Bible Strands
1 Kings 14:1
At that time Abijah son of Jeroboam became ill,
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrative opens on a specific moment when Abijah, the son of King Jeroboam, falls ill. The text records this event before Jeroboam instructs his wife to seek the prophet Ahijah in Shiloh.
The words — חָלָה (cha.Lah) means he became sick, denoting the sudden onset of the illness that triggers the subsequent royal response.
The thread — The narrative thread of royal crisis and dynastic anxiety appears in Exodus 20:5, 1 Samuel 4:19, and 1 Samuel 31:2.
Why it lands — It presents a concrete crisis that immediately forces political and religious maneuvering, requiring the reader to track how fear drives actions that bypass covenant protocol.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
At that time Abijah the son of Jeroboam fell sick.
Cross-references
- Exodus 20:5 You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,
- 1 Samuel 4:19 Now Eli’s daughter-in-law, the wife of Phinehas, was pregnant and about to give birth. When she heard the news of the capture of God’s ark and the deaths of her father-in-law and her husband, she collapsed and gave birth, for her labor pains overtook her.
- 1 Samuel 31:2 The Philistines hotly pursued Saul and his sons, and they killed Saul’s sons Jonathan, Abinadab, and Malchishua.
- 2 Samuel 12:15 After Nathan had gone home, the LORD struck the child that Uriah’s wife had borne to David, and he became ill.
- 1 Kings 13:33 Even after these events, Jeroboam did not repent of his evil ways, but again he appointed priests for the high places from every class of people. He ordained anyone who desired to be a priest of the high places.
- 1 Kings 14:12 As for you, get up and go home. When your feet enter the city, the child will die.