20While they were sitting at the table, the word of the LORD came to the prophet who had brought him back. 21He cried out to the man of God who had come from Judah: “Thus said the LORD: Because you have flouted the word of the LORD and have not observed what the LORD your God commanded you, 22but have gone back and eaten bread and drunk water in the place of which He said to you, ‘Do not eat bread or drink water [there],’ your corpse shall not come to the grave of your fathers.” 23After he had eaten bread and had drunk, he saddled the ass for him—for the prophet whom he had brought back. 24He set out, and a lion came upon him on the road and killed him. His corpse lay on the road, with the ass standing beside it, and the lion also standing beside the corpse. 25Some men who passed by saw the corpse lying on the road and the lion standing beside the corpse; they went and told it in the town where the old prophet lived. 26And when the prophet who had brought him back from the road heard it, he said, “That is the man of God who flouted the LORD’s command; the LORD gave him over to the lion, which mauled him and killed him in accordance with the word that the LORD had spoken to him.” 27He said to his sons, “Saddle the ass for me,” and they did so. 28He set out and found the corpse lying on the road, with the ass and the lion standing beside the corpse; the lion had not eaten the corpse nor had it mauled the ass. 29The prophet lifted up the corpse of the man of God, laid it on the ass, and brought it back; d-it was brought-d to the town of the old prophet for lamentation and burial. 30He laid the corpse in his own burial place; and they lamented over it, “Alas, my brother!” 31After burying him, he said to his sons, “When I die, bury me in the grave where the man of God lies buried; lay my bones beside his. 32For what he announced by the word of the LORD against the altar in Bethel, and against all the cult places in the towns of Samaria, shall surely come true.”
33Even after this incident, Jeroboam did not turn back from his evil way, but kept on appointing priests for the shrines from the ranks of the people. He ordained as priests of the shrines any who so desired. 34Thereby the House of Jeroboam incurred guilt—to their utter annihilation from the face of the earth.
14 At that time, Abijah, a son of Jeroboam, fell sick. 2Jeroboam said to his wife, “Go and disguise yourself, so that you will not be recognized as Jeroboam’s wife, and go to Shiloh. The prophet Ahijah lives there, the one who predicted that I would be king over this people. 3Take with you ten loaves, some wafers, and a jug of honey, and go to him; he will tell you what will happen to the boy.” 4Jeroboam’s wife did so; she left and went to Shiloh and came to the house of Ahijah. Now Ahijah could not see, for his eyes had become sightless with age; 5but the LORD had said to Ahijah, “Jeroboam’s wife is coming to inquire of you concerning her son, who is sick. Speak to her thus and thus. When she arrives, she will be in disguise.”
6Ahijah heard the sound of her feet as she came through the door, and he said, “Come in, wife of Jeroboam. Why are you disguised? I have a harsh message for you. 7Go tell Jeroboam: Thus said the LORD, the God of Israel: I raised you up from among the people and made you a ruler over My people Israel; 8I tore away the kingdom from the House of David and gave it to you. But you have not been like My servant David, who kept My commandments and followed Me with all his heart, doing only what was right in My sight. 9You have acted worse than all those who preceded you; you have gone and made for yourself other gods and molten images to vex Me; and Me you have cast behind your back. 10Therefore I will bring disaster upon the House of Jeroboam and will cut off from Jeroboam every male, a-bond and free,-a in Israel. I will sweep away the House of Jeroboam utterly, as dung is swept away. 11Anyone belonging to Jeroboam who dies in the town shall be devoured by dogs; and anyone who dies in the open country shall be eaten by the birds of the air; for the LORD has spoken. 12As for you, go back home; as soon as you set foot in the town, the child will die. 13And all Israel shall lament over him and bury him; he alone of Jeroboam’s family shall be brought to burial, for in him alone of the House of Jeroboam has some devotion been found to the LORD, the God of Israel. 14Moreover, the LORD will raise up a king over Israel who will destroy the House of Jeroboam, b-this day and even now.-b
15“The LORD will strike Israel until it sways like a reed in water. He will uproot Israel from this good land that He gave to their fathers, and will scatter them beyond the Euphrates, because they have provoked the LORD by the sacred posts that they have made for themselves. 16He will forsake Israel because of the sins that Jeroboam committed and led Israel to commit.”
17Jeroboam’s wife got up and left, and she went to Tirzah. As soon as she stepped over the threshold of her house, the child died. 18They buried him and all Israel lamented over him, in accordance with the word that the LORD had spoken through His servant the prophet Ahijah.
19The other events of Jeroboam’s reign, how he fought and how he ruled, are recorded in the Annals of the Kings of Israel. 20Jeroboam reigned twenty-two years; then he slept with his fathers, and his son Nadab succeeded him as king.
21Meanwhile, Rehoboam son of Solomon had become king in Judah. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem—the city the LORD had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel to establish His name there. His mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonitess. 22Judah did what was displeasing to the LORD, and angered Him more than their fathers had done by the sins that they committed. 23They too built for themselves shrines, pillars, and sacred posts on every high hill and under every leafy tree; 24there were also male prostitutes in the land. [Judah] imitated all the abhorrent practices of the nations that the LORD had dispossessed before the Israelites.
25In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, King Shishak of Egypt marched against Jerusalem 26and carried off the treasures of the House of the LORD and the treasures of the royal palace. He carried off everything; he even carried off all the golden shields that Solomon had made. 27King Rehoboam had bronze shields made instead, and he entrusted them to the officers of the guardc who guarded the entrance to the royal palace. 28Whenever the king went into the House of the LORD, the guards would carry them and then bring them back to the armory of the guards.
29The other events of Rehoboam’s reign, and all his actions, are recorded in the Annals of the Kings of Judah. 30There was continual war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam. 31Rehoboam slept with his fathers and was buried with his fathers in the City of David; his mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonitess. His son Abijam succeeded him as king.
15 In the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam son of Nebat, Abijam became king over Judah. 2He reigned three years in Jerusalem; his mother’s name was a-Maacah daughter of Abishalom.-a 3He continued in all the sins that his father before him had committed; he was not wholehearted with the LORD his God, like his father David. 4Yet, for the sake of David, the LORD his God gave him a lamp in Jerusalem, by raising up his descendant after him and by preserving Jerusalem. 5For David had done what was pleasing to the LORD and never turned throughout his life from all that He had commanded him, except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite. 6There was war between Abijamb and Jeroboam all the days of his life. 7The other events of Abijam’s reign and all his actions are recorded in the Annals of the Kings of Judah. 8Abijam slept with his fathers; he was buried in the City of David, and his son Asa succeeded him as king.
9In the twentieth year of King Jeroboam of Israel, Asa became king over Judah. 10He reigned forty-one years in Jerusalem; his mother’s name was Maacah daughter of Abishalom. 11Asa did what was pleasing to the LORD, as his father David had done. 12He expelled the male prostitutes from the land, and he removed all the idols that his ancestors had made. 13He also deposed his mother Maacah from the rank of queen mother, because she had made c-an abominable thing-c for [the goddess] Asherah. Asa cut down her abominable thing and burnt it in
