2 Chronicles 11:14

Their suburbs. — Pasture-grounds (Numbers 35:1).

And their possession — i.e., the cities assigned to them among the ten tribes.

Jeroboam and his sons had cast them off from executing the priest’s office unto the Lord. — See 1 Kings 12:26. There we are told that, as a matter of policy, Jeroboam established two centres of worship within his own dominions, so that his subjects might cease to visit the Temple of Jerusalem. In appointing priests chosen promiscuously from all classes of the people to minister in the new sanctuaries, Jeroboam struck a direct blow at the Levitical order, and “thrust them out from acting as priests to Jehovah,” as our verse declares.

And his sons. — Usually explained to mean his successors on the throne. (Comp. 1 Chronicles 3:16.) “For in this matter all the kings of Israel walked in the footsteps of Jeroboam” (Keil). Of Jeroboam’s own sons Nadab was the only one who reigned (1 Kings 15:25 sqq.); and the narrative of Kings (1 Kings 14:15) mentions but one other son of this king. It does not, however, exclude the possibility of there having been more than these two, and if there were, they may have co-operated with their father in his religious policy.