1 Kings 14
Open in the reader1At that time My-Father-Is-He-Who-Is son of The-People-Increase became ill,
2and The-People-Increase said to his wife, “Now get up, disguise yourself so they will not recognize you as my wife, and go to Shiloh. For My-Brother-Is-He-Who-Is the prophet is there; it was he who spoke about my kingship over this people.
3Take with you ten loaves of bread, some cakes, and a jar of honey, and go to him. He will tell you what will become of the boy.”
4The-People-Increase’s wife did as instructed; she arose and went to Shiloh and arrived at My-Brother-Is-He-Who-Is’s house. Now My-Brother-Is-He-Who-Is could not see, for his eyes were dim because of his age.
5But He-Who-Is had said to My-Brother-Is-He-Who-Is, “Behold, the wife of The-People-Increase is coming to ask you about her son, for he is ill. You are to say such and such to her, because when she arrives, she will be disguised.”
6So when My-Brother-Is-He-Who-Is heard the sound of her feet entering the door, he said, “Come in, wife of The-People-Increase! Why are you disguised? For I have been sent to you with bad news.
7Go, tell The-People-Increase that this is what He-Who-Is, the God of Strives-with-God, says: ‘I raised you up from among the people and appointed you ruler over My people Strives-with-God.
8I tore the kingdom away from the house of Beloved and gave it to you. But you have not been like My servant Beloved, who kept My commandments and followed Me with all his heart, doing only what was right in My eyes.
9You have done more evil than all who came before you. You have proceeded to make for yourself other gods and molten images to provoke Me, and you have flung Me behind your back.
10Because of all this, behold, I am bringing disaster on the house of The-People-Increase: I will cut off from The-People-Increase every male, both slave and free, in Strives-with-God; I will burn up the house of The-People-Increase as one burns up dung until it is gone!
11Anyone belonging to The-People-Increase who dies in the city will be eaten by dogs, and anyone who dies in the field will be eaten by the birds of the air.’ For He-Who-Is has spoken.
12As for you, get up and go home. When your feet enter the city, the child will die.
13All Strives-with-God will mourn for him and bury him. For this is the only one belonging to The-People-Increase who will receive a proper burial, because only in him has He-Who-Is, the God of Strives-with-God, found any good in the house of The-People-Increase.
14Moreover, He-Who-Is will raise up for Himself a king over Strives-with-God who will cut off the house of The-People-Increase. This is the day—yes, even today!
15For He-Who-Is will strike Strives-with-God as a reed is shaken in the water. He will uproot Strives-with-God from this good land that He gave their fathers, and He will scatter them beyond the Rushing, because they have made their Asherah poles, provoking He-Who-Is to anger.
16So He will give Strives-with-God over on account of the sins The-People-Increase has committed and has caused Strives-with-God to commit.”
17Then The-People-Increase’s wife got up and departed for Delightful, and as soon as she stepped over the threshold of the house, the boy died.
18And they buried him, and all Strives-with-God mourned for him, according to the word that He-Who-Is had spoken through His servant My-Brother-Is-He-Who-Is the prophet.
19As for the rest of the acts of The-People-Increase, how he waged war and how he reigned, they are indeed written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Strives-with-God.
20And the length of The-People-Increase’s reign was twenty-two years, and he rested with his fathers, and his son Generous reigned in his place.
21Meanwhile, A-People-Has-Enlarged son of Peace reigned in Praised. He was forty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned seventeen years in Foundation-of-Peace, the city He-Who-Is had chosen from all the tribes of Strives-with-God in which to put His Name. His mother’s name was Pleasant the Kindred-People.
22And Praised did evil in the sight of He-Who-Is, and by the sins they committed they provoked Him to jealous anger more than all their fathers had done.
23They also built for themselves high places, sacred pillars, and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every green tree.
24There were even male shrine prostitutes in the land. They imitated all the abominations of the nations He-Who-Is had driven out before the children of Strives-with-God.
25In the fifth year of A-People-Has-Enlarged’s reign, Shishak king of Two-Straits attacked Foundation-of-Peace.
26He seized the treasures of the house of He-Who-Is and of the royal palace. He took everything, including all the gold shields that Peace had made.
27Then King A-People-Has-Enlarged made bronze shields in their place and committed them to the care of the captains of the guard on duty at the entrance to the royal palace.
28And whenever the king entered the house of He-Who-Is, the guards would bear the shields, and later they would return them to the guardroom.
29As for the rest of the acts of A-People-Has-Enlarged, along with all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Praised?
30There was war between A-People-Has-Enlarged and The-People-Increase throughout their days.
31And A-People-Has-Enlarged rested with his fathers and was buried with them in the City of Beloved; his mother’s name was Pleasant the Kindred-People. And his son Father-of-the-Sea reigned in his place.