7 Go, tell Jeroboam, 'Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel: "Because I exalted you from among the people, and made you prince over my people Israel,
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
As Jeroboam's appointment to the kingdom had been formally announced to him by the prophet Ahijah, so the same prophet is commissioned to acquaint him with his forfeiture of it. Compare 1-Samuel 15:26-28.
Go, tell Jeroboam, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Forasmuch as I exalted (e) thee from among the people, and made thee prince over my people Israel,
(e) Who was but a servant.
Go tell Jeroboam,.... Thy husband:
thus saith the Lord God of Israel; so he continued to be, though they had revolted from him:
forasmuch as I exalted thee from among the people; the common people, from a low estate in which he was:
and made thee prince over my people Israel; so they were when he made them king over them; and there were some among them still that loved the Lord, served and feared him, of which the prophet himself, now speaking, was an instance.
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.
*More commentary available at chapter level.