1 Kings 14 Study Notes

14:1-3 Jeroboam continued his erratic, inconsistent behavior. The king was double-minded or indecisive (Jms 1:8), disobeying God and trying to seek favors from him at the same time.

14:4-5 In dealing with the query of Jeroboam’s wife, God again worked in supernatural ways. God was meeting the people at their own level.

14:6-9 Under all the OT covenants, God’s people earned earthly blessings from him by obeying the stipulations of their covenants with the Lord. The king was to be the leader in obeying and enforcing obedience to the covenant. David was the model of a king who led the people in faithful commitment to loyal worship of the Lord. In their origins David and Jeroboam were similar—God had lifted both from obscurity to power (see 2Sm 7:8)—but Jeroboam, unlike David, failed to encourage proper worship. He led the people into false worship.

14:10-11 God pronounced a third statement of judgment on Jeroboam and his family (see notes at 13:2-3, 33-34). This was a thorough judgment. It included such horrors as annihilation of the family and the disgrace of their corpses.

14:12-13 Since God had found something favorable in Jeroboam’s sick son, a peaceful death and burial were his reward. The Bible does not reveal what the good thing was.

14:14-16 Jeroboam’s sin resulted in God’s raising up a new king who would destroy Jeroboam’s dynasty. The ultimate seriousness of Jeroboam’s sin and of this judgment was expressed by threatening the loss of the land (Lv 26:33). This is one of the earliest statements in 1 Kings that defined the place of exile as beyond the Euphrates. While the latter part of this prophesy would be almost 190 years in coming, God was preparing Baasha on that very day to wipe out Jeroboam’s dynasty (15:29).

14:17-18 Here is the fulfillment of vv. 12-13.

14:19-20 The record of Jeroboam ends with a conventional closing. The Historical Records of Israel’s Kings were a written account of all the important royal events, probably compiled by the court secretary (2Sm 8:17). Judah’s kings had their records as well (v. 29). These records were available for review (Est 6:1). At this time literacy was widespread and employed in business, legal, and religious matters. These records did not survive; this is not the same as the books of 1 and 2 Chronicles.

14:21-31 Rehoboam, Solomon’s son, was the first of many kings for whom the Bible gives complete formal data. The typical pattern included (1) a formal beginning; (2) an evaluation of his reign, perhaps including some relevant historical notes; and (3) a formal ending. Some of the formal elements of a king’s record could be omitted or preempted by other elements.

14:21 Every element in this opening, except the description of Jerusalem as the city . . . the Lord had chosen, is stereotypical formula.

14:22-24 This list of wicked deeds is even more degrading than the typical offenses of some northern kings. At this point, the north could claim to be worshiping the Lord, though in a manner contrary to his instructions. Judah had sunk into degraded paganism. And the responsibility for this degradation is traceable directly to the throne. Judah’s failure was Rehoboam’s failure. The text notes that these were the vices of the people whom God had helped the Israelites to drive out of the promised land.

14:25 Including data from Egyptian records along with the Bible, we can see how weak the two Israelite kingdoms had become as a result of the invasion of Shishak. A briefly resurgent Egypt had a large army, and Pharaoh used this army for a devastating plundering raid into Palestine. These invaders, which Solomon’s chariots at their height might have easily driven back, plundered both Judah and Israel—including the prosperous merchant cities that opened into the Plain of Esdraelon. Rehoboam’s inexperienced levies, which had sounded so grand when mobilized to recapture Israel (12:21), were so helpless against Shishak’s Libyan soldiers that they could not even protect Jerusalem from a siege. The Egyptian record of conquered places included a list of fortifications in the Arabah that were crucial for defending the trade route from the Red Sea. The reason for destroying these protective outposts was to divert the lucrative Red Sea maritime trade to Egypt.

14:26-28 Rehoboam’s replacement of the plundered gold shields with less valuable bronze shields was a fitting symbol of the decline of the nation’s glory and wealth. That they were kept ready in the armory when not in use, instead of on ceremonial display, speaks of the insecurity of the period.

14:29-31 Though not as clearly formal as the opener, the closing paragraph of Rehoboam’s rule follows the typical format. It contains the formula statement that the remaining deeds of Rehoboam are recorded in Judah’s Historical Record (see note at vv. 19-20). It mentions the continual border warfare between the kingdoms. This was probably ineffective skirmishing since the militaries of both kingdoms seem to have been generally ineffective. The mention of Rehoboam’s mother’s Ammonite heritage may hint that her pagan influence (15:13) affected her son’s character. For the kings of Judah, it was common to list the mother’s name.