Matthew Henry on 1 Kings 14:7-20
When those that set up idols, and keep them up, go to enquire of the Lord, he determines to answer them, not according to the pretensions of their enquiry, but according to the multitude of their idols, Eze 14:4. So Jeroboam is answered here.
I. The prophet anticipates the enquiry concerning the child, and foretels the ruin of Jeroboam's house for the wickedness of it. No one else durst have carried such a message: a servant would have smothered it, but his own wife cannot be suspected of ill-will to him.
1. God calls himself the Lord God of Israel. Though Israel had forsaken God, God had not cast them off, nor given them a bill of divorce for their whoredoms. He is Israel's God, and therefo…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on 1 Kings 14:10
I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam--Strong expressions are here used to indicate the utter extirpation of his house;
him that is shut up and left in Israel--means those who were concealed with the greatest privacy, as the heirs of royalty often are where polygamy prevails; the other phrase, from the loose garments of the East having led to a different practice from what prevails in the West, cannot refer to men; it must signify either a very young boy, or rather, perhaps, a dog, so entire would be the destruction of Jeroboam's house that none, not even a dog, belonging to it should escape. This peculiar phrase occurs only in regard to the threatened extermination of a family (Sa1…
Read the whole note in the consoleAdam Clarke on 1 Kings 14:10
Him that pisseth against the wall - Every male. The phrase should be thus rendered wherever it occurs.
John Gill on 1 Kings 14:10
Therefore, behold, I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam,.... Calamities, destruction, and ruin:
and will cut off from Jeroboam him that pisseth against the wall; not leave a dog of his, or rather a male, see 1 Samuel 25:22.
and him that is shut up and left in Israel; in garrisons or in prisons, in cities or in fields, or in whatsoever situation or circumstances they may be. Some interpret it of wealth and substance; it signifies an entire destruction it may be of men and goods, see Deuteronomy 32:36.
and will take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam, as a man taketh away dung, till it be all gone; signifying that Jeroboam's family was as loathsome and abominable to the Lord…
