1 Kings 14:4

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

1-6 "At that time," when Jeroboam did evil, his child sickened. When sickness comes into our families, we should inquire whether there may not be some particular sin harboured in our houses, which the affliction is sent to convince us of, and reclaim us from. It had been more pious if he had desired to know wherefore God contended with him; had begged the prophet's prayers, and cast away his idols from him; but most people would rather be told their fortune, than their faults or their duty. He sent to Ahijah, because he had told him he should be king. Those who by sin disqualify themselves for comfort, yet expect that their ministers, because they are good men, should speak peace and comfort to them, greatly wrong themselves and their ministers. He sent his wife in disguise, that the prophet might only answer her question concerning her son. Thus some people would limit their ministers...

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 JEROBOAM'S WIFE DID SO, AND WENT TO SHILOH, AND CAME TO THE HOUSE OF ABIJAH,.... Disguised herself, and took this long journey, and found the prophet's house; which she did partly in obedience to her husband, and partly from affection to her child: but Abijah could not see; her or anybody else that came into the room to him: FOR HIS EYES WERE SET BY REASON OF HIS AGE; or "stood" fixed and immovable, as the eyes of blind men are; or the nerves and muscles of his eyes stood within the holes thereof, so that he could not see objects....

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

WERE SET. Compare 1 Samuel 4:15. One of the nine afflicted with blindness. See note on Genesis 19:11....

_for his eyes were set_ The same expression is used of Eli, 1 Samuel 4:15. The idea is of one whose eye has lost its power so that the light no longer acts upon it to enlarge or contract the pupil....

AHIJAH COULD NOT SEE, FOR HIS EYES WERE SET BY REASON OF HIS AGE— The more nearly we examine the structure of the human body, and the more attentively we consider it, the more we are struck with admiration. All, even the hardest parts, as the bones and cartilages, derive their origin from a fluid matter: but in old age the softest membranes grow hard, and the fluids themselves become subject to the laws of petrifaction. The smaller tubes, through which the fluids pass, are tender and flexible in youth, but acquire solidity till the age of perfection; and, at last, in old age harden and even ossify in several parts. Hence the long train of maladies, hence old age, which is itself a malady. The eyes, which are a real _camera obscura_ constructed with infinite art, have not only the faculty of moving in every sense, in children, in adults, and in grown men; but by a certain subtle mechanism...

I. THE DECREE AGAINST JEROBOAM 14:1-20 The commencement of the divine retribution against the house of Jeroboam is related in this unit. The same prophet who foretold Jeroboam's reign over Israel now issued a decree of doom against his dynasty. Here is narrated (1) the mission of the king's wife(1 Kings 14:1-5); (2) the message of the prophet (1 Kings 14:6-16); (3) and the mourning over the king's son (1 Kings 14:17-18). To this is appended (4) a concluding note on the reign of Jeroboam (1 Kings 14:19-20). A. THE MISSION OF THE KING'S WIFE 14:1-5 TRANSLATION (1) At that time Abija