1 Kings 14:1-20. Jeroboam's inquiry concerning his sick child. The prophet's answer. Close of Jeroboam's reign (Not in Chronicles) 1. _At that time_ The order of the narrative shews that the writer of Kings connects the sickness of Jeroboam's son with the events which have been narrated in the prev... [ Continue Reading ]
_and disguise thyself_ She was to put on such a dress that no one would recognise her for the queen. Jeroboam no doubt felt that the prophets generally were against him, and that if it were known that he was the applicant, he would receive an unfavourable answer. Josephus describes the queen as putt... [ Continue Reading ]
_cracknels_ The word so rendered is found only here and in Joshua 9:5, of the bread of the Gibeonites, which _became mouldy_. Some take the word there in the sense of _crumbling_, so dry that it crumbled into bits. In the present passage however it must mean a sort of cake, perhaps dry baked. The wh... [ Continue Reading ]
_for his eyes were set_ The same expression is used of Eli, 1 Samuel 4:15. The idea is of one whose eye has lost its power so that the light no longer acts upon it to enlarge or contract the pupil.... [ Continue Reading ]
_to ask a thing of thee_ The precise expression is not found again. The R.V. gives the rendering -to inquire", which is most common for the verb, and regards the noun as expository, and so leaves it unrendered. The rendering of the A.V. misrepresents the mission. It was not to ask something for her... [ Continue Reading ]
_For I_am _sent to thee_with _heavy_tidings] The LXX. (_Alex._) rendering, which gives a word for word version of the Hebrew, will explain the italics of the A. V. καὶ ἐγὼ εἰμὶ ἀπόστολος πρός σε σκληρός.... [ Continue Reading ]
_but hast done evil above all that were before thee_ This must refer not only to the kings who had preceded Jeroboam, but to the cases of idolatry in the earlier days, e.g. of the Judges. There had been no such instance of sin in the lives of David or of Saul, and Solomon's transgression had been th... [ Continue Reading ]
_and will cut off_ The entire family is to be exterminated. R.V. -will cut off from Jeroboam EVERY MAN CHILD ". and him that is _shut up and left in Israel_ There is no conjunction at the beginning of this phrase, which is used to explain the comprehensiveness of what has gone before. The words are... [ Continue Reading ]
_shall the dogs eat_ It was this circumstance which rendered it so horrible to the Oriental mind to be cast out unburied. The dogs of an Eastern city were many and devoured all they found.... [ Continue Reading ]
_to thine own house_ There is nothing in the text to represent -own". It adds nothing to the sense, and may be omitted.... [ Continue Reading ]
_And all Israel shall mourn for him_ Abijah, though called -a child" in 1Ki 14:3; 1 Kings 14:12; 1 Kings 14:17 must have been of such an age as to exhibit qualities that made him beloved of the people. The Hebrew word for -child" in 1Ki 14:3; 1 Kings 14:17 (not in 12) is the same which Solomon uses... [ Continue Reading ]
_that day_ i.e. On which the Lord hath appointed: the day when the new king shall arise. _but what? even now_ This elliptic phrase seems to be best filled out somewhat thus. But what (am I saying? Why do I speak of that day? It will so soon come to pass that I may call it) even now.... [ Continue Reading ]
_as a reed is shaken_ For this figure of entire instability, cf. Matthew 11:7 -a reed shaken with the wind". And here the root is planted amid the water, which will make it more tottering still. _beyond the river_ i.e. The River, _par excellence_, the Euphrates. _their groves_ R.V. THEIR ASHÊRIM.... [ Continue Reading ]
_and he shall give Israel up_ i.e. Into the hands of their enemies. _who did sin, and who made Israel to sin_ It is better with R.V. to take the relative as refering to -the sin." Render, WHICH HE HATH SINNED AND WHEREWITH HE HATH made Israel to sin.... [ Continue Reading ]
_and came to Tirzah_ This place has not been identified with certainty. It was an ancient city, mentioned first Joshua 12:24. Its beauty is celebrated in Song of Solomon 6:4. Jeroboam, as we see here, made it a royal residence, and it was so used, and by some kings as a place of burial, till Omri bu... [ Continue Reading ]
_and they buried him_ The R.V. transposes -all Israel," putting it before -buried," and thus the sentence assumes an English form. The Hebrew puts -all Israel" at the end of the clause. _by the hand of_ A common Hebrew form for the simple -by." Cf. 1 Kings 8:53 above.... [ Continue Reading ]
_how he warred_ His war with Abijah king of Judah is spoken of in 2 Chronicles 13:3-20. The history in that place describes Jeroboam's defeat, and the loss of five thousand of his men, and the capture of several Israelite cities by the king of Judah. The wars of Jeroboam with Rehoboam are alluded to... [ Continue Reading ]
_two and twenty years_ So that Jeroboam's death occurred in the second year of the reign of Asa, king of Judah. Cf. 1 Kings 15:9; 1 Kings 15:25. It appears from 2 Chronicles 13:20 to have been by some sudden visitation. -The Lord struck him, and he died." _Nadab his son_ We have only Abijah and Nad... [ Continue Reading ]
The sinful reign of Rehoboam in Judah (2 Chronicles 12:13) 21. _Rehoboam_was _forty and one years old_ As Solomon's reign lasted forty years (1 Kings 11:42), this son must have been born a year or more before his father came to the throne, and Solomon must have married this Ammonitish wife, Naamah,... [ Continue Reading ]
_did evil_ R.V. DID THAT WHICH WAS EVIL. The Hebrew text is better represented by this fuller translation. _provoked him to jealousy_ Jehovah had called himself a _jealous_God, when the Law was given on Sinai (Exodus 20:5). _which they had committed_ The word -had" is better omitted. The Hebrew ha... [ Continue Reading ]
_high places_ We read constantly of -houses" of the high places, and it is to these erections on some lofty hills that the -building" here spoken of applies. See above, 1 Kings 12:31. _images_ The R.V. renders by PILLARS, with -obelisks" in the margin. And this appears more correct than A. V. There... [ Continue Reading ]
_which the Lord cast_(R.V. DRAVE) _out_ The change of R.V. brings the expression into harmony with nearly all the rest of the places where this verb occurs. The same alteration is needed in 1 Kings 21:26; 2Ki 16:3; 2 Kings 17:8; 2 Kings 21:2, but has not been made in R.V.... [ Continue Reading ]
Shishak king of Egypt invades Judah. Death of Rehoboam (2 Chronicles 12:2-4; 2 Chronicles 12:9-16) 25. _Shishak king of Egypt_ See on 1 Kings 11:40. Shishak is there represented as giving a friendly reception to Jeroboam. It may have been at Jeroboam's prompting that the invasion of Judah was under... [ Continue Reading ]
_he even took away all_ Instead of these words the LXX. gives: -and the golden shields which David took from the hands of the servants of Hadadezer king of Zobah and brought them to Jerusalem." On these captures of David see 2 Samuel 8:7. On the shields of gold made by Solomon cf. 1 Kings 10:17. At... [ Continue Reading ]
_brasen shields_ R.V. - SHIELDS OF BRASS " (or, rather, -bronze") which is the form in 2 Chronicles 12:10, and which represents the original more precisely. _chief of the guard_ The margin of A.V. gives Heb. _runners_. We see from this that the Cherethites (or Cretans) and Pelethites, of David and... [ Continue Reading ]
_And it was_so, _when_ For -when" the R.V. gives, AS OFTEN AS. The Hebrew word is not common. It occurs 1Sa 18:30; 2 Kings 4:8; in the latter place the A.V. gives -as oft as," and in the former the R.V., has changed -after" into -as often as," with a great improvement to the sense.... [ Continue Reading ]
_all_their _days_ R.V. CONTINUALLY: as the same words are rendered in a very similar passage about Saul and David in A.V. 1 Samuel 18:29.... [ Continue Reading ]
_and his mother's name Ammonitess_ These words, which are identical with the closing paragraph of 1 Kings 14:21 are omitted, by the LXX. (_Vat._). Their occurrence twice so close together seems to shew that the compiler of 1 Kings was drawing from several sources, and that he copied 1 Kings 14:21-24... [ Continue Reading ]