Jeroboam’s wife did as she was instructed. She disguised herself, took the presents, and went to Shiloh to the prophet’s house. In what we read it might appear at first glance that the disguise was unnecessary, for we are told by the writer that Ahijah was unable to see clearly: His eyes were dim because of his age.
But the thing that will become apparent is that the disguise is ineffective rather than unnecessary.
The mention of Ahijah’s vision problem does not merely describe his physical difficulty. It also shows that, because he was a true prophet who was in contact with the Lord, he did not need his eyes to see through her disguise. The eyes of the Lord had already pierced it.
The writer tells us that the Lord had already told Ahijah that the king’s wife was coming to see him in order to enquire about her son. We do not know when this revelation was given to the prophet, but it was early enough that Ahijah was already prepared for her coming.
The prophet is not only warned of her coming but given the message to be given to her. There is a relatively economical use of language as the writer speaks of this message coming from the Lord to Ahijah. Thus and thus you will say to her
is the way it is phrased. We will see the entire message in the following verses, but not now. Sometimes the writers of Scripture are repetitive by giving the full message that God tells a prophet to proclaim and then repeating it word for word as they record the prophet proclaiming the message to the people. Nonetheless, it seems that the Spirit did not intend for us to hear it more than once. Here it seems that we are to pay attention to the fact that God informs Ahijah that Jeroboam’s wife is pretending to be another woman.
4 La femme de Jéroboam fit ainsi; elle se leva, alla à Silo, et entra dans la maison d'Achija. Achija ne pouvait plus voir, car il avait les yeux fixes par suite de la vieillesse.