CHAPTER XII _The people go to Shechem to make Rehoboam king, and send for_ _Jeroboam out of Egypt, who with the heads of the tribes,_ _requests relief from the heavy burdens laid on them by Solomon_, 14. _He requires three days to consider their petition_, 5. _He rejects the counsel of the eld... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 1 Kings 12:4. _THE GRIEVOUS SERVICE - AND - HEAVY YOKE_] They seem here to complain of two things - excessively laborious service, and a heavy taxation. At first it is supposed Solomon employed no Israelite in drudgery: afterwards, when he forsook the God of compassion, he seems to have used t... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 1 Kings 12:7. _IF THOU WILT BE A SERVANT UNTO THIS PEOPLE_] This is a constitutional idea of a king: he is the _servant_, but not the _slave_ of his people; every regal act of a just king is an act of _service_ to the state. The king is not only the _fountain of law_ and _justice_; but as he h... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 1 Kings 12:10. _AND THE YOUNG MEN THAT WERE GROWN UP WITH HIM_] It was a custom in different countries to educate with the heir to the throne young noblemen of nearly the same age. This, as Calmet observes, answered two great and important ends: - 1. It excited the prince to emulation; that h... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 1 Kings 12:11. _CHASTISE YOU WITH SCORPIONS_] Should you rebel, or become disaffected, my father's _whip_ shall be a _scorpion_ in my hand. His was _chastisement_, mine shall be _punishment_. St. Isidore, and after him Calmet and others, assert that the scorpion was a sort of severe whip, the... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 1 Kings 12:15. _THE CAUSE WAS FROM THE LORD_] God left him to himself, and did not incline his heart to follow the counsel of the wise men. This is making the best of our present version; but if we come to inquire into the meaning of the CAUSE of all this confusion and anarchy, we shall find... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 1 Kings 12:16. _SO ISRAEL DEPARTED UNTO THEIR TENTS_] That is, the ten tribes withdrew their allegiance from Rehoboam; only Judah and Benjamin, frequently reckoned one tribe, remaining with him.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 1 Kings 12:18. _KING REHOBOAM SENT ADORAM_] As this was the person who was superintendent over the _tribute_, he was probably sent to collect the ordinary taxes; but the people, indignant at the _master_ who had given them such a brutish answer, stoned the _servant_ to death. The sending of Ad... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 1 Kings 12:20. _MADE HIM KING OVER ALL ISRAEL_] What is called Israel here, was ten-twelfths of the whole nation; and had they a right to call another person to the throne? They had not, - they had neither _legal_ nor _constitutional right_. Jeroboam was not of the blood royal; he had no affin... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 24. _FOR THIS THING IS FROM ME._] That is, the _separation_ of the ten tribes from the house of David. _THEY - RETURNED TO DEPART_] This was great deference, both in Rehoboam and his officers, to relinquish, at the demand of the prophet, a war which they thought they had good grounds to under... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 27. _AND THEY SHALL KILL ME_] He found he had little cause to trust this fickle people; though they had declared for him it was more from _caprice, desire of change_, and _novelty_, than from any regular and praiseworthy principle.... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 28. _MADE TWO CALVES OF GOLD_] He invented a political religion, instituted feasts in his own times different from those appointed by the Lord, gave the people certain objects of devotion, and pretended to think it would be both inconvenient and oppressive to them to have to go up to Jerusalem... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 29. _ONE IN BETH-EL, AND THE OTHER - IN DAN._] One at the _southern_ and the other at the _northern_ extremity of the land. Solomon's idolatry had prepared the people for Jeroboam's abominations!... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 1 Kings 12:31. _A HOUSE OF HIGH PLACES_] A temple of temples; he had many _high places_ in the land, and to imitate the temple at Jerusalem, he made one chief over all the rest, where he established a priesthood of his own ordination. Probably a place of _separate appointment_, where _differen... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 1 Kings 12:32. _ORDAINED A FEAST_] The Jews held their _feast of_ _tabernacles_ on the fifteenth day of the seventh month; Jeroboam, who would meet the prejudices of the people as far as he could, appointed a similar feast on the fifteenth of the _eighth_ month; thus appearing to hold the thin... [ Continue Reading ]
Verse 1 Kings 12:33. _HE OFFERED UPON THE ALTAR_] Jeroboam probably performed the functions of high priest himself, that he might in his own person condense the civil and ecclesiastical power.... [ Continue Reading ]