1 Kings 14:9

_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:_ No JFB commentary on this verse....

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...

ABOVE ALL THAT WERE BEFORE THEE - i. e., above all previous rulers of the people, whether Judges or kings. Hereto none of the rulers of Israel had set up the idolatrous worship of ephod, teraphim, and the like Judges 18:17, as a substitute for the true religion, or sought to impose an idolatrous system on the nation. Gideon’s ephod “became a snare” contrary to his intention Judges 8:27. Solomon’s high places were private - built for the use of his wives, and not designed to attract the people. Jeroboam was the first ruler who set himself to turn the Israelites away from the true worship, and established a poor counterfeit of it, which he strove to make, and succeeded in making, the religion of the great mass of his subjects. And hast cast me b

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

BUT HAST DONE EVIL ABOVE ALL THAT WERE BEFORE THEE,.... Not only above David, but above Saul, who never gave into idolatry, yea, even above Solomon, who, though he connived at idolatry, and might be guilty of it in some instances, yet did not attempt to draw his people into it; and if this was the latter end of Jeroboam's reign, which is probable, Rehoboam and Abijam might be both dead; and though they were blameworthy in some things, yet not so bad as Jeroboam; though perhaps this may respect only such who had been kings of Israel before him: FOR THOU HAST GONE AND MADE THEE OTHER GODS, AND MOLTEN IMAGES, TO PROVOKE ME TO ANGER; the two calves of gold; for however he might colour things over, and pretend he did not look upon these as gods, but as representations of God, and that he did not worship them, but God by them, yet the Lord considered it as idolatry, than which nothing is more...

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

ALL Not merely kings, but all other rulers. No anachronism. OTHER GODS. Jehovah does not recognize the calves as being what Jeroboam intended, mere political expedients. See note on 1 Kings 14:2....

_but hast done evil above all that were before thee_ This must refer not only to the kings who had preceded Jeroboam, but to the cases of idolatry in the earlier days, e.g. of the Judges. There had been no such instance of sin in the lives of David or of Saul, and Solomon's transgression had been the building of temples and the setting up of images for his strange wives, who were already idolaters. _for thou hast gone_ R.V. - AND thou hast gone". The conjunction is the simple copulative. _other gods_ So certain was the making of an image, even if it was to represent Jehovah, to lead to the introduction of false worship, that God speaks of it as already effected. _and hast cast me behind thy back_ An expression indicative of the extremest contempt. It is used Nehemiah 9:26 of the whole national sin which led to the captivity, and in...

B. THE MESSAGE OF GOD'S PROPHET 14:6-16 TRANSLATION (6) And it came to pass when Ahijah heard the sound of her feet coming at the door, that he said, Enter, wife of Jeroboam! Why are you pretending to be someone else? For I have been sent unto you with a heavy word. (7) Go say to Jeroboam, Thus says the LORD the God of Israel: Because I raised you up from the midst of the people and made you a prince over My people Israel, (8) and rent the kingdom from the house of David, and gave it to you, and you have not become like My servant David who kept My commandments and who walked after Me with all his heart to do only that which was upright in My eyes, (9) and you have done evil more than all who were before you, and have made for yourself other gods and molten images to provoke Me to anger; and Me you have pushed behind your back: (10) Therefore, behold I am about to bring a calamity upon...