1 Kings 14:12

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.

Arise thou therefore, get thee to thine own house,.... With all haste, as soon as she could: and when thy feet enter the city; the city of Tirzah, very probably the king's palace stood at the entry of it, see 1 Kings 14:17, the child shall die; this is an answer to the question she was to ask, and at the same time a token of the sure and certain fulfilment of all the prophet had spoken in the name of the Lord.

1 Kings 14:12 . When thy feet enter into the city — Or, rather, when thy feet have entered: that is, presently upon thy entrance into the city; when thou art gone but a little way in it, even as far as the threshold of the king’s door, ( 1 Kings 14:17 ,) the child shall die — And by this judge of the truth of the rest of my prophecy.

The dogs are the chief scavengers of Oriental cities (compare Psalm 59:6 , Psalm 59:14 ). And the vulture is the chief scavenger in the country districts, assisted sometimes by kites and crows (see Job 39:27-30 , where the vulture, not the eagle, is intended). Vultures are very abundant in Palestine.

It appears from this verse that Rehoboam, notwithstanding that he encouraged, and perhaps secretly practiced, idolatry ( 1 Kings 14:22-24 , compare 1 Kings 15:3 , 1 Kings 15:12 ; 2 Chronicles 12:1 ), maintained a public profession of faith in Yahweh, and attended in state the temple services. Compare the conduct of Solomon, 1 Kings 9:25 .

12. the child shall die—The death and general lamentation felt through the country at the loss of the prince were also predicted. The reason for the profound regret shown at his death arose, according to Jewish writers, from his being decidedly opposed to the erection of the golden calves, and using his influence with his father to allow his subjects the free privilege of going to worship in Jerusalem.

Verse 12. - Arise thou therefore, get thee to thine own house: and when thy feet enter into the city, the child [Heb. then the child. This is the force of the ו ] shall die. [This was "the sign that the Lord hath spoken" (ch. 13:3). The death of the child at the precise moment of the return should serve as an earnest and foretaste of the doom just denounced.] 1 Kings 14:12

After this announcement of the judgment upon the house of Jeroboam, Ahijah gave the wife information concerning her sick son. He would die as soon as she entered the city, and of all the male members of the house of Jeroboam he only would receive the honour of a proper burial, because in him there was some good thing towards Jehovah found. Ewald (247, b.) regards the form בּבאה as standing for בּבאהּ, and refers the suffix to the following word העיר (vid., Ewald, 309, c.). But as this use of the suffix would be very harsh, the question arises whether בּאה is not to be regarded as a feminine form of the infinitive, after the analogy of דּעה in Exodus 2:4 and לדה in 2 Kings 19:3 , etc. From the fulfilment of this declaration in 1 Kings 14:17 , 1 Kings 14:18 Jeroboam was to learn that the threatened destruction of his royal house would also be just as certainly fulfilled. The sick son appears to have been the heir-presumptive to the throne. This may be inferred partly from the lamentation of all Israel at his death ( 1 Kings 14:18 ), and partly from what follows here in the next verse. אליהוה means in his relation to Jehovah.