1 Kings 14


1 Kings 14 is the fourteenth chapter of the Books of Kings in the Hebrew Bible or the First Book of Kings in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. The book is a compilation of various annals recording the acts of the kings of Israel and Judah by a Deuteronomic compiler in the seventh century BCE, with a supplement added in the sixth century BCE. 1 Kings 12:1 to 16:14 documents the consolidation of the kingdoms of northern Israel and Judah: this chapter focusses on the reigns of Jeroboam and Nadab in the northern kingdom and Rehoboam in the southern kingdom.

Text

This chapter was originally written in the Hebrew language and since the 16th century is divided into 31 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter in Hebrew are of the Masoretic Text tradition, which includes the Codex Cairensis, Aleppo Codex, and Codex Leningradensis.
There is also a translation into Koine Greek known as the Septuagint, made in the last few centuries BCE. Extant ancient manuscripts of the Septuagint version include Codex Vaticanus and Codex Alexandrinus.

Old Testament references

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A breach between Ahijah of Shiloh and Jeroboam (14:1–20)

After the event in previous chapter Jeroboam received a further rebuke from Ahijah of Shiloh, when he attempted to cheat the prophet who was already old and blind, to get a word about his sick child. Although Jeroboam's wife was well disguised, the prophet immediately recognized her and mercilessly revealed that her child would die. The same prophet who prophesied Jeroboam's rise to power now forecasts the fall of Jeroboam's dynasty, because Jeroboam failed to behave like David. The end of Jeroboam's family would be dishonorable as the bodies of his family members would not be properly buried but would be eaten by 'dogs and birds', and the fulfillment happened quickly in the second year of the reign of Jeroboam's son, Nadab. The pattern of prophecy and fulfilment are common in the books of Kings, emphasizing that the history of Israel is dictated by its relationship to God.

Verse 15

  • "Asherah poles": Hebrew: asherim. Asherah was a leading Canaanite deity, wife/sister of El and goddess of fertility, commonly worshiped at shrines in or near groves of evergreen trees as well as places marked by wooden poles; God's people should burn or cut them down.
Without a strong, continuous dynasty in the northern kingdom of Israel, the land would know only the instability of 'a reed shaken in the water', and finally be exiled to places beyond "the River" in Assyria.

Verse 20

  • "Twenty-two years": in Thiele's chronology, Jeroboam became king between September 931 and April 930 BCE and died between September 910 and April 909 BCE.

Rehoboam's reign in Judah and the attack of Shishak (14:21–31)

The proper introductory formula, an editorial principe in Kings, is only now inserted for Rehoboam, although his reign was mentioned in the story of the kingdom's division. It was mentioned twice that Rehoboam's mother was an Ammonite, recalling Solomon's foreign wives and their idol-worship that caused widespread idolatry in Judah. Standard sentences were used repeatedly later in the books of Kings to build the case 'how breaches of the first commandment formed the underlying evil' which led to the downfall of the kingdom of Judah. Just five years after the death of Solomon, Pharaoh Shishak plundered the wealth that Solomon had accumulated as a high price of freedom for Jerusalem, a first sign of warning for 'the city that the LORD had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there'. The invasion of Shishak is documented in Egyptian sources and archaeological record, the first event in the Bible to have support from independent witnesses.

Verse 21

  • "Seventeen years": in Thiele's chronology, Rehoboam became king between September 931 and April 930 BCE and died between April and September 913 BCE at the age of 58.

Verse 25

  • "The fifth year of King Rehoboam": in Thiele's chronology, this ranges between September 926 and September 925 BCE.
  • "Shishak" : the first Pharaoh mentioned by name in the Bible. He harbored and encouraged Jeroboam when the latter fled from Solomon to Egypt as a rebellious refugee, and was of a different dynasty from the father-in-law of Solomon. According to Septuagint he was related to Jeroboam through their wives as follows:
Most scholars support the identification by Champollion with Shoshenq I of the 22nd dynasty, who left behind "explicit records of a campaign into Canaan, including a stela at Megiddo", and Bubastite Portal at Karnak, although Jerusalem was not mentioned in any of these campaign records. A common variant of Shoshenq's name omits its 'n' glyphs, resulting in a pronunciation like, "Shoshek".

Fringe theory identifications of Shishak