7 Go, tell Jeroboam, Thus saith Jehovah the God of Israel: Forasmuch as I exalted thee from among the people, and made thee prince over my people Israel, 8 and rent the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it thee; and thou hast not been as my servant David, who kept my commandments, and who followed me with all his heart, to do only that which is right in my sight; 9 but thou hast done evil above all that were before thee, and hast gone and made thee other gods, and molten images, to provoke me to anger, and hast cast me behind thy back: 10 therefore behold, I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam, and will cut off from Jeroboam every male, him that is shut up and left in Israel, and will take away the house of Jeroboam, as a man taketh away dung, till it be all gone. 11 Him that dieth of Jeroboam in the city shall the dogs eat, and him that dieth in the field shall the fowl of the heavens eat; for Jehovah hath spoken. 12 And thou, arise, go to thine own house; when thy feet enter into the city, the child shall die. 13 And all Israel shall mourn for him, and they shall bury him; for he only of Jeroboam shall come to the grave, because in him there is found something good toward Jehovah the God of Israel, in the house of Jeroboam. 14 And Jehovah shall raise up for himself a king over Israel, who shall cut off the house of Jeroboam that day; and what? ... even now. 15 And Jehovah will smite Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water, and he will root up Israel out of this good land which he gave to their fathers, and will scatter them beyond the river, because they have made their Asherahs, provoking Jehovah to anger. 16 And he will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, wherewith he has sinned, and made Israel to sin. 17 And Jeroboam's wife arose and departed, and came to Tirzah; when she came to the threshold of the door, the child died. 18 And they buried him; and all Israel mourned for him, according to the word of Jehovah, which he spoke through his servant Ahijah the prophet. 19 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. 20 And the days that Jeroboam reigned were twenty-two years; and he slept with his fathers. And Nadab his son reigned in his stead.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on 1 Kings 14:7-20
Commentary on 1 Kings 14:7-20
(Read 1 Kings 14:7-20)
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 people of Israel, for conforming to the worship Jeroboam established. After they left the house of David, the government never continued long in one family, but one undermined and destroyed another. Families and kingdoms are ruined by sin. If great men do wickedly, they draw many others, both into the guilt and punishment. The condemnation of those will be severest, who must answer, not only for their own sins, but for sins others have been drawn into, and kept in, by them.