the LORD will strike Israel as a reed is shaken in the water, and root up Israel out of this good land that he gave to their fathers and scatter them beyond the Euphrates, because they have made their Asherim, provoking the LORD to anger.
Ahijah's message to Jeroboam's wife does not stop with the king's family. It reaches the whole nation, and it raises two hard questions: why does a whole people suffer for a king's idolatry, and is a scattering like this ever undone?
A nation uprooted from a gift
The judgment is not vague trouble. It is removal from land God Himself had given them. One commentator names the river they would be driven past:
Leslie M. GrantThe Lord would shake Israel so hard that He would uproot them from the land He had given to their fathers. He would scatter them beyond the river (Euphrates), because Israel's idolatry had provoked His fierce anger. He would give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, who made Israel sin. This message of God's unsparing anger and vengeance against Jeroboam's sin stood in sharp contrast to Ahijah's first message to Jeroboam.
That first message had held out a lasting house to Jeroboam, but only on one condition. It also kept David's line in view:
Arno Clemens GaebeleinThe LORD still speaks of "David my servant," who "may always have a lamp before Me in Jerusalem, the city where I have chosen to put My name." In the middle of all the evil, the house of David is not forgotten. There will be affliction, "but not forever." Jeroboam also has the chance of a house "as I built for David," on the condition of obedience. But ambitious Jeroboam did not keep the statutes and commandments of the Lord.
Why the people fall with the king
It would be easy to read the verse as a whole nation punished for one man's crime. But the people had a share in the sin themselves:
H. L. RossierBut the people must face judgment too (vv. 15, 16). Not only had the king led them astray; they had sinned themselves, for "they have made their Asherim, provoking the LORD to anger." God judges them by the principle set out in Romans 5:12: "Therefore, just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned."
Centuries later the sentence fell. The record names both the leader and the people who followed him:
H. L. Rossier"Jeroboam drove Israel from following the LORD and made them commit great sin." But on the other hand, "the people of Israel walked" (so they were guilty themselves) "in all the sins that Jeroboam did; they did not depart from them." And Assyria carried Israel away.
The Asherim
The word behind "Asherim" is often translated "groves," which sounds like trees. One dictionary shows why that reading fails:
Morrish Bible DictionaryThe word 'grove' suggests a row of trees. But that cannot be the meaning, since people set up groves 'under every green tree.' … One passage speaks of planting groves; another of making them; another of building them. They are always linked with idols and images.
Israel already had clear orders about these objects:
Arno Clemens GaebeleinThey were to have nothing to do with the impure and abominable idolatries of these nations. He called His people to holiness. Moreover, they were to destroy their altars, their images and their groves. The word groves is "asherah." … It flourished among all the ancient nations, but the Canaanites used it most of all. When Israel later fell in with these abominations, the judgment fell upon them.
The threat carried out
Assyria carried out the sentence. One writer notes what never followed it:
William KellyThe others (that is, Israel) were carried away into captivity to Assyria, and were never as a people restored to the land.
Scattered, but not written off
Their exile was not just Assyrian policy. Commentators point out that God Himself moved those kings, and that the same place appears in a promise of return:
The Bible TreasuryTheir sins and idolatry caused all the disasters that came upon them. The word "therefore" in verse 18 sums it all up — "Therefore the LORD was very angry with Israel and removed them out of his sight." … Notice, it was God who stirred up the spirit of these kings; so they carried Israel away to Assyria. This is one of the places mentioned in Zechariah 10:10, from which they will be brought back in a future day.
Summary
- Gift. The land was given to their fathers; idolatry cost them the very inheritance God had handed them.
- Guilt. Jeroboam led the nation into sin. But the people made the Asherim themselves, so judgment reached them too.
- Groves. The "Asherim" were not trees but idol objects, planted, made and built — and Israel had orders to destroy them.
- Gone. The word came true to the letter: Assyria carried Israel away, and as a people they never returned to the land.
- Gathered. The scattering is real but not final; commentators point to a future day when God brings them back from the places He sent them.