In 1 Kings 14:10–11 God sets forth the terrifying judgment that will befall Jeroboam’s household. The Lord says he will bring harm to the family of Jeroboam. The word for harm
can mean harm, distress, evil (but not ethical evil), or disaster.
The choice that the ESV made may be a bit understated. Harm can be either severe or mild; you can be hurt a little or much. A better translation might be disaster.
The severity of the harm is displayed in its description. Every male attached to Jeroboam’s household will be cut off.
The idea in Scripture of cutting off
often has covenantal overtones. It signifies a removal from the covenant between God and his people. This idea is certainly present here, but there is another use as well that refers to physical death in battle or by execution, and the context makes it clear that this idea is involved.
Note that the disaster affects not only the physical descendants of Jeroboam but also the servants and slaves (both bond and free). This language may trouble us. Why should the servants and the slaves of the household be included in the disaster? We need to remember that the method by which God would accomplish his judgment was by the change of ruling families, and this was usually violent. The new king would want to rid the kingdom of everyone associated with the former ruler.
There is something more that might help us in our difficulty. It is possible that we are to understand the servants (bond and free) were not as innocent
as we might imagine them to be. 1 Kings 14:13 tells us that Jeroboam’s sick child was the only one of his house in whom the Lord found something pleasing. If the word house
in 1 Kings 14:10 includes the bond and free, the people might be included in the word house
as it is used in 1 Kings 14:13.
As we continue looking at the disaster that will come to the king and his family, we need not take the phrase burn up the house of Jeroboam
literally. It is unlikely that the Lord was indicating a literal house fire; indeed, the later context would seem to forbid that understanding. God is using a figure of speech comparing the elimination of the family of Jeroboam to the manner in which a man might seek to dispose of a hill of refuse.
The idea of the disposal of refuse is carried forward in the Lord's description of the manner in which the bodies of the dead will be treated. For the males who die in the city, their bodies will be consumed by dogs, and the ones who die in rural areas, the scavenger birds will eat.
1 Kings 14:11 ends with the attesting mark of the certainty of the accomplishment of the pronounced judgment, for the Lord has spoken it.
There can be nothing more certain than this assurance that what has been said is spoken by the Lord himself.
10 therefore behold, I will bring harm upon the house of Jeroboam and will cut off from Jeroboam every male, both bond and free in Israel, and will burn up the house of Jeroboam, as a man burns up dung until it is all gone.