1 Kings 14:21-16:34

New Catholic Bible

Kings of Israel and Judah

²¹ Rehoboam’s Reign. Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned for seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city that the Lord had chosen from out of all of the tribes of Israel to place his name. His mother’s name was Naamah, and she was an Ammonite.

²² Judah did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.^[a] With the sins that they committed which were worse than what their fathers had done, they provoked the Lord to jealousy. ²³ They also set up high places for themselves as well as sacred pillars and Asherah everywhere and under every green tree. ²⁴ There were even male prostitutes in the land. They did every abomination that the nations had done which the Lord had cast out before the Israelites.

²⁵ In the fifth year of King Rehoboam, Shishak, the king of Egypt, attacked Jerusalem. ²⁶ He took away the treasures from the temple of the Lord and the treasures out of the royal palace. He took everything away, including the gold shields that Solomon had made.

²⁷ King Rehoboam made bronze shields to replace them. He entrusted them into the hands of the commanders of the guard who watched over the entrance to the king’s palace. ²⁸ The guards would carry them whenever the king went into the temple of the Lord. Afterwards, they would return them to the guardroom.

²⁹ As for the rest of the deeds of Rehoboam and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?^{[b] 30} There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam during their entire reigns. ³¹ Rehoboam slept with his fathers, and he was buried with his fathers in the City of David. His mother’s name was Naamah, and she was an Ammonite. Abijah, his son, then reigned in his stead.

Chapter 15

Abijam’s Reign. ¹ In the eighteenth year of the reign of King Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, Abijam became the king of Judah. ² He reigned in Jerusalem for three years. His mother’s name was Maacah, and she was the daughter of Abishalom.

³ He committed all of the sins that his father had committed before him. His heart was not at peace with the Lord, his God, as the heart of David, his father, had been. ⁴ In spite of this, the Lord, his God, gave him a lamp in Jerusalem for the sake of David, raising up his son to succeed him and making Jerusalem strong.^{[c] 5} He did this because of David who had done what was right in the sight of the Lord, and he had not turned away from anything that he had been commanded throughout his entire life with the exception of what happened with Uriah the Hittite. ⁶ There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam during their entire reign.

⁷ The rest of the deeds of Abijam and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? There was war between Abijam and Jeroboam.

⁸ Abijam slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the City of David, and Asa, his son then reigned in his stead.

Asa’s Reign. ⁹ In the twentieth year of the reign of Jeroboam as the king of Israel, Asa became the king of Judah. ¹⁰ He reigned for forty-one years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Maacah, the daughter of Abishalom.

¹¹ Asa did what was right in the sight of the Lord, as his father David had. ¹² He expelled the male prostitutes from the land, and he removed all of the idols that his father had made. ¹³ He also deposed his mother Maacah as queen mother because she had made an image of an Asherah. Asa cut down her idol and burned it in the Kidron Valley. ¹⁴ But he did not do away with the high places. Nevertheless, Asa’s heart was at peace with the Lord all of his life. ¹⁵ He brought those things that his father had dedicated and those things that he had dedicated, silver, and gold, and vessels, into the temple of the Lord.

¹⁶ There was war between Asa and Baasha, the king of Israel, during their entire reigns. ¹⁷ Baasha, the king of Israel, attacked Judah, and he fortified Ramah in order to prevent anyone from going out or coming in to the king of Judah.

¹⁸ Asa took all of the silver and all of the gold that remained in the treasury of the Lord’s temple and the treasury of the royal palace. He gave them to his servants and King Asa sent them to Ben-hadad, the son of Tabrimmon, the son of Hezion, the king of Aram, who lived in Damascus, saying, ¹⁹ “Let there be a covenant between me and you, between my father and your father. Behold, I have sent you a gift of silver and gold. Go, break your covenant with Baasha, the king of Israel, so that he might pull back from attacking me.”

²⁰ Ben-hadad agreed with King Asa, and he sent the commanders of his army to attack the cities of Israel. He conquered Ijon, Dan, Abel-beth-maacah, as well as all of the Chinnereth and the land of Naphtali. ²¹ When Baasha heard about this, he stopped building Ramah and he dwelt in Tirzah.

²² King Asa then issued a proclamation to all of Judah from which no one was exempt that they should carry away the stones and the timber that Baasha was using for the construction of Ramah. King Asa used them to build up Geba in Benjamin and Mizpah.

²³ As for the rest of the deeds of Asa, all of his achievements, and all that he did, and the cities that he built, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? In his old age, he suffered from difficulties with his feet.

²⁴ King Asa slept with his fathers, and he was buried with his fathers in the City of David, his father, and his son Jehoshaphat reigned in his stead.

²⁵ Nadab’s Reign. Nadab, the son of Jeroboam, became the king of Israel in the second year of the reign of Asa, the king of Judah, and he reigned over Israel for two years. ²⁶ He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, and he walked in the way of his father, in his sin, which he also caused Israel to commit.

²⁷ Baasha, the son of Ahijah, of the house of Issachar, plotted against him, and Baasha struck him down at Gibbethon, a Philistine city, while Nadab and all of Israel were laying siege to Gibbethon. ²⁸ Baasha killed him in the third year of the reign of Asa, the king of Judah, and he reigned in his stead.

²⁹ As soon as he began to reign, he struck down all of Jeroboam’s household. He did not leave Jeroboam a single person who was still breathing; he wiped them out. This fulfilled what the Lord had said when he spoke through Ahijah, the Shilonite ³⁰ because of the sins that Jeroboam committed and because he caused Israel to sin, provoking the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel.^[d]

³¹ As for the other deeds of Nadab and all the other things that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?

³² There was war between Asa and Baasha, the king of Israel, during their entire reigns.^[e]

³³ Baasha’s Reign. In the third year of the reign of Asa, the king of Judah, Baasha, the son of Ahijah, became the king over all of Israel in Tirzah, and he reigned for twenty-four years. ³⁴ He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, walking in the ways of Jeroboam, in his sin, which he also caused Israel to commit.

Chapter 16

¹ The word of the Lord then came to Jehu, the son of Hanani, condemning Baasha: ² “I lifted you up out of the dust and appointed you as ruler over my people Israel, but you have walked in the ways of Jeroboam and you have caused my people Israel to sin, provoking my anger at their sins. ³ Therefore, I will wipe out Baasha and the descendants of his house. I will make your house like the house of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat. ⁴ Those who belong to Baasha who die in the city will be eaten by dogs, and those who belong to him who die in the field will be eaten by the birds of the air.”

⁵ As for the other deeds of Baasha, what he did, and his achievements, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?

⁶ Baasha slept with his fathers and was buried in Tirzah. Elah, his son, reigned in his stead.

Elah’s Reign. ⁷ The word of the Lord came through Jehu the prophet, the son of Hanani, to condemn Baasha and his house for all the evil he had done in the sight of the Lord. He provoked him to anger through the deeds of his hands, for he did the same things as the house of Jeroboam and because he wiped it out.

⁸ Elah, the son of Baasha, began to reign over Israel in Tirzah during the twenty-sixth year of the reign of Asa, the king of Judah, and he reigned for two years.

⁹ Then Zimri, his servant and the commander of half of his chariots, plotted against him. He was in Tirzah, and he got drunk in the house of Arza, the major-domo of the palace in Tirzah. ¹⁰ Zimri entered and struck him and killed him during the twenty-seventh year of the reign of Asa, the king of Judah, and he reigned in his stead. ¹¹ As soon as he began to reign, he struck down all of Baasha’s household. He did not leave a single person who pees against the wall, whether he be one of his relatives or one of his friends. ¹² Zimri wiped out the entire house of Baasha, in accordance with the word of the Lord which condemned Baasha through Jehu, the prophet. ¹³ This was because of the sins of Baasha and the sins of Elah, his son, and because they caused Israel to sin, provoking the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger over their worthless idols.

¹⁴ As to the other deeds of Elah and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?

¹⁵ Zimri’s Reign. Zimri reigned in Tirzah for seven days during the twenty-seventh year of the reign of Asa, the king of Judah.

The people were camped near Gibbethon, a Philistine city. ¹⁶ When the people camped there heard, “Zimri had plotted against and killed the king,” they made Omri, the commander of the army, king over all of Israel that very day in the camp. ¹⁷ Omri and all of Israel departed from Gibbethon and they besieged Tirzah. ¹⁸ When Zimri saw that the city had been captured, he went up into the citadel of the king’s palace and he set the palace on fire around himself and he died. ¹⁹ This was because of the sins that he had committed, doing what was evil in the sight of the Lord and walking in the ways of Jeroboam, in his sin, and causing Israel to sin.

²⁰ As for the other deeds of Zimri, and the conspiracy that he plotted, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel?

²¹ Civil War. The people of Israel were then divided into two factions. Half of them followed Tibni, the son of Ginath, as king, and the other half followed Omri. ²² The people who supported Omri defeated the people who followed Tibni, the son of Ginath. Tibni died, and Omri became the king.

²³ Omri’s Reign.^[f] It was during the thirty-first year of the reign of Asa, the king of Judah, that Omri began to reign over Israel. He reigned for twelve years, six of them from Tirzah.

²⁴ He bought the hill of Samaria from Shemer for two talents of silver, and he built a city upon the hill and named it Samaria, after Shemer, the owner of the hill.

²⁵ Omri did what was evil in the sight of the Lord, worse than any of those who preceded him. ²⁶ He walked in the ways of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, in his sin, causing Israel to sin, provoking the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger over their worthless idols.

²⁷ As to the other deeds of Omri, what he did, and his accomplishments, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? ²⁸ Omri slept with his fathers and was buried in Samaria, and his son Ahab reigned in his stead.

²⁹ Ahab’s Reign.^[g]Ahab, the son of Omri, began to reign over Israel during the thirty-eighth year of the reign of Asa, the king of Judah. Ahab, the son of Omri, reigned over Israel in Samaria for twenty-two years.

³⁰ Ahab, the son of Omri, did more evil in the sight of the Lord than any of those who preceded him. ³¹ As if it were not enough that he committed the sins of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, he also married Jezebel, the daughter of Ethbaal, the king of the Sidonians, and he went after and served Baal and worshiped him. ³² He set up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he had built in Samaria. ³³ Ahab also set up an Asherah, and Ahab did more to provoke the anger of the Lord, the God of Israel, than all of the kings of Israel who preceded him.

³⁴ During his time, Hiel of Bethel rebuilt Jericho. He laid its foundation over Abiram, his eldest, and he built its gates over Segub, his youngest. This was just as the word of the Lord had foretold through Joshua, the son of Nun.^[h]