1 Kings 14:15

_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._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

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 peop...

Verse 1 Kings 14:15. _FOR THE LORD SHALL SMITE ISRAEL_] See this prophecy fulfilled, 1 Kings 15:28-11, when Baasha destroyed all the house and posterity of Jeroboam....

The general prophecy of Moses Deuteronomy 29:28, that the disobedient Israelites would be rooted up out of their land, and cast into another land, is here for the first time repeated, and is definitively applied to the ten tribes, which are to be removed “beyond the river” (the Euphrates, 1 Kings 4:21, 1 Kings 4:24), and “scattered.” On the fulfillment of this prophecy, and especially on the “scattering” of the ten tribes, see 2 Kings 17:6 note. GROVES - See Exodus 34:13 note. The gr

EXPOSITION THE DEATH OF JEROBOAM'S SON.—The protest of the prophet of Judah, the signs which supported it, and above all the solemn visitation, with its strange portents, which straightway followed it, having alike failed to arrest Jeroboam (1 Kings 13:33) in his high-handed and shameless depravation of the true religion, we now read of the retribution which came upon his family, and which began with the sickness and death of his firstborn. We can hardly regard this as a part of the discipline designed to reform the king, and so avert the schism, for the narrative distinctly conveys the impression that Jeroboam's day of grace was past, and that judgment was already begun. Moreover these events would seem to belong to a much later period than that of which the preceding chapter treats—a peri

AND THE LORD SHALL SMITE ISRAEL AS A REED IS SHAKEN IN THE WATER,.... Either by the wind or by the stream; and may signify the fluctuating and uncertain condition Israel should be in future reigns, through civil wars, and the translation of the kingdom into different families; so that there was continually disquietude and uneasiness, and no settled peace and tranquillity: AND HE SHALL ROOT UP ISRAEL OUT THIS GOOD LAND HE GAVE TO THEIR FATHERS; which was brought about, first by Tiglathpileser, and then by Shalmaneser, kings of Assyria, that carried them captives from hence: AND SHALL SCATTER THEM BEYOND THE RIVER; the river Euphrates, as the Targum: or, as others, the river Gozan, 2 Kings 17:6 BECAUSE THEY HAVE MADE THEIR GROVES, PROVOKING THE LORD TO ANGER: in which groves they placed idols, and worshipped them, which was highly prov

CHAPTER 14 THE PASSING OF JEROBOAM AND REHOBOAM _ 1. Sickness and death of Jeroboam's son (1 Kings 14:1)_ 2. Jeroboam's reign and death (1 Kings 14:19) 3. Rehoboam's apostasy, punishment and death (1 Kings 14:21) We come now to the passing of both kings, Jeroboam of Israel and Rehoboam of Judah. Abijah (Jehovah is my father), the son of wicked Jeroboam, was sick. “That child was the one green spot in Jeroboam's life and home; the one germ of hope. And as his father loved him truly, so all Israel had set their hopes on him. Upon the inner life of this child, its struggles and its victories, lies the veil of Scripture silence; and best that it should be so. But now his pulses were b

VISIT OF JEROBOAM'S WIFE TO AHIJAH. Here we have an ancient story with Deuteronomic additions. According to the LXX (1 Kings 12:24 _g-m),_ Jeroboam sent his wife (Ano) to the prophet _before_ he became king. Ahijah foretells the child's death, and the ruin of Jeroboam's house, but gives no reason for either calamity. He is introduced as a new person, and he is not blind. Ano is not yet queen, so she has no need to disguise herself. As 1 Kings 14:7 in the Heb. is obviously Deuteronomic, probably the early story merely related that Ahijah foretold the death of Ahijah. Notice that even in the Deuteronomic amplification Jeroboam's sin is not that of neglecting Jerusalem, but making other gods and molten images (1 King

SMITE ISRAEL, [SHAKING HIM] AS. REED IS SHAKEN, &C. The Figure of speech _Ellipsis_ (App-6) to be thus supplied. THIS GOOD LAND. Occurs only here and Joshua 23:13; Joshua 23:15. the river: i.e. the Euphrates. GROVES. ' _A_ sherim....

_as a reed is shaken_ For this figure of entire instability, cf. Matthew 11:7 -a reed shaken with the wind". And here the root is planted amid the water, which will make it more tottering still. _beyond the river_ i.e. The River, _par excellence_, the Euphrates. _their groves_ R.V. THEIR ASHÊRIM. This is a plural form of the word Ashêrah, which is the name of a goddess worshipped with rites similar to those of Baal-worship. The plural probably denotes the wooden images of the goddess, which are mentioned as early as Exodus 34:13, and the worship of which was common in the time of the Judges (cf. 1 Kings 3:7), and then for some interval laid aside, but revived under the kings....