Verse-by-Verse Commentary
The Book of 1 Kings
Chapter 14: Why Feignest Thou Thyself to Be Another?
When his son falls sick, Jeroboam sends his disguised wife to the blind prophet Ahijah, but no disguise can hide from God. Ahijah pronounces the doom of Jeroboam's house and foretells Israel's scattering. The chapter closes with the reign of Rehoboam in Judah, whose people also fall into idolatry, and the humbling invasion of Shishak of Egypt.
About This Commentary
This is a verse-by-verse study of 1 Kings chapter 14. For each section you will find the KJV text, the Hebrew words that sharpen the meaning, plain explanation, and a Gospel Focus. Every Scripture quotation is from the King James Version.
Ahijah's Prophecy (1 Kings 14:1-16)
Jeroboam's disguised wife comes to the blind prophet, and he pronounces the doom of Jeroboam's house.
Come In, Thou Wife of Jeroboam
"At that time Abijah the son of Jeroboam fell sick. And Jeroboam said to his wife, Arise, I pray thee, and disguise thyself, that thou be not known to be the wife of Jeroboam; and get thee to Shiloh: behold, there is Ahijah the prophet, which told me that I should be king over this people. And take with thee ten loaves, and cracknels, and a cruse of honey, and go to him: he shall tell thee what shall become of the child. And Jeroboam's wife did so, and arose, and went to Shiloh, and came to the house of Ahijah. But Ahijah could not see; for his eyes were set by reason of his age. And the LORD said unto Ahijah, Behold, the wife of Jeroboam cometh to ask a thing of thee for her son; for he is sick: thus and thus shalt thou say unto her: for it shall be, when she cometh in, that she shall feign herself to be another woman. And it was so, when Ahijah heard the sound of her feet, as she came in at the door, that he said, Come in, thou wife of Jeroboam; why feignest thou thyself to be another? for I am sent to thee with heavy tidings. 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. Arise thou therefore, get thee to thine own house: and when thy feet enter into the city, the child shall die. And all Israel shall mourn for him, and bury him: for he only of Jeroboam shall come to the grave, because in him there is found some good thing toward the LORD God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam. Moreover the LORD shall raise him up a king over Israel, who shall cut off the house of Jeroboam that day: but what? even now. For the LORD shall smite Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water, and he shall root up Israel out of this good land, which he gave to their fathers, and shall scatter them beyond the river, because they have made their groves, provoking the LORD to anger. And he shall give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, who did sin, and who made Israel to sin."
Word Study
"why feignest thou thyself to be another?" Hebrew nakar in the reflexive, to make oneself unrecognizable, to disguise. Jeroboam's whole scheme was to hide the truth: he sent his wife disguised, hoping the prophet would give a favorable word without knowing whose wife she was. But God told the blind Ahijah everything before she arrived, and at the sound of her feet he said, "Come in, thou wife of Jeroboam; why feignest thou thyself to be another?" There is a piercing irony here. Jeroboam trusted this same prophet's word when it made him king (chapter 11), but now he tries to deceive him; and a man who had "cast me behind thy back," turning from the God he could not see, imagines he can hide from that God behind a disguise. But "all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do" (Hebrews 4:13). No disguise deceives God. The message is "heavy tidings": because Jeroboam, unlike David, made molten images and provoked God, his house would be utterly cut off, swept away "as a man taketh away dung." Yet even here mercy glimmers: the sick child alone would be buried with honor and mourning, "because in him there is found some good thing toward the LORD." God sees the one good thing in a doomed house as surely as He sees through every disguise.
Explanation
When Jeroboam's son Abijah fell sick, the king sent his wife in disguise to the aged, now blind, prophet Ahijah, the very man who had once told Jeroboam he would be king, hoping for a word about the child without revealing her identity. But God warned Ahijah in advance, and as soon as he heard her footsteps he greeted her by name and announced "heavy tidings." Through Ahijah, God rehearsed His kindness to Jeroboam, exalting him and giving him the kingdom, and Jeroboam's ingratitude, making molten images and casting God behind his back, doing worse than all before him. Therefore God would bring total destruction on Jeroboam's house, every male cut off and left unburied for dogs and birds. Only the sick child would die in peace and be mourned, because God found "some good thing" in him. And beyond Jeroboam's house, God foretold the eventual uprooting and scattering of all Israel because of the sins Jeroboam had led them into.
Gospel Focus
"Why feignest thou thyself to be another?" No disguise hides us from God. Jeroboam thought a costume could fool the prophet, and beneath it thought he could serve idols and still escape the God he had "cast behind his back." But God sees all: "neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight" (Hebrews 4:13). This is a terror to the hypocrite and a comfort to the honest heart. It means we cannot hide our sin, so we must confess it, not costume it: "he that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy" (Proverbs 28:13). And it means God also sees the "some good thing" in us, the faintest genuine leaning toward Him, as He saw it in a dying child in a wicked house. He does not despise the smallest true desire for Himself; "a bruised reed shall he not break" (Isaiah 42:3). Do not come to God in disguise, pretending to be better than you are or hoping to hide what you are. Come as you are, in honest confession, to the God who sees everything and yet receives all who turn to Him.
The Child Dies; Jeroboam's End (1 Kings 14:17-20)
As the mother's feet cross the threshold the child dies, exactly as the LORD had spoken.
According to the Word of the LORD
"And Jeroboam's wife arose, and departed, and came to Tirzah: and when she came to the threshold of the door, the child died; And they buried him; and all Israel mourned for him, according to the word of the LORD, which he spake by the hand of his servant Ahijah the prophet. And the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, how he warred, and how he reigned, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel. And the days which Jeroboam reigned were two and twenty years: and he slept with his fathers, and Nadab his son reigned in his stead."
Word Study
"according to the word of the LORD, which he spake by the hand of his servant Ahijah." The refrain that governed chapter 13 sounds again: everything happened "according to the word of the LORD." Ahijah had said the child would die the moment his mother's feet entered the city, and so it was, "when she came to the threshold of the door, the child died." The precision of the fulfillment underscores the great theme of the books of Kings: the word of the LORD, spoken by His prophets, unfailingly comes to pass, in mercy and in judgment alike. The phrase "by the hand of his servant" pictures the prophet as the instrument through whom God's word is delivered, the word is the LORD's, the prophet merely His hand. Jeroboam himself reigned twenty-two years and "slept with his fathers," the same restful phrase used of far better men, for the outward record of a reign can look ordinary even when the heart behind it was under judgment. His son Nadab succeeded him, and, as later chapters show, the doom pronounced on the house of Jeroboam would fall swiftly. Not one word of God returns void.
Explanation
Jeroboam's wife returned home to Tirzah, and precisely as Ahijah had prophesied, the child died the instant she stepped over the threshold. All Israel mourned and buried him, in exact fulfillment of God's word through the prophet. The narrator then closes the account of Jeroboam with the customary formula, noting that further records of his wars and reign were kept in the royal chronicles (now lost), that he reigned twenty-two years, and that at his death his son Nadab took the throne. The reign that began with God's gracious gift of a kingdom ended under the shadow of a pronounced doom, the fulfillment of which would come in the days of his son.
Gospel Focus
"According to the word of the LORD." The child died at the very threshold, exactly when and as the prophet had said. God's word never fails, in the smallest detail or the largest. This is the steady drumbeat of the whole book, and it is meant to fix our confidence: if God's word of judgment is so exact, His word of promise is just as sure. "For ever, O LORD, thy word is settled in heaven" (Psalm 119:89). The same faithfulness that fulfilled every threat against Jeroboam's house has pledged that "whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16), and that word cannot fail either. Let the certainty of God's word drive you to take Him seriously, both His warnings and His promises. The God who kept His word to the letter in the death of a child will keep His word to the letter in the salvation of all who trust His Son.
The Reign of Rehoboam (1 Kings 14:21-31)
Judah too does evil, and Shishak of Egypt strips the temple of its gold.
He Took Away the Treasures
"And Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty and one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the LORD did choose out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there. And his mother's name was Naamah an Ammonitess. And Judah did evil in the sight of the LORD, and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins which they had committed, above all that their fathers had done. For they also built them high places, and images, and groves, on every high hill, and under every green tree. 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. And it came to pass in the fifth year of king Rehoboam, that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem: And he took away the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king's house; he even took away all: and he took away all the shields of gold which Solomon had made. And king Rehoboam made in their stead brasen shields, and committed them unto the hands of the chief of the guard, which kept the door of the king's house. And it was so, when the king went into the house of the LORD, that the guard bare them, and brought them back into the guard chamber. Now the rest of the acts of Rehoboam, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all their days. And Rehoboam slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David. And his mother's name was Naamah an Ammonitess. And Abijam his son reigned in his stead."
Word Study
"brasen shields" in the place of "shields of gold." The account now turns south to Judah, which proved no better than Israel: they built high places and groves "on every high hill, and under every green tree," and tolerated the vilest abominations of the nations God had cast out. So God sent Shishak of Egypt, who "took away all the shields of gold which Solomon had made," stripping the temple and palace of the treasures that had made Solomon's reign the wonder of the earth. Rehoboam replaced the golden shields with shields of brass (bronze), and the guards would carry them ceremonially as before. It is a small, sad, telling detail: brass where once was gold. It is the perfect emblem of a people who keep the outward show of glory while the true glory has departed, gilded pretense over hollow decline. The generation that had gold now has brass and pretends nothing has changed. So it is whenever the people of God trade obedience for idolatry: the forms remain, the ceremonies continue, but the gold of God's presence and blessing is carried off, and only brass is left. "Ichabod," the glory is departed (1 Samuel 4:21), though the guards still parade the shields.
Explanation
The narrative turns to Judah under Rehoboam, who reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem; the note that his mother was an Ammonitess hints at the foreign influences that had crept into the royal house. Judah, too, "did evil in the sight of the LORD," even provoking Him to jealousy above their fathers, building high places, sacred pillars, and Asherah poles on every hill and under every green tree, and permitting the ritual immorality ("sodomites") of the pagan nations. As judgment, in Rehoboam's fifth year Shishak (Sheshonq I) of Egypt invaded and plundered Jerusalem, carrying off the treasures of the temple and palace, including Solomon's golden shields. Rehoboam replaced them with bronze imitations. The account closes noting the constant war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam, Rehoboam's death, and the succession of his son Abijam.
Gospel Focus
Gold shields carried off, brass shields hung in their place, and the guards parading them as if nothing had changed, this is the picture of religion that keeps the form after losing the substance. Judah still went up to the house of the LORD, the ceremonies continued, but the gold was gone. It is a solemn warning against a faith that maintains outward appearances while the true glory has departed. God is not deceived by brass polished to look like gold; He looks on the heart. The peril is real for us: we can keep our services, our songs, our traditions, and yet have carried off into idolatry the very presence and power that once filled them. "Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof" (2 Timothy 3:5) is the brass-shield religion. The remedy is not better brass but the return of the gold, repentance that brings back the presence of God. And there is a greater treasure than Solomon's gold that no Shishak can plunder: "an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you" (1 Peter 1:4). Do not settle for brass. Seek the God whose glory, once restored, no enemy can carry away.
Chapter in Review
First Kings 14 traces the judgment falling on both halves of the divided kingdom. Jeroboam, hoping to hide from God, sends his disguised wife to the blind prophet Ahijah, but no disguise deceives the LORD, who pronounces the total destruction of Jeroboam's house and foretells Israel's eventual scattering, tempered only by the mercy shown to a dying child in whom God found "some good thing." The child dies at the threshold, exactly as God said. Then the account turns to Judah, which also falls into idolatry and abomination, and is humbled by Shishak of Egypt, who strips the temple of its gold; Rehoboam replaces the golden shields with brass, a picture of glory departed behind a kept-up form. Through it all, the word of the LORD is shown to be certain and searching, and the God who sees every disguise is shown to be both just in judgment and tender toward the least good thing in a sinner's heart.
Key Takeaways
- No disguise hides us from God. Jeroboam's costume fooled no one; all things are naked before Him, so confess sin rather than costume it.
- God sees the "some good thing." In a doomed house He noticed the one heart leaning toward Him; He never despises the smallest true desire for Himself.
- God's word comes to pass exactly. The child died at the very threshold, as Ahijah said; every word of God, warning or promise, is sure.
- Beware brass-shield religion. Keeping the form after the gold is carried off is glory departed behind a polished show.
- Idolatry impoverishes. Judah's sin brought Shishak; sin always plunders what God's blessing had given.
Questions for Reflection
- Are you trying to come to God "in disguise," hiding sin rather than confessing it?
- Do you believe God notices the smallest genuine desire for Him in your heart?
- How does the exact fulfillment of God's word strengthen your trust in His promises?
- Is your faith gold or brass, real substance or a kept-up form after the glory has departed?
- What has idolatry, in any form, plundered from your walk with God, and will you repent to see the glory restored?
References
- Scripture: 1 Kings 14:1-31, King James Version.
- Cross-references: 1 Samuel 4:21; 1 Kings 11:29-39; 2 Chronicles 12:1-12; Psalm 119:89; Proverbs 28:13; Isaiah 42:3; John 3:16; Hebrews 4:13; 2 Timothy 3:5; 1 Peter 1:4.
- Hebrew word meanings: standard lexical sources (Strong's, BDB) for nakar, and the historical background of Shiloh, Tirzah, and Shishak (Sheshonq I) of Egypt.