1 Kings 11:29-36 sits inside this longer paragraph.
23God raised up an adversary to him, Rezon the son of Eliada, who had fled from his lord Hadadezer king of Zobah. 24He gathered men to himself, and became captain over a troop, when David killed them of Zobah. They went to Damascus, and lived there, and reigned in Damascus. 25He was an adversary to Israel all the days of Solomon, in addition to the mischief of Hadad. He abhorred Israel, and reigned over Syria. 26Jeroboam the son of Nebat, an Ephraimite of Zeredah, a servant of Solomon, whose mother’s name was Zeruah, a widow, also lifted up his hand against the king. 27This was the reason why he lifted up his hand against the king: Solomon built Millo, and repaired the breach of his father David’s city. 28The man Jeroboam was a mighty man of valor; and Solomon saw the young man that he was industrious, and he put him in charge of all the labor of the house of Joseph. 29At that time, when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite found him on the way. Now Ahijah had clad himself with a new garment; and the two of them were alone in the field. 30Ahijah took the new garment that was on him, and tore it in twelve pieces. 31He said to Jeroboam, “Take ten pieces; for Yahweh, the God of Israel, says, ‘Behold, I will tear the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and will give ten tribes to you 32(but he shall have one tribe, for my servant David’s sake and for Jerusalem’s sake, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel); 33because that they have forsaken me, and have worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of Moab, and Milcom the god of the children of Ammon. They have not walked in my ways, to do that which is right in my eyes, and to keep my statutes and my ordinances, as David his father did.
34“ ‘However I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand; but I will make him prince all the days of his life, for David my servant’s sake whom I chose, who kept my commandments and my statutes; 35but I will take the kingdom out of his son’s hand, and will give it to you, even ten tribes. 36I will give one tribe to his son, that David my servant may have a lamp always before me in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen for myself to put my name there. 37I will take you, and you shall reign according to all that your soul desires, and shall be king over Israel. 38It shall be, if you will listen to all that I command you, and will walk in my ways, and do that which is right in my eyes, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as David my servant did; that I will be with you, and will build you a sure house, as I built for David, and will give Israel to you. 39I will afflict the offspring of David for this, but not forever.’ ”
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv30, 33, 36 By these visible signs the Prophets would more deeply…
By these visible signs the Prophets would more deeply print their message into their hearts to whom they were sent.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv29–36 1Ki 11:29 And it came to pass at that…
1Ki 11:29 And it came to pass at that time when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, that the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite found him in the way; and he had clad himself with a new garment; and they two [were] alone in the field:
Ver. 29. When Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem,] sc, To take this prefectureship or principality upon him, which was not the cause, but some occasion of his rebellion.
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And he had clad himself with a new garment.] Ahijah had; and he might well make bold with his own.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv29, 31, 32, 33, 34, 36 When Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem; upon some occasion,…
When Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem; upon some occasion, possibly to execute his charge.
They two were alone in the field; having gone aside thither for some private conference; for otherwise it is most likely that he had servants attending upon him, who, though they heard not the words, yet might see the action, and the rending of Jeroboam’s coat; and thus it came to Solomon’s ears, who being so acute and wise, could easily understand the thing by what he heard of the action, especially when a prophet did it.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv29–36 And Ahijah caught the new garment that was on…
And Ahijah caught the new garment that was on him,.... This looks as if it was Jeroboam's garment, having got a new one to appear before the king in; though the sense may be this, that the prophet took hold of his own garment that was upon himself:
and rent it in twelve pieces; as symbolical of the twelve tribes of Israel.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On v29 Went - Probably to execute his charge. Were alone…
Went - Probably to execute his charge. Were alone - Having gone aside for private conference; for otherwise it is most likely that he had servants attending him, who, though they hear not the words, yet might see the action, and the rending of Jeroboam's coat; and thus it came to Solomon's ears, who being so wise, could easily understand the thing by what he heard of the action, especially when a prophet did it.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv29, 31, 36 Verse 29. When Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem] On…
Verse 29. When Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem] On what errand he was going out of Jerusalem, we know not.
Ahijah the Shilonite] He was one of those who wrote the history of the reign of Solomon, as we find from 2Ch 9:29, and it is supposed that it was by him God spake twice to Solomon; and particularly delivered the message which we find in this chapter, 1Kg 11:11-13.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv29, 30, 34 1Ki 11:29. When Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem —…
1Ki 11:29. When Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem — Probably to execute his charge. The Prophet Ahijah found him — Met with him as he was going along. “Ahijah was a native of Shiloh, and one of those who wrote the annals of King Solomon’s reign, 2Ch 9:29. And he is thought to have been the person who spake twice to Solomon from God, once while he was building the temple, (1Ki 6:12,) and again when he fell into his irregularities,” 1Ki 11:11. They two were alone in the field — Having gone aside for private conference; for otherwise Jeroboam’s servants, (it being most likely he had servants attending him,) if they heard not the words, might have seen the action of rending his coat, and thus the matter might have come to Solomon’s ears.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv29, 30, 34, 36 At that time - Probably after Jeroboam’s return from…
At that time - Probably after Jeroboam’s return from Egypt (see 1Ki 11:40).
The Shilonite - An inhabitant of Shiloh in Mount Ephraim, the earliest and most sacred of the Hebrew sanctuaries (Jos 18:10; Jdg 18:31; 1Sa 4:3, etc.)
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On vv29, 30, 34, 36 Garment. Salma occurs 16 times in this sense, and…
CHAPTER XI.
Garment. Salma occurs 16 times in this sense, and simlee 27. The latter, we may presume, is the true reading, as it is in the Samaritan Pentateuch invariably; Exodus xxii. 26, 27, both words are printed in the Hebrew Bible. But it is not probable that Moses should have written them so; no more than a Latin author would use both vestinentum and vestimentum. Shamal, in Arabic, signifies "he clothed himself all over." (Kennicott) --- Way leading to Ephraim, (Menochius) his department. (Calmet) --- Field. Septuagint, "he drew him aside out of the road: and Ahias had on a new cloak, and both were in the field." (Haydock) --- Jeroboam would not probably go unattended; (Menochius) and it seems this transaction soon transpired, and came to the ears of Solomon. (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On v29 clad--rather, "wrapped up." The meaning is, "Ahijah, the Shilonite,…
clad--rather, "wrapped up." The meaning is, "Ahijah, the Shilonite, the prophet, went and took a fit station in the way; and, in order that he might not be known, he wrapped himself up, so as closely to conceal himself, in a new garment, a surtout, which he afterwards tore in twelve pieces." Notwithstanding this privacy, the story, and the prediction connected with it [Kg1 11:30-39], probably reached the king's ears; and Jeroboam became a marked man [Kg1 11:40]. His aspiring ambition, impatient for the death of Solomon, led him to form plots and conspiracies, in consequence of which he was compelled to flee to Egypt. Though chosen of God, he would not wait the course of God's providence, and therefore incurred the penalty of death by his criminal rebellion. The heavy exactions and compulsory labor (Kg1 11:28) which Solomon latterly imposed upon his subjects, when his foreign resources began to fail, had prepared the greater part of the kingdom for a revolt under so popular a demagogue as Jeroboam.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv29, 30, 36 29. At that time — While he had charge…
29. At that time — While he had charge of the Ephraimite labourers at Jerusalem.
The prophet Ahijah — Here we meet with another representative of that interesting order of men, divine messengers, who appear so often and so prominently during the time of the Hebrew monarchy. Ahijah seems to have been to Jeroboam very much what Samuel was to Saul, and Nathan was to David. He too, probably, announced to Solomon the word of the Lord as recorded in 1Ki_11:11-13. His two genuine and authentic prophecies, each of great importance to the kingdom of Israel, are recorded here, 1Ki_11:29-39, and 1Ki_14:6-16.
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The Shilonite — So called because he dwelt at Shiloh. 1Ki_14:2; 1Ki_14:4. It is, perhaps, significant that this prophet dwelt at Shiloh, the ancient seat, and up to the time of Samuel the centre, of the national worship. Thence the ark had been taken to its capture, “and the Philistines destroyed Shiloh with such hideous barbarity, that centuries afterwards the heart of the people shuddered at the very mention of the name. They never restored the place. Even Jeroboam, though of the tribe of Ephraim, never ventured to use, as a rival to Jerusalem, a site consecrated by so many centuries of worship.” — SMITH, Prophecy a Preparation for Christ. Ahijah’s oracles seem like a voice from that olden sacred past — the voice of the God of Joshua and of Eli — still proclaiming blessings on the obedient, and penal woes on them that forget his name.
He… clad himself — That is, Ahijah, not Jeroboam, had clad himself.
A new garment — Probably a mantle thrown over the shoulder, similar to that which Samuel used to wear, and which was once used in a like symbolical action, 1Sa_15:27. Some interpreters see in the newness of the garment a symbol of the Hebrew monarchy, as yet young and undivided. “Here,” observes Rawlinson, “we find the first instance of that mode of delivering a divine message which became so common in later times, and which has been called ‘acted parable.’”
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 36 29. at that time] i.e. While the building-works at…
29. at that time] i.e. While the building-works at the Millo and the completion of the wall was in progress.
Ahijah the Shilonite] This prophet, whose home was in Shiloh (see 1Ki_14:2), is mentioned in connexion with this prophecy to Jeroboam and again when Jeroboam has become king, and sends his wife to inquire of the prophet about the issue of his child’s sickness. A writing of his is spoken of in 2Ch_9:29 as ‘the prophecy of Ahijah the Shilonite’. This may have contained other prophecies beside those which have been preserved to us. He was evidently a person of much importance and influence during this and the following reign.
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found him in the way] Here the LXX. adds ‘and he drew him aside out of the way’: an addition which may have been made to explain how it came to pass, as is said immediately, that ‘they two were alone in the field.’
and he had clad himself] i.e. Ahijah had done so. The R.V. following the LXX. inserts the proper name in italics to make the sense clearer in the English.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv30–31 (30) Rent it in twelve pieces.—The use of symbolical…
(30) Rent it in twelve pieces.—The use of symbolical acts is frequent in subsequent prophecy (especially see Jer_13:1; Jer_19:1; Jer_27:2; Ezekiel 4, 5, Eze_12:1-7; Eze_24:3; Eze_24:15), often alternating with symbolical visions and symbolical parables or allegories. The object is, of course, to arrest attention, and call out the inquiry (Eze_24:19): “Wilt thou not tell us what these things are to us?” Ahijah’s rending of his own new garment is used, like Saul’s rending of Samuel’s mantle (1Sa_15:27-28), to symbolise the rending away of the kingdom. (See 1Ki_11:11-13.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv29–36 And it came to pass at that time a…
And it came to pass at that time a general expression= "when he was thus employed" when Heb. that Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem that Heb. and, the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite i.e., of Shiloh, as is expressed 1Ki_14:2-4, where see notes. He too, therefore, was an Ephraimite. (Jos_16:5) This portion of the history is probably derived from his writings. (2Ch_9:29) We may be pretty sure that Nathan was now dead found him in the way; and he i.e., Ahijah. Ewald understands Jeroboam to be meant, and would see in the new garment his "splendid robe of office" had clad himself with a new garment hmlc same word as hlmc such transpositions of letters being common. The simlah was the outer garment (Gen_9:23; 1Sa_21:10, etc.) which served at night as a covering. (Deu_22:17) It was probably identical in shape, etc., with the camel"s-hair burnous, or abba, worn by the Arabs at the present day (cf. Conder, pp. 318, 342), and being almost a square would lend itself well to division into twelve parts; and they two were alone in the field i.e., open country.
Vers. 29-39.
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The Message of Ahijah.
As Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem with his commission from Solomon to rule as his lieutenant over the house of Joseph, meditating how he might use his fortune to construct a throne, he was met by Ahijah the Shilonite, who accosted him in a manner agreeable to his ambition. In the message of Ahijah we have
I A PROPHECY.
1. This was expressed in sign.
(1) The Shilonite provided himself with a new garment. This was intended to symbolize the kingdom. The same sign had been similarly used before. (1Sa_15:27 1Sa_24:5) Note: His people are the honourable clothing of a prince. (see Pro_14:28)
(2) The garment was new. The kingdom of Israel was as yet young. Solomon was but the third monarch in succession. The garment was whole. So was the kingdom, as yet, unbroken. Note: The robe of Christ was seamless and woven throughout, which suggests the perfect unity which will appear in the subjects of His heavenly kingdom. Note further: That in His transfiguration, which symbolized His kingdom, (see Mat_16:28 Mat_17:1) His raiment shined "as no fuller on earth could white it," suggesting the purity and glory in which the subjects of that kingdom are to shine. (Mat_13:43)
(3) But the robe in the hands of the prophet, the messenger and representative of God, is now rent into twelve pieces, according to the number of tribes composing the kingdom, ten of which were given into the hand of Jeroboam. Note: God disposes. In its militant state the kingdom of Christ is subject to revolutions, but not so in its triumphant and heavenly state.
2. The prophecy also is expressed in words (vers. 31-39).
(1) Thus the testimony is twofold. It appeals to the eye, also to the ear.
(2) History verified the predictions to the letter. What a testimony to the truth of God is the harmony and correspondence of prophecy and history!
II ITS REASONS. These are expressed and implied.
1. The sin of Solomon is specified (vers. 31, 33).
(1) Solomon forsook the Lord. God never forsakes us unless we first forsake Him. Let us be admonished.
(2) He worshipped idols. Ashtoreth, the impure Venus of the Zidonians; Chemosh, the abomination of the Moabites; and Milcom, or Molech, the devil of the Ammonites,are put into competition with the God of Israel! Whoever is so foolish as to forsake God will surely become the dupe of devils.
(3) We notice the plural pronoun, "they have forsaken Me," etc. Not Solomon and his wives, for these heathen women had never known God but Solomon and the Israelites drawn away by his influence and example. Men seldom sin alone. Accomplices are involved with their leaders in a common retribution.
(4) He forgat the good example of his father David. This is mentioned to his discredit. We are accountable to God for our advantages. For godly parents, godly ministers, opportunities.
2. The piety of David is remembered.
(1) It is remembered in the mind of God. Let sincere Christians who are apt to be discouraged at their failures take comfort from the fact that God is more willing to remember our good endeavours than our failures. David in glory would know the blessedness of this.
(2) It is remembered to the advantage of his offspring on the earth. The temporal judgments upon Solomon"s sins were mitigated in consequence of David"s piety. Would not David, in glory, have satisfaction in this?
3. The Scriptures must be fulfilled.
(1) David was to have a light always before God in Jerusalem. (Psa_132:16, Psa_132:17) The family of David mast be preserved until Messiah comes to be the Light of the Gentiles.
(2) As David was a type of Christ, so was Jerusalem, with its temple and shekinah, a type of His Church. Of this Church, Christ is the everlasting Light (see Isa_24:23 Isa_60:19, Isa_60:20; Rev_21:23)
4. No mention is made of any goodness in Jeroboam.
(1) This omission is significant. It suggests that the Ephrathite was used only as the instrument of Providence for the punishment of sinners; and for this service had the reward of his ambition. Therefore the success of our desires in this world is no certain proof either of our goodness or of God"s favour.
(2) But in respect to his service God gave Jeroboam a glorious opportunity by goodness to make himself great like David (see ver. 38). What opportunities does God graciously vouchsafe to us! Let us utilize them to the best possible account. M.
HOMILIES BY E. DE PRESSENSE Vers. 29-36; chs. 14:21-81; Jam_1:15) This is true also in the history of individuals; and we have in this fact one of the strongest evidences that we are under the government of a holy God. Let us never forget that His holiness is at the same time love, and that through all the dark and sorrowful vicissitudes of our life He is carrying out His plan of mercy. In spite of all its falls, its wanderings, and its woes, Israel did fulfil its preparatory mission. If in the end the theocracy tottered to its fall, this failure also entered into the conditions of the Divine plan. Israel was never treated by God, however, as a mere passive instrument. God gave it repeated warnings, as, for example, by the mouth of the unknown prophet who was sent to Jeroboam to declare to him the judgments of God (ch. 13.) E. de P.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v31 Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Behold I…
1Ki_11:31-33
Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Behold I will rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon.
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The purpose of God
Nothing, we are told, succeeds like success. It is the sign of a man of transcendent genius and power that he is able to carry through all his projects, and bring his schemes to a successful issue. And yet God seems to fail. What could be a greater failure than this world, if it was made by a beneficent God, says the average observer? Why are evil, misfortune, pain, and failure so obvious in its history, and so marked upon its operations? So with Christianity itself; it is the commonplace of missionary meetings that only a small fraction of the world has as yet become Christian, after centuries of preaching and earnest effort. Even where the Church has spread, and fixed her seat, how many schisms and controversies rend her unity, how imperfect is the faith of professing Christians, how unworthy their lives, how poor the realisation of those promises to which they cling. Before we can criticise anything we must know the facts. Before we can give a worthy judgment we must be in a position to judge, and in pronouncing on the great work of God in the universe, we may well ask ourselves, are we in a position during our short visit, which we call life, when we know so imperfectly what came before, when we know absolutely nothing of what comes after--are we in a position to judge? There we stand with the vast ocean before us. Here the wave has receded and left a bare patch of sand, there it is thundering with overwhelming catastrophe against some crumbling barrier. Is the tide coming in, or is it receding? Is there a progress or a steady shrinking back? Before we can decide we have to move away. Has God failed? Is this world in any sense a mistake? Are the Chronicles of Israel and Judah an uninteresting record of a monotonous disaster, unedifying to the soul, and powerless to amuse any attention, or fire our enthusiasm? Is Christianity to alter its name to Civilisation T and to substitute the worship of the beautiful for the service of the sanctuary, the book of science for the Book of God? Is the Church to be carted away in its crumbling masses to the lumber room, where lie now covered with the dust of ages the mouldering forms of Utopias, Republics, and Cities of God, in the model room, where repose the unattainable visions of unpractical men?
I. The plan of God, regarded from the side of His wise omnipotence. Is this world a failure? Does it whirl unchecked and uncontrolled along an aimless path, where luck and fortune and chance are the apparent and only guide to its caprice? Is life a game of chess with an unknown adversary, whom we neither see nor hear--where a mistake on our part is followed by a blow, and that a blow without a word? Have vice and violence and cunning, on the whole, the upper hand in the control of the world? Have all the improvements, the luxuries, the refinements of life, only crushed off in their path a wider and a more sordid fringe of poverty, a moraine of misery, and secured the greatest happiness of the few at the expense of the happiness of the greater number? No! Just remember that God is dealing with a fallen world, a world not as He made it, but as man marred it. A child no doubt, as he lies on his bed, powerless, faint, and ill, crippled by an accident, thinks the doctor cruel as he handles his aching limb, and probes the dangerous wound, and prescribes the bitter medicine; he wishes to be free, to be active, to be playing with his fellows, to feel life in his limbs and health in his frame, to eat what is pleasant, to taste what is sweet, and to fill his life with joy. But the father or the mother, and those who have at heart his welfare, marvel the rather at the skill, the nerve, the resource of the careful physician who is bringing health out of sickness, and a wholesome life out of deformity and mishap. An orchard of trees pruned and cut back is a sorry sight to one, who does not understand the secrets of fruit-bearing, and will not be there to see the golden clusters in the rich autumn. God is dealing with a fallen world, where the measures must be largely remedial, and tending towards a future, rather than self-sufficient in the present. The world is better than it was, it has advanced, and is advancing. Although here and there men sigh over the barren sand, as the wave sighs off with a gasp and a groan, and a sound of falling and disaster. Look out over the world and you will see progress--you cannot deny it--a tending towards a renewal of that time, when in the beginning God saw everything that He had made, and behold it was very good; while by the side of progress we see the unerring punishment which overtakes sin and evil; retribution we call it; a sign that God has given us a law, which cannot be broken.
II. Equally shallow is the criticism which would believe the purpose of God to have failed in His church. The Church is Gods Kingdom set up for the better management of the world. And most emphatically the Church has not been a failure. We have the strange spectacle of lands, once covered with its beneficent richness, now barren and dry, and in the hands of the infidel. We see large fields of the Church, once covered with ripe grain, and rippled with the breath of Heaven, now lying fallow, untilled, apparently uncared for, and yet all waiting on the good purpose of God. If we refuse to despair of the world, much more do we refuse to despair of the Church. The purpose of God in spite of drawbacks is being worked out here. Who can deny it?
III. But there is another region where we are apt to charge God with failure. I mean the region of our own soul. God has called us through the Red Sea, and, we say, would God we had stayed in Egypt. God has led us into the promised land, and we say it is no land of milk and honey. Men turn round on the old Bible and say it has failed; on the simple life of prayer and devotion; and say that it has proved powerless to effect its purpose. It is a bitter thing, dear brethren, to look back on life and say that it has fared. To look back on a pure home and careful training only to deride it, and get away from it. To have that bitter severance in life, which owes no piety to the past, which has lost all sense of vocation, or duty, or mission, and simply lives on from day to day a life which would be bearable were it not for its pleasures, and hopeful were it not for its ambitions. It is a terrible verdict which the world records of a man when it says, He has thrown himself away. It is a terrible sense of failure, when a man owns to himself, I am not what I used to be. It is sad for the returning prodigal to think of a large portion of his life, of which the most hopeful wish would be, that it might remain a blank. It is a more awful thing for a man to feel that his early hopes and aspirations have failed, and that a brilliant morning is likely to be obliterated in a stormy sunset. What can be more sad than the complete breakdown of the moral sense in the heart once alive unto God? Wise Solomon sunk in sensuality; David, whose heart was responsive to every ripple of the Divine breath, dull and insensate; the altar of God spurned, Sunday desecrated; evil eagerly followed; the shame of vice causing no blush, the meanness of it no compunction? And yet Gods purpose survives in another way. Magdalen stands before the world to cheer it with the sight of penitent love, more deep, more utter, because like a precious flower, it has been snatched out of the abyss of sin. An Augustine stands before the world, stored with an experience written in letters of blood, and burned in with horror into his soul, invites those who have made shipwreck of youth, to hope to revive and seek Him ten times the more. Ah! my brethren, believe in the inherent vitality of all Gods good gifts to you. If ever you have been religious, when you now are cold and dead, cherish that seed of life. God means yet again to revive it if you will let Him. If ever your heart was open and responsive before sin blinded your eyes, and the ways of the world made you hard, put yourself back before the first wilful sin, and know and believe that God wishes to revive in you the promise of a better past. (W. C. E. Newbolt, M. A.)
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The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv31, 34 He said
He said
Here the word "He" refers to Ahijah.
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tear the kingdom out
Here "tear ... out" is a metaphor that refers to the action of forcefully removing. This is like a person tears apart a piece of cloth. See how you translated this phrase in 1 Kings 11:11. AT: "forcefully take the kingdom out" (See: Metaphor)
the hand of Solomon
Here "hand" is a metonym that refers to a person's authority, control and power. AT: "Solomon's control" (See: Metonymy)
Solomon will have
The name "Solomon" here is a metonym referring to his descendants. AT: "Solomon's sons will have" or "Solomon's descendants will have" (See: Metonymy)
Ashtoreth ... Chemosh ... Molech
These are the names of false gods. (See: How to Translate Names)
Sidonians ... Moab ... Ammon
These are the names of locations and the people groups that live there. (See: How to Translate Names)
what is right in my eyes
"Eyes" here is a metonym for someone's opinion or idea. This is a commonly used idiom. AT: "what I consider to be right" (See: Metonymy and Idiom)
translationWords
Yahweh
God
Israel
kingdom
tribe
servant
Jerusalem
forsake
worship
Sidon
Moab
Ammon
walk
statute
decree
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv29, 34, 36 11:29-39 The meeting between Jeroboam and the prophet Ahijah…
11:29-39 The meeting between Jeroboam and the prophet Ahijah set in motion God’s judgment on the dynasty of Solomon. Ahijah reappears in the account of Jeroboam’s sick son (14:1-18). He authored an unpreserved work containing information about Solomon’s deeds (2 Chr 9:29).
11:29-32 Ahijah’s symbolic tearing of his cloak into twelve pieces and giving ten of these pieces to Jeroboam symbolized God’s plans for Jeroboam and Israel following Solomon’s death (see “Prophetic Sign Acts” Theme Note). Ten of the tribes would defect; one tribe (Judah) would remain with Solomon’s heir. The twelfth tribe was probably Benjamin (see 1 Kgs 12:21). Benjamin consistently acted in tandem with Judah (see 2 Chr 11:3, 23; 14:8; 15:2-9; 17:17). Simeon, the other southern tribe, seems to have allied with the north (2 Chr 15:9; 34:6).
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