Ahijah and the disguised queen

Sight lost and not given back. Sight not restored. 1 Kings 14:1-13.

What led up to it

Ahijah is the prophet who years earlier told Jeroboam he would be king over the northern tribes. Jeroboam has since led the people into idolatry. Now his son is sick, and he sends his wife to Ahijah in disguise, with gifts, to learn whether the boy will live.

What happens

Ahijah cannot see because of his age. Before the queen arrives, the LORD tells him who is coming, why, and that she will be disguised. When he hears her footsteps at the door he greets her by name and asks why she is pretending. Then he gives her the hard message for her husband.

In their shoes

The text is careful about how Ahijah knows. It does not say he recognized her footsteps; it says the LORD had told him who was coming and that she would be disguised, and that he spoke when he heard feet at the door. His eyes were dim with age, which may mean low vision rather than none, so a visual disguise might have had some point. Of everyone in the passage, the man who cannot see well is the one who knows the situation as it is, and he knows it because he was told.

How much could he see?

Kings says Ahijah could not see, for his eyes were dim because of his age. Brian notes he was probably low vision and could still see a little, which is why a disguise was worth trying. See what blind means here.

From Brian

It does not say that he recognized the sound of her feet. He likely did not, unless he had been doing this a long time. Besides, he was probably low vision and could still see a little, and the disguise might have been visual enough to hide her true appearance.

I can tell Barb's sound if she wears certain shoes, but often in areas without context it is difficult to pick out her footsteps among others.

The place and the time

What the old books and the archaeologists can add. Each paragraph names its source.

Ahijah was the prophet who, years earlier, met Jeroboam on the road out of Jerusalem, tore a new garment into twelve pieces and gave him ten, as a sign that he would rule ten tribes. Josephus retells that scene and says it happened in a quiet place off the road. The blind old man at the door in 1 Kings 14 is the same prophet who had once announced the king's rise.

Source: Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews (Whiston translation), Book VIII, chapter 7; compare 1 Kings 11:29-31.

The queen travelled from Tirzah, Jeroboam's royal city in the hills north of Shechem, which Smith's describes as a city famous for its beauty, to Shiloh, the old sanctuary town in the hills of Ephraim. The shelf gives no distance between them, so the length of her journey cannot be stated.

Source: Smith's Bible Dictionary (1884 edition), entries "Tirzah" and "Shiloh."

Josephus tells the story with the same facts as the Bible: the queen changed her clothes, Ahijah's eyes were dim with age, God told him who was coming, and he called out to her before she had come in. The 1915 encyclopedia lists Ahijah with Isaac and Eli as a case of blindness in old age.

Source: Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews (Whiston translation), Book VIII, chapter 11; International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (1915), entry "Blindness."

The passage

1 Kings 14:1-13

1 At that time Abijah son of Jeroboam became ill,

2 and Jeroboam said to his wife, “Now get up, disguise yourself so they will not recognize you as my wife, and go to Shiloh. For Ahijah the prophet is there; it was he who spoke about my kingship over this people.

3 Take 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.”

4 Jeroboam’s wife did as instructed; she arose and went to Shiloh and arrived at Ahijah’s house. Now Ahijah could not see, for his eyes were dim because of his age.

5 But the LORD had said to Ahijah, “Behold, the wife of Jeroboam 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.”

6 So when Ahijah heard the sound of her feet entering the door, he said, “Come in, wife of Jeroboam! Why are you disguised? For I have been sent to you with bad news.

7 Go, tell Jeroboam that this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘I raised you up from among the people and appointed you ruler over My people Israel.

8 I tore the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it to you. But you have not been like My servant David, who kept My commandments and followed Me with all his heart, doing only what was right in My eyes.

9 You 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.

10 Because of all this, behold, I am bringing disaster on the house of Jeroboam: I will cut off from Jeroboam every male, both slave and free, in Israel; I will burn up the house of Jeroboam as one burns up dung until it is gone!

11 Anyone belonging to Jeroboam 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 the LORD has spoken.

12 As for you, get up and go home. When your feet enter the city, the child will die.

13 All Israel will mourn for him and bury him. For this is the only one belonging to Jeroboam who will receive a proper burial, because only in him has the LORD, the God of Israel, found any good in the house of Jeroboam.