1 Kings 11:29

29. At that time While he had charge of the Ephraimite labourers at Jerusalem.

The prophet Ahijah Here we meet with another representative of that interesting order of men, divine messengers, who appear so often and so prominently during the time of the Hebrew monarchy. Ahijah seems to have been to Jeroboam very much what Samuel was to Saul, and Nathan was to David. He too, probably, announced to Solomon the word of the Lord as recorded in 1 Kings 11:11-13. His two genuine and authentic prophecies, each of great importance to the kingdom of Israel, are recorded here, 1 Kings 11:29-39, and 1 Kings 14:6-16.

The Shilonite So called because he dwelt at Shiloh. 1Ki 14:2 ; 1 Kings 14:4. It is, perhaps, significant that this prophet dwelt at Shiloh, the ancient seat, and up to the time of Samuel the centre, of the national worship. Thence the ark had been taken to its capture, “and the Philistines destroyed Shiloh with such hideous barbarity, that centuries afterwards the heart of the people shuddered at the very mention of the name. They never restored the place. Even Jeroboam, though of the tribe of Ephraim, never ventured to use, as a rival to Jerusalem, a site consecrated by so many centuries of worship.” SMITH, Prophecy a Preparation for Christ. Ahijah’s oracles seem like a voice from that olden sacred past the voice of the God of Joshua and of Eli still proclaiming blessings on the obedient, and penal woes on them that forget his name.

He… clad himself That is, Ahijah, not Jeroboam, had clad himself.

A new garment Probably a mantle thrown over the shoulder, similar to that which Samuel used to wear, and which was once used in a like symbolical action, 1 Samuel 15:27. Some interpreters see in the newness of the garment a symbol of the Hebrew monarchy, as yet young and undivided. “Here,” observes Rawlinson, “we find the first instance of that mode of delivering a divine message which became so common in later times, and which has been called ‘acted parable.’”