1 Kings 14
Irwin1. At that time. The predicted evils begin at once to fall on Jeroboam’s house.
5 feign herself to be another woman. A striking instance of the folly of attempting disguise before God, who could as easily reveal to the prophet the name and rank of the applicant as make known the result of her child’s illness.
10 him that is shut up and left. Some translate this “the bond and the free.” It means that not one of the family of Jeroboam should escape.
11 shall the dogs eat. To lie unburied was to the Israelites and other ancient nations a horrible fate, and the greatest insult that could be shown to a slaughtered foe.
14 but what? even now. The sense seems to be, “But why do I speak of it as a distant event? Even now the sentence is beginning to take effect.”
17. Tirzah. The pleasant situation of Tirzah had early attracted the Israelitish monarchs, so that it shared for some time with Shechem the honours of the capital (xv. 33; xvi. 8). Its site is uncertain.
22. And Judah did evil. The account in vers. 22-24 indicates a rapid and deep degeneracy, such as is described in Rom. i. 23-32. Man can never rise above the objects of his worship.
23 images and groves. On “images” see Gen. xxxi. 19; Exod. xxiii. 24; Lev. xxvi. 1; 2 Kings iii. 2. And on “groves” see Exod. xxxiv. 13; Judges iii. 7; 2 Kings xxiii. 4, 6. How extremely prone the whole nation was to these forms of idolatry appears also from ver. 15.
25. Shishak king of Egypt, etc. See note on xi. 40. A fuller account of this invasion and of its causes and results is given in 2 Chron. xii. 2-12: on which see notes.