1 Kings 14:21-28
New American Bible (Revised Edition)
III. Kings of Judah and Israel[a]
Reign of Rehoboam. 21 [b]Rehoboam, son of Solomon, became king in Judah. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city in which, out of all the tribes of Israel, the Lord chose to set his name. His mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonite.
22 Judah did evil in the Lord’s sight and they angered him even more than their ancestors had done. 23 They, too, built for themselves high places, sacred pillars, and asherahs,[c] upon every high hill and under every green tree. 24 There were also pagan priests in the land. Judah imitated all the abominable practices of the nations whom the Lord had driven out of the Israelites’ way. 25 [d]In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak, king of Egypt, attacked Jerusalem. 26 (A)He took everything, including the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the house of the king, even the gold shields Solomon had made. 27 To replace them, King Rehoboam made bronze shields, which he entrusted to the officers of the guard on duty at the entrance of the royal house. 28 Whenever the king visited the house of the Lord, those on duty would carry the shields, and then return them to the guardroom.
Read full chapterFootnotes
- 14:21–16:34 The treatment of the events of Jeroboam’s reign shows that the author believes that the political division of the kingdoms embodies the Lord’s will, but that their religious separation is undesirable. The Israelites are, in effect, one people of God under two royal administrations. This complex arrangement is reflected in the way 1–2 Kings organizes the history of the divided kingdoms. Each reign is treated as a unity: the kings, whether of Israel or Judah, are legitimate rulers. But the accounts of northern and southern kings are interwoven in the order in which each came to the throne, without regard to which kingdom they ruled: the people of God is one.
- 14:21 The account of each king’s reign follows the same basic pattern: a formulaic introduction, a theological evaluation based on religious fidelity, a brief account of an event from the king’s reign, and a formulaic conclusion.
- 14:23 Asherahs: see note on Ex 34:13.
- 14:25–28, 30 The narrator recounts Shishak’s campaign here to imply that it was punishment for Judah’s evil, and perhaps to cast him as supporting Jeroboam in his constant warfare with Rehoboam. (Shishak was named as Jeroboam’s protector and patron in 11:40.) Egyptian records of the campaign list one hundred fifty cities conquered in Israel as well as Judah, but Jerusalem is not one of them. Chronicles has a parallel version of this account in 2 Chr 12:9–11.
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