The Death of Jeroboam's Son

¹At that time King Jeroboam's son Abijah got sick.

²Jeroboam said to his wife, “Disguise yourself so that no one will recognize you, and go to Shiloh, where the prophet Ahijah lives, the one who said I would be king of Israel.

³Take him ten loaves of bread, some cakes, and a jar of honey. Ask him what is going to happen to our son, and he will tell you.”

⁴So she went to Ahijah's home in Shiloh. Old age had made Ahijah blind.

⁵The Lord had told him that Jeroboam's wife was coming to ask him about her son, who was sick. And the Lord told Ahijah what to say. When Jeroboam's wife arrived, she pretended to be someone else.

⁶But when Ahijah heard her coming in the door, he said, “Come in. I know you are Jeroboam's wife. Why are you pretending to be someone else? I have bad news for you.

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

⁸I took the kingdom away from David's descendants and gave it to you. But you have not been like my servant David, who was completely loyal to me, obeyed my commands, and did only what I approve of.

⁹You have committed far greater sins than those who ruled before you. You have rejected me and have aroused my anger by making idols and metal images to worship.

¹⁰Because of this I will bring disaster on your dynasty and will kill all your male descendants, young and old alike. I will get rid of your family; they will be swept away like dung.

¹¹Any members of your family who die in the city will be eaten by dogs, and any who die in the open country will be eaten by vultures. I, the Lord, have spoken.’”

¹²And Ahijah went on to say to Jeroboam's wife, “Now go back home. As soon as you enter the town, your son will die.

¹³All the people of Israel will mourn for him and bury him. He will be the only member of Jeroboam's family who will be properly buried, because he is the only one with whom the Lord, the God of Israel, is pleased.

¹⁴The Lord is going to place a king over Israel who will put an end to Jeroboam's dynasty.

¹⁵The Lord will punish Israel, and she will shake like a reed shaking in a stream. He will uproot the people of Israel from this good land which he gave to their ancestors, and he will scatter them beyond the Euphrates River, because they have aroused his anger by making idols of the goddess Asherah.

¹⁶The Lord will abandon Israel because Jeroboam sinned and led the people of Israel into sin.”

¹⁷Jeroboam's wife went back to Tirzah. Just as she entered her home, the child died.

¹⁸The people of Israel mourned for him and buried him, as the Lord had said through his servant, the prophet Ahijah.

The Death of Jeroboam

¹⁹Everything else that King Jeroboam did, the wars he fought and how he ruled, are all recorded in The History of the Kings of Israel.

²⁰Jeroboam ruled as king for twenty-two years. He died and was buried, and his son Nadab succeeded him as king.

King Rehoboam of Judah

²¹Solomon's son Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the Lord had chosen from all the territory of Israel as the place where he was to be worshiped. Rehoboam's mother was Naamah from Ammon.

²²The people of Judah sinned against the Lord and did more to arouse his anger against them than all their ancestors had done.

²³They built places of worship for false gods and put up stone pillars and symbols of Asherah to worship on the hills and under shady trees.

²⁴Worst of all, there were men and women who served as prostitutes at those pagan places of worship. The people of Judah practiced all the shameful things done by the people whom the Lord had driven out of the land as the Israelites advanced into the country.

²⁵In the fifth year of Rehoboam's reign King Shishak of Egypt attacked Jerusalem.

²⁶He took away all the treasures in the Temple and in the palace, including the gold shields Solomon had made.

²⁷To replace them, King Rehoboam made bronze shields and entrusted them to the officers responsible for guarding the palace gates.

²⁸Every time the king went to the Temple, the guards carried the shields and then returned them to the guardroom.

²⁹Everything else that King Rehoboam did is recorded in The History of the Kings of Judah.

³⁰During all this time Rehoboam and Jeroboam were constantly at war with each other.

³¹Rehoboam died and was buried in the royal tombs in David's City and his son Abijah succeeded him as king.

King Asa Defeats the Ethiopians

¹King Abijah died and was buried in the royal tombs in David's City. His son Asa succeeded him as king, and under Asa the land enjoyed peace for ten years.

²Asa pleased the Lord, his God, by doing what was right and good.

³He removed the foreign altars and the pagan places of worship, broke down the sacred stone columns, and cut down the symbols of the goddess Asherah.

⁴He commanded the people of Judah to do the will of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, and to obey his teachings and commands.

⁵Because he abolished the pagan places of worship and the incense altars from all the cities of Judah, the kingdom was at peace under his rule.

⁶He built fortifications for the cities of Judah during this time, and for several years there was no war, because the Lord gave him peace.

⁷He told the people of Judah, “Let us fortify the cities by building walls and towers, and gates that can be shut and barred. We have control of the land because we have done the will of the Lord our God. He has protected us and given us security on every side.” And so they built and prospered.

⁸King Asa had an army of 300,000 men from Judah, armed with shields and spears, and 280,000 men from Benjamin, armed with shields and bows. All of them were brave, well-trained men.

⁹An Ethiopian named Zerah invaded Judah with an army of a million men and three hundred chariots and advanced as far as Mareshah.

¹⁰Asa went out to fight him, and both sides took up their positions at Zephathah Valley near Mareshah.

¹¹Asa prayed to the Lord his God, “O Lord, you can help a weak army as easily as a powerful one. Help us now, O Lord our God, because we are relying on you, and in your name we have come out to fight against this huge army. Lord, you are our God; no one can hope to defeat you.”

¹²The Lord defeated the Ethiopian army when Asa and the Judean army attacked them. They fled,

¹³and Asa and his troops pursued them as far as Gerar. So many of the Ethiopians were killed that the army was unable to rally and fight. They were overpowered by the Lord and his army, and the army took large amounts of loot.

¹⁴Then they were able to destroy the cities in the area around Gerar, because the people there were terrified of the Lord. The army plundered all those cities and captured large amounts of loot.

¹⁵They also attacked the camps of some shepherds, capturing large numbers of sheep and camels. Then they returned to Jerusalem.

Asa's Reforms

¹The spirit of God came upon Azariah son of Oded,

²and he went to meet King Asa. He called out, “Listen to me, King Asa, and all you people of Judah and Benjamin! The Lord is with you as long as you are with him. If you look for him, he will let you find him, but if you turn away, he will abandon you.

³For a long time Israel lived without the true God, without priests to teach them, and without a law.

⁴But when trouble came, they turned to the Lord, the God of Israel. They searched for him and found him.

⁵In those days no one could come and go in safety, because there was trouble and disorder in every land.

⁶One nation oppressed another nation, and one city oppressed another city, because God was bringing trouble and distress on them.

⁷But you must be strong and not be discouraged. The work that you do will be rewarded.”

⁸When Asa heard the prophecy that Azariah son of Oded had spoken, he was encouraged. He did away with all the idols in the land of Judah and Benjamin and all the idols in the cities he had captured in the hill country of Ephraim. He also repaired the altar of the Lord that stood in the Temple courtyard.

⁹Many people had come over to Asa's side from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon, and were living in his kingdom, because they had seen that the Lord was with him. Asa summoned all of them and the people of Judah and Benjamin.

¹⁰They assembled in Jerusalem in the third month of the fifteenth year that Asa was king.

¹¹On that day they offered sacrifices to the Lord from the loot they had brought back: seven hundred head of cattle and seven thousand sheep.

¹²They made a covenant in which they agreed to worship the Lord, the God of their ancestors, with all their heart and soul.

¹³Anyone, young or old, male or female, who did not worship him was to be put to death.

¹⁴In a loud voice they took an oath in the Lord's name that they would keep the covenant, and then they shouted and blew trumpets.

¹⁵All the people of Judah were happy because they had made this covenant with all their heart. They took delight in worshiping the Lord, and he accepted them and gave them peace on every side.

¹⁶King Asa removed his grandmother Maacah from her position as queen mother, because she had made an obscene idol of the fertility goddess Asherah. Asa cut down the idol, chopped it up, and burned the pieces in Kidron Valley.

¹⁷Even though Asa did not destroy all the pagan places of worship in the land, he remained faithful to the Lord all his life.

¹⁸He placed in the Temple all the objects his father Abijah had dedicated to God, as well as the gold and silver objects that he himself dedicated.

¹⁹There was no more war until the thirty-fifth year of his reign.

¹Asleep on my bed, night after night I dreamed of the one I love; I was looking for him, but couldn't find him.

²I went wandering through the city, through its streets and alleys. I looked for the one I love. I looked, but couldn't find him.

³The sentries patrolling the city saw me. I asked them, “Have you found my lover?”

⁴As soon as I left them, I found him. I held him and wouldn't let him go until I took him to my mother's house, to the room where I was born.

⁵Promise me, women of Jerusalem; swear by the swift deer and the gazelles that you will not interrupt our love.

The Woman

⁶What is this coming from the desert like a column of smoke, fragrant with incense and myrrh, the incense sold by the traders?

⁷Solomon is coming, carried on his throne; sixty soldiers form the bodyguard, the finest soldiers in Israel.

⁸All of them are skillful with the sword; they are battle-hardened veterans. Each of them is armed with a sword, on guard against a night attack.

⁹King Solomon is carried on a throne made of the finest wood.

¹⁰Its posts are covered with silver; over it is cloth embroidered with gold. Its cushions are covered with purple cloth, lovingly woven by the women of Jerusalem.

¹¹Women of Zion, come and see King Solomon. He is wearing the crown that his mother placed on his head on his wedding day, on the day of his gladness and joy.