10 therefore behold , I am bringing calamity on the house of Jeroboam , and will cut off from Jeroboam every male e person, both bond and free in Israel , and I will make a clean sweep of the house of Jeroboam , as one sweeps away dung until it is all gone . 11 " Anyone belonging to Jeroboam who dies in the city the dogs will eat . And he who dies in the field the birds of the heavens will eat ; for the Lord has spoken it."' 12 "Now you, arise , go to your house . When your feet enter the city the child will die . 13 "All Israel shall mourn for him and bury him, for he alone of Jeroboam's family will come to the grave , because in him something good was found toward the Lord God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam .
Matthew Henry's Commentary on 1 Kings 14:10-13
Commentary on 1 Kings 14:7-20
(Read 1 Kings 14:7-20)
Whether we keep an account of God's mercies to us or not, he does; and he will set them in order before us, if we are ungrateful, to our greater confusion. Ahijah foretells the speedy death of the child then sick, in mercy to him. He only in the house of Jeroboam had affection for the true worship of God, and disliked the worship of the calves. To show the power and sovereignty of his grace, God saves some out of the worst families, in whom there is some good thing towards the Lord God of Israel. The righteous are removed from the evil to come in this world, to the good to come in a better world. It is often a bad sign for a family, when the best in it are buried out of it. Yet their death never can be a loss to themselves. It was a present affliction to the family and kingdom, by which both ought to have been instructed. God also tells the judgments which should come upon the people of Israel, for conforming to the worship Jeroboam established. After they left the house of David, the government never continued long in one family, but one undermined and destroyed another. Families and kingdoms are ruined by sin. If great men do wickedly, they draw many others, both into the guilt and punishment. The condemnation of those will be severest, who must answer, not only for their own sins, but for sins others have been drawn into, and kept in, by them.