_A.M. 3048. B.C. 956._ Jeroboam sends to the prophet to inquire concerning his sick Song of Solomon, vv1-6. The destruction of Jeroboam's house foretold, 1 Kings 14:7. The death of his child, 1 Kings 14:17; 1 Kings 14:18. The conclusion of his reign, 1 Kings 14:19; 1 Kings 14:20. The declension of... [ Continue Reading ]
_At that time_ Presently after the things related in the foregoing chapter, which, though apparently connected with the beginning of his reign, yet might possibly be done a good while after it, and so Ahijah the prophet be very old, as he is described to be, 1 Kings 14:4. It is probable this Abijah... [ Continue Reading ]
_Jeroboam said to his wife, Arise_, &c. “He most probably sent his wife to consult the prophet at Shiloh, because this was a secret not to be intrusted with any body else; a secret which, had it been divulged, might have endangered his whole government; because, if once his subjects came to understa... [ Continue Reading ]
_Take with thee ten loaves_, &c. It was usual for those that went to inquire of a prophet to make him some present as a token of their respect for him, 1 Samuel 9:7. The present which she was here directed to take, was of such things as suited the disguise in which she was to go, and were calculated... [ Continue Reading ]
_But Ahijah could not see_ He not only lived obscure and neglected in Shiloh, but was blind through age: yet he was still blessed with the visions of the Almighty; which require not bodily eyes; but are rather favoured by the want of them, the eyes of the mind being then most intent and least divert... [ Continue Reading ]
_Come in, thou wife of Jeroboam_ He called her aloud by her name before she entered the house, doubtless to her great surprise, and thus not only showed that he knew her, notwithstanding the disguise in which she had come, but discovered to all about him who she was. By which discovery he both repro... [ Continue Reading ]
_Thou hast not been as my servant David_ Who, though he fell into some sins, yet, 1st, He constantly persevered in the true worship of God; from which thou art revolted; 2d, He heartily repented of, and turned from all his sins, whereas thou art obstinate and incorrigible.... [ Continue Reading ]
_But hast done evil above all that were before thee_ Above all the judges and former kings of my people, none of whom set up images, and persuaded the people to worship them. _For thou hast made thee other gods, and molten images_ Namely, the golden calves: not as if they thought them to be other go... [ Continue Reading ]
_Will cut off him that is shut up_ Those who had escaped the fury of their enemies invading them, either because they were _shut up_ in caves, or castles, or strong towns: or, because they were _left_, overlooked, or neglected by them, or spared as poor, impotent, helpless creatures. But now, saith... [ Continue Reading ]
_When thy feet enter into the city_ Or, rather, _when thy feet have entered:_ that is, presently upon thy entrance into the city; when thou art gone but a little way in it, even as far as the threshold of the king's door, (1 Kings 14:17,) _the child shall die_ And by this judge of the truth of the r... [ Continue Reading ]
_All Israel shall mourn for him_ For the loss of so worthy and hopeful a person, and for the sad calamities which will follow his death, which possibly his moderation, and wisdom, and virtue, might have prevented. So they should mourn, not simply for him, but for their own loss in him. _He only shal... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Lord shall raise him up a king_ This king was Baasha, 1 Kings 15:27. _Who shall cut off the house of Jeroboam that day_ When he is so raised up, in the very beginning of his reign. _But what?_ Do I say _he shall raise_, as if it were a thing to be done at a great distance of time? The man is no... [ Continue Reading ]
_For the Lord shall smite Israel_ For consenting to that idolatrous worship which Jeroboam set up. _As a reed is shaken in the water_ Hither and thither, with every wind. So shall the kingdom and people of Israel be always in an unquiet and unsettled state, tossed to and fro by foreign invasions and... [ Continue Reading ]
_And come to Tirzah_ An ancient and royal city, in a pleasant place, where the kings of Israel had a palace, whither Jeroboam was now removed from Shechem, either for his pleasure, or for his son's recovery, by the healthfulness of the place. _When she came to the threshold_ Of the king's house, whi... [ Continue Reading ]
_All Israel mourned for him_ And justly: not only for the loss of a hopeful prince, but because his death plucked up the flood-gates at which an inundation of judgments broke in. _According to the word of the Lord by Ahijah_ Thus by accomplishing the predictions of his prophet concerning the death a... [ Continue Reading ]
_Behold, they are written in the book of the Chronicles_ Not that canonical book of Chronicles, for that was written long after this book; but a book of civil records, the annals, wherein all remarkable passages were recorded by the king's command from day to day; out of which the sacred penman, by... [ Continue Reading ]
_Jeroboam reigned two and twenty years_ So he lived till the second year of Asa, chap. 15. _He slept with his fathers_ He died as his fathers did, or perhaps the expression also implies, that he was buried with his ancestors. Their sepulchre, however, may appear too mean for a great king. It is prob... [ Continue Reading ]
_Rehoboam was forty and one years old when he began to reign _ Although many learned men are of opinion that there is an error in the text here in regard to the age of Rehoboam when he began to reign, and some think the reading should be _twenty-one_, while Houbigant, following the Seventy, reads _s... [ Continue Reading ]
_Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord_ In contempt and in defiance of him, and the tokens of his special presence. _They provoked him to jealousy_ By joining other gods together with him, as the adulterous wife provokes her husband by breaking the marriage covenant. _They also built them high pla... [ Continue Reading ]
_There were also sodomites in the land_ The kind of wickedness here referred to often attended idolatry, 1 Kings 15:12; 2 Kings 23:7; for among the heathen the most filthy things were practised in these shady, dark places, their groves: and such wickedness, it appears from the passages now quoted, e... [ Continue Reading ]
_In the fifth year of King Rehoboam_ Presently after his and his people's apostacy, which was not till his fourth year; while apostate Israel enjoyed peace, and some kind of prosperity; of which difference two reasons may be given: first, Judah's sins were committed against clearer light, and more p... [ Continue Reading ]
_And he took_, &c. Rehoboam, according to Josephus, delivered up the city to him without striking a stroke; which may seem strange, considering the great strength of it, and how much time it took Nebuchadnezzar and Titus to become masters of it. But it is probable that David and Solomon, in their bu... [ Continue Reading ]
_Rehoboam made in their stead brazen shields_ This was an emblem of the diminution of his glory. Sin makes the gold become dim: it changes the most fine gold, and turns it into brass. _And committed them into the hands of the chief of the guard_ Hebrew, שׂרי הרצים, _saree haratsim, the rulers_, or _... [ Continue Reading ]
_When the king went to the house of the Lord_ It appears from this, that he had not quite forsaken the worship or God; but still, at least occasionally, attended at the temple: or, if he had forsaken it, the chastisement he had received by the instrumentality of the king of Egypt had done him some g... [ Continue Reading ]
_Are they not written_, &c. A register was kept of the acts of the kings of Judah, as well as of those of the kings of Israel. _And there was war_, &c. But how does this agree with 1 Kings 12:23, &c., where God forbids Rehoboam and his people _to go up and fight against their brethren?_ We must obse... [ Continue Reading ]