1 Kings 14:21

The sinful reign of Rehoboam in Judah (2 Chronicles 12:13)

21. Rehoboamwas 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, before Pharaoh's daughter. The age of Rehoboam makes it strange that he should have been led by the counsels of young men rather than the elders, as we read in chap. 12, and appears to contradict the words of 2 Chronicles 13:7, where Rehoboam is described as -young and tender-hearted" and not able to withstand the rebellion of Jeroboam. Hence the reading of a few MSS. in this passage, of 21 for 41 years, has been thought more probable, though it is not supported either by Josephus or by the narrative of Chronicles (2 Chronicles 12:13). May it not have been that the compilers used different documents and did not try to reconcile them?

the Lord did choose R.V. -the Lord had chosen." The choice had been made long before.

his mother's name The high position and great influence of the queen-mother in Oriental courts accounts for the regular mention of the mother's name in the history of each king's reign. (See above on 1 Kings 11:19.) This Ammonitish princess must probably have been an idolatress, so that even in his father's time, if the chronology of this verse be correct, the heart of Solomon went after strange women. The R.V. notes that the national designation of this princess has the article - the Ammonitess", she was probably well known.