. Amongst these may he mentioned
1. The bitter sense of wasted opportunity.
(1) Jeroboam is reminded that he once had the grand chance of making for himself a "sure house like David". (see 1Ki_11:38) What golden opportunities may we not have wasted!
(2) That though the more glorious chance was missed and lost, he had then a gracious season of warnings, which also he let slip. (See events recorded ch. 13.) This respite improved might have averted, and would have mitigated, the severity of the judgments impending. (compare 1Ki_21:29)
2. The knowledge that the day of vengeance has set in.
(1) An admonition of such a day was implied in the earlier prophecy of Ahijah, in the judgments then denounced against the house of David for the sin of Solomon. (1Ki_11:30-38)
(2) This admonition was declared explicitly in the message of the man of God from Judah, and solemnly impressed by the signs attending and following (ch. 13.)
(3) Now Ahijah announces that these judgments are taking effect. But even now, had Jeroboam come to God in the spirit of repentance, though his sin is "unto death," yet might he save his soul. It is hard now to break a chain so riveted as that is by which he has bound himself. No repentante being evinced, the knell of doom sounds forth like the echoes of the closing door of Noah"s ark, which announced mercy fled and wrath begun.
3. The severity of the sentence.
(1) The honour of the house of Jeroboam is to be brought down to ignominy.
(2) The carcases of members of this family are to be consumed by carrion feeders. Such are the swords of the wicked (compare Gen_15:11; Jer_34:18-20) Whether by the sword of Baasha, or literally, after that sword had done its part, the words of Ahijah came true. (see 1Ki_15:29) "The doom of the house of Jeroboam was a figure of that of the house of this man of sin. (see Rev_19:17, Rev_19:18) God knows the proud afar off. But He gives grace to the humble. J.A.M.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v8 David kept my commandments . . . thou hast…
1Ki_14:8-9
David kept my commandments . . . thou hast gone and made thee other gods.
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Servitude or service-which?
The people of God had left their God, and He had left them, so that Shishak, the King of Egypt, came against them; and though the Lord had respect to their humble prayer, and would not suffer Shishak to destroy Jerusalem, yet He brought them into subjection to the Egyptian king. Our text tells us the reason for this servitude: They shall be his servants; that they may know My service, and the service of the kingdoms of the countries.
I. There are some who have already chosen the service of the kingdoms of the countless. We have many round about us who have deliberately chosen not to serve God, but to serve other masters.
1. Some choose to be the slaves of open sin.
2. There are many persons who are not the worshippers of vice, but they are the votaries of money-making. They are the slaves of the thirst for wealth.
3. There are some others who do not try to get much money, but they are lovers of fashion, lovers of society, admirers of the world.
4. Then there is another cult that has lately come up, which some have chosen, so that they have become the devotees of culture.
5. I will only refer to one more class of those who have chosen the service of the kingdoms; these are the seekers of self-righteousness. This is an old-fashioned and very respectable deity whom many still worship.
II. Some seem to be pining to give up the service of God, and to go to the service of the kingdoms. It is a strange thing; but this evil is always breaking out even among the people of God.
1. Some want to change out of sheer love of change.
2. Some want to be off to their idols, because of the outward aspect of the new thing.
3. Sometimes men turn aside because of their loss of joy in the service of God. They are not serving the Lord as they used to do; they are doing but little for Him.
4. Then there are many who are led to want a change from the service of God by the flagging of others.
5. There are some who turn aside because religion now has brought them to a point where it entails some extra self-sacrifice.
III. There is a great contrast between the service of God and any other service.
1. If you are about to engage in the service of God, there is nothing demanded of you that will harm you. There Is no commandment of God which, if you keep it, will injure either your body or your soul.
2. Next, notice that there is nothing denied you, in the service of God, that would be a blessing to you. The promise is, No good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly
3. Once more observe that in the service of God strength will always be given according to your day.
4. And all the while that you are the servant of God, you have a sweet peace in reflecting upon what you have done. As George Herbert said, when he helped a poor woman with her load, and men wondered that the parson of the parish should carry a poor womans basket for her, The memory of this will make the bells ring in my heart at night, so the service of God makes the bells ring in our hearts.
5. Lastly, there is above all this a hope of the eternal reward which is so soon to come. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv9, 11 thrust me behind your back
thrust me behind your back
Jeroboam has disrespected Yahweh like a person throws away something that is not wanted. AT: "completely rejected me" (See: Metaphor)
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look
"pay attention." This word is added to indicate that what follows is important.
I will cut off ... and will completely remove
These two phrases are very similar in meaning and are repeated for emphasis. (See: Parallelism)
cut off from you every male child in Israel
Yahweh speaks of destroying Jeroboam's family and preventing him from having any descendants as if he were cutting them off as one would cut a branch from a tree. AT: "destroy every one of your male children in Israel" (See: Metaphor)
will completely remove your family, like someone who burns up dung until it is gone
This simile compares the removal of every descendant of Jeroboam with the complete burning up of dung that was mixed with straw, dried, and burned for fuel. (See: Simile)
translationWords
evil
false god
image
anger
cut off
kingdom of Israel
free
dung
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv7, 8, 11 14:7 God had blessed Jeroboam and established him as…
14:7 God had blessed Jeroboam and established him as ruler in Israel (see study note on 1:35). However, Jeroboam abused God’s appointment with his false religion.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.