Abijah

AI summary: This Abijah matters because his single cross reference opens one of the more poignant episodes in Jeroboam's house, where a dying child becomes the occasion for prophetic judgment and a rare word of tenderness. The narrative sets him apart as the one member of that dynasty in whom some good is found. Taken together, the material presents this Abijah as a tragic but morally distinct figure in the collapse of Jeroboam's line.¹

A son of Jeroboam, the first king of Israel. On account of his severe illness when a youth, his father sent his wife to consult the prophet Ahijah regarding his recovery. The prophet, though blind with old age, knew the wife of Jeroboam as soon as she approached, and under a divine impulse he announced to her that inasmuch as in Abijah alone of all the house of Jeroboam there was found “some good thing toward the Lord,” he only would come to his grave in peace. As his mother crossed the threshold of the door on her return, the youth died, and “all Israel mourned for him” (1 Kings 14:1-18). ³