1 Kings 12:1-15. Rehoboam's accession. Request of his subjects and the king's Answer (2 Chronicles 10:1-15) 1. _And Rehoboam went_to _Shechem_ The parallel passage in 2 Chronicles 11:1-15 is almost identical with what is given here. It is clear from the narrative that, though Rehoboam was acknowledg... [ Continue Reading ]
_And it came to pass_ The LXX. (_Vat_.) having given the substance of this verse as an addition to 1 Kings 11:43, omits it here. The R.V. makes the parenthesis commence a little earlier and extend a little farther than is shewn in A.V. The connexion thus becomes: And it came to pass when -Jeroboam …... [ Continue Reading ]
_that they sent_ Better, AND they sent: see the previous note. Josephus (_Ant._viii. 8, i) calls this party οἱ τῶν ὄχλων ἄρχοντες, and represents them as sending to Jeroboam immediately after Solomon was dead. Clearly there was a feeling that some change was at hand, and the knowledge of Ahijah's pr... [ Continue Reading ]
_make thou the grievous service … lighter_ Josephus says they naturally expected to gain their request, and especially as the king was a young man. The house of Joseph, i.e. the Ephraimites, are specially mentioned as having been engaged in the compulsory labour (see 1 Kings 11:28) in the previous r... [ Continue Reading ]
_And king Rehoboam consulted_ That the close similarity between the narrative here and 2 Chron. may be as apparent as possible to the English reader, the R.V. reads here as there, TOOK COUNSEL, and similarly in 1 Kings 12:8 -and TOOK COUNSEL with the young men." The change is of no importance to the... [ Continue Reading ]
_If thou wilt be a servant unto this people_this _day_ Here the words of 2 Chron. are -If thou be kind to this people and please them." What was meant was that for the time the king should give way and obey the popular voice. This short service would win for him their constant allegiance. The LXX. d... [ Continue Reading ]
_young men that were grown up with him_ i.e. Who were about the same age. It is not needful to suppose that they had been educated with him from their youth up. They now being his contemporaries were chosen to -stand before him," to be his privy counsellors. This office the older men had held under... [ Continue Reading ]
_that we may answer_ Better, -may RETURN answer" as the words are precisely those of 1 Kings 12:6. It is noteworthy that Rehoboam includes the young counsellors with himself and says -we" when he speaks to them, but he employs the singular number -I" in 1 Kings 12:6, when addressing the older men. H... [ Continue Reading ]
_my little_finger _shall be_(R.V. IS) _thicker than my father's loins_ The italics of A.V. shew that the word -finger" is explanatory, and not represented in the text. The LXX. gives ἡ μικρότης μου. There can however be no doubt that -my littleness" is here correctly expounded by -my little finger,... [ Continue Reading ]
_with whips_ We have no record of such an act on the part of Solomon, and it may be the phrase is only metaphorical, to express a light degree of chastisement in comparison of what they might hereafter expect. But scourging men to urge them in compulsory labour is not unknown in despotic countries.... [ Continue Reading ]
_So Jeroboam and all the people_ The LXX. here, as in 1 Kings 12:3, omits -Jeroboam." _as the king had appointed_ R.V. has -as the king BADE.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Wherefore the king_ Better, as R.V., - SO the king." The original has merely the ordinary copulative ו, and there is no giving of a reason implied, but the summing up of a narrative. _for the cause was from the Lord_ R.V. FOR IT WAS A THING BROUGHT ABOUT OF THE LORD. The Hebrew noun signifies -the... [ Continue Reading ]
Revolt of the ten tribes (Cf. 2 Chronicles 10:16-19) 16. _all Israel saw that the king hearkened not_ Josephus says -they were struck by his words as by an iron rod and grieved as though the words of the king had been actually put into execution." _What portion have we in David?_ Very similar word... [ Continue Reading ]
_the children of Israel which dwelt in the cities of Judah_ We see from expressions like this that we must not necessarily make -Israel" include only the northern tribes. See above on 1 Kings 12:1. The LXX. omits this verse entirely.... [ Continue Reading ]
_Then king Rehoboam sent Adoram_ The same man who is called Adoniram in ch. 1 Kings 4:6. He presided over the forced-labour service, and it was an additional sign of the infatuation of Rehoboam, that a person so likely to be obnoxious to the people should be sent as the king's representative. Joseph... [ Continue Reading ]
_unto this day_ This phrase occurring several times in the book marks the original composition, from which the compiler of the Kings drew his material, as written while the two kingdoms were still existent, and under different rulers.... [ Continue Reading ]
_when all Israel heard that Jeroboam was come again_ R.V. WAS RETURNED. This change is made because the words are like 2 Chronicles 10:2, and the two should be represented as agreeing. The movement described in these words is that of the whole ten tribes. At first Jeroboam had been summoned by the l... [ Continue Reading ]
Rehoboam prepares to make war on Israel but this is forbidden by the Prophet Shemaiah (2 Chronicles 11:1-4) 21. _all the house of Judah, with the tribe of Benjamin_ Called in 2 Chron. -the house of Judah and Benjamin." Thus Benjamin is shewn to have been, as it were, reckoned with Judah rather than... [ Continue Reading ]
_the word of God_ How Shemaiah and other prophets received their commission is not always explained. Sometimes it is said -the Lord sent" (cf. 2 Samuel 12:1; 2 Samuel 12:25). The prompting by a vision in sleep is most frequently recorded, and this we may assume in other cases to have been the way in... [ Continue Reading ]
_and_to _the remnant of the people_ (R.V. THE REST). We see from 1 Kings 12:17 above that there were some people belonging to the ten tribes who were dwelling in the cities of Judah. These would have their ties in the place where they had long lived, and so would cast in their lot with the southern... [ Continue Reading ]
_for this thing is from me_ See above on 1 Kings 12:15. _and returned to depart_ This is the literal rendering of the original, but is Hebrew rather than English. In R.V. the sense is given by - AND RETURNED AND WENT THEIR WAY." The LXX. has καὶ κατέπαυσαν τοῦ πορευθῆναι, -and they ceased from goin... [ Continue Reading ]
On the addition in the LXX. after 1 Kings 12:24 This long passage has many peculiarities not only in the arrangement, which differs considerably from that of the narrative of the Hebrew text, but also in some portions of its contents. It takes up the history at 1 Kings 11:43 with Solomon's death an... [ Continue Reading ]
Jeroboam sets up golden calves in Dan and Bethel, and thus makes Israel to Sin (Not in 2 Chron) 25. _built Shechem_ i.e. Strengthened it by walls and made it thus fit to be the royal residence, -the political centre of a confederation whose military leader bore the title of king." It had in early d... [ Continue Reading ]
_And Jeroboam said in his heart_ Josephus (_Ant_. viii. 8, 4) says the idea was forced on the king's mind by the approach of the Feast of Tabernacles, at which it had been usual for the people to go up in great numbers to Jerusalem, and to live there for some days.... [ Continue Reading ]
_if this people go up to do sacrifice_ There appears to have been no thought in the popular mind that the choice of a different ruler for the ten tribes would break their connexion with the worship at the Temple. So that we must judge the Temple to have now become the _one_recognised place for worsh... [ Continue Reading ]
_two calves of gold_ The Israelites in Egypt had been familiarized with the ox as an object of worship, and it would therefore not be unknown among their descendants. Hence their readiness to recognize such an image as a symbol of the divinity when they were in the wilderness (Exodus 32:4; Exodus 32... [ Continue Reading ]
_in Beth-el_ The well-known city in the extreme south of the tribe of Ephraim, and so just on the southern border of the new kingdom of Israel. _in Dan_ The town, formerly called Laish, in the very north of Palestine, and always mentioned as a limit of the land in the phrase -from Dan to Beersheba.... [ Continue Reading ]
_And this thing became a sin_ Being in contradiction of the second commandment. _for the people went_to worship _before the one, even unto Dan_ It appears as though by these words it was intended to shew how fully the people were led astray. To far-off Dan even did they go. This had been associated... [ Continue Reading ]
_An house of high places_ The graven image must have its temple. So in Bethel and in Dan buildings were raised, and an eminence chosen for the site of each. Hence it is better to render the plural notion, as R.V., HOUSES OF HIGH PLACES. _and made priests of the lowest of the people_ Better, as R.V.... [ Continue Reading ]
_And Jeroboam ordained a feast_ This was intended to be a set-off for the Feast of Tabernacles, of the celebration of which, in Jerusalem, Jeroboam had been so much in fear. _in the eighth month on the fifteenth day_ The Feast of Tabernacles was on the fifteenth day of the _seventh_month (Leviticus... [ Continue Reading ]
_which he had devised of his own heart_ This is a translation of the Keri, i.e. the marginal reading of the Hebrew. The Kethib (i.e. the written text) would be rendered -apart," and if it be correct must be understood, as intimating that the king consulted nobody, which comes much to the same as wha... [ Continue Reading ]