Rehoboam went to Shechem; for all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king. When Jeroboam the son of Nebat heard of it (for he was in Egypt, where he had fled from the presence of king Solomon), Jeroboam returned out of Egypt. They sent and called him; and Jeroboam and all Israel came, and they spoke to Rehoboam, saying, “Your father made our yoke grievous: now therefore make the grievous service of your father, and his heavy yoke which he put on us, lighter, and we will serve you.”
He said to them, “Come again to me after three days.” So the people departed.
King Rehoboam took counsel with the old men, who had stood before Solomon his father while he yet lived, saying, “What counsel do you give me about how to answer these people?”
They spoke to him, saying, “If you are kind to these people, please them, and speak good words to them, then they will be your servants forever.”
But he abandoned the counsel of the old men which they had given him, and took counsel with the young men who had grown up with him, who stood before him. He said to them, “What counsel do you give, that we may give an answer to these people, who have spoken to me, saying, ‘Make the yoke that your father put on us lighter?’ ”
The young men who had grown up with him spoke to him, saying, “Thus you shall tell the people who spoke to you, saying, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but make it lighter on us;’ thus you shall say to them, ‘My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist. Now whereas my father burdened you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke. My father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.’ ”
So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam the third day, as the king asked, saying, “Come to me again the third day.” The king answered them roughly; and king Rehoboam abandoned the counsel of the old men, and spoke to them after the counsel of the young men, saying, “My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to it. My father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.”
So the king didn’t listen to the people; for it was brought about by God, that Yahweh might establish his word, which he spoke by Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat. When all Israel saw that the king didn’t listen to them, the people answered the king, saying, “What portion do we have in David? We don’t have an inheritance in the son of Jesse! Every man to your tents, Israel! Now see to your own house, David.” So all Israel departed to their tents.
But as for the children of Israel who lived in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them. Then king Rehoboam sent Hadoram, who was over the men subject to forced labor; and the children of Israel stoned him to death with stones. King Rehoboam hurried to get himself up to his chariot, to flee to Jerusalem. So Israel rebelled against David’s house to this day.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv1, 4, 8, 10, 11, 15, 18 After the death of Solomon.
After the death of Solomon.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv1, 7, 8, 10, 13, 16, 18, 19 2Ch 10:1 And Rehoboam went to Shechem: for to…
2Ch 10:1 And Rehoboam went to Shechem: for to Shechem were all Israel come to make him king.
Ver. 1. And Rehoboam went to Shechem.] {See Trapp on "1Ki 12:1"} {See Trapp on "1Ki 12:2"} {See Trapp on "1Ki 12:3"}
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 vv1, 3 The contents of this chapter are in 1Ki 12,…
The contents of this chapter are in 1Ki 12, where see the notes.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On vv1, 12 We may observe here, 1. The wisest and best…
We may observe here, 1. The wisest and best cannot give every body content. Solomon enriched and advanced his kingdom, did all (one would think) that could be done to make then happy and easy; and yet either he was indiscreet in burdening them with the imposition of taxes and services, or at least there was some colour of reason to think him so. No man is perfectly wise. It is probable that it was when Solomon had declined from God and his duty that his wisdom failed him, and God left him to himself to act in this impolitic manner. Even Solomon's treasures were exhausted by his love of women; and probably it was to maintain them, and their pride, luxury, and idolatry, that he burdened his subjects. 2. Turbulent and ungrateful spirits will find fault with the government, and complain of grievances, when they have very little reason to do so. Had they not peace in Solomon's time? They were never plundered by invaders, as formerly, never put in fear by the alarms of war, nor obliged to hazard their lives in the high places of the field. Had they not plenty - meat enough, and money enough? What would they more? O fortunatos nimium, sua si bona norint! - O happy, if they knew their happy state! And yet they complain that Solomon made their yoke grievous. If any complain thus of the yoke of Christ, that they might have a pretence to break his bands in sunder and cast away his cords from them, we are sure that he never gave them any cause at all for the complaint, whatever Solomon did. His yoke is easy, and his burden is light. He never made us serve with an offering, nor wearied us with incense. 3. Many ruin themselves and their interests by trampling upon and provoking their inferiors. Rehoboam thought that because he was king he might assume as much authority as his father had done, might have what he would, and do what he would, and carry all before him. But, though he wore his father's crown, he wanted his father's brains, and ought to have considered that, being quite a different man from what his father was, he ought to take other measures. Such a wise man as Solomon may do as we will, but such a fool as Rehoboam must do as he can. The high-mettled horse may be kicked and spurred by him that has the art of managing him; but, if an unskilful horseman do it, it is at his peril. Rehoboam paid dearly for threatening, and talking big, and thinking to carry matters with a high hand. It was Job's wisdom, as well as his virtue, that he despised not the cause of his man-servant or maid-servant, when they argued with him (Job 31:13), but heard them patiently, considered their reasons, and gave them a soft answer. And a similar tender consideration of those in subjection, and a forwardness to make them easy, will be the comfort and praise of all in authority, in the church, in the state, and in families. 4. Moderate counsels are generally wisest and best. Gentleness will do what violence will not do. Most people love to be accosted mildly. Rehoboam's old experienced counsellors directed him to this method (v. 7): "Be kind to this people, and please them, and speak good words to them, and thou art sure of them for ever." Good words cost nothing but a little self-denial, and yet they purchase good things. 5. God often fulfils the counsels of his own wisdom by infatuating men, and giving them up to the counsels of their own folly. No more needs to be done to ruin men than to leave them to themselves, and their own pride and passion.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On v11 See Introduction to Chapter 9
See Introduction to Chapter 9
Next: 2 Chronicles Chapter 11
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 vv1, 4, 7, 16 The people request Rehoboam to ease their grievances, ver.…
The people request Rehoboam to ease their grievances, ver. 1-5. Rehoboam rejecting the old mens counsel, by the advice of the young men answers them roughly, ver. 6-15. Ten tribes revolt, ver. 16-19.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv1, 10, 15, 16, 18, 19 The people apply to Rehoboam to ease them of…
CHAPTER X
The people apply to Rehoboam to ease them of their burdens, 1-4.
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Rejecting the advice of the aged counsellors, and following that
of the young men, he gives them an ungracious answer, 5-14.
The people are discouraged, and ten tribes revolt, 15-17.
They stone Hadoram, who went to collect the tribute; and
Rehoboam but barely escapes, 18, 19.
NOTES ON CHAP. X
Verse 1. Rehoboam went to Shechem] This chapter is almost word for word the same as 1Kg 12:1-19, to the notes on which the reader is referred.
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 v1 The people request Rehoboam to ease their grievances, 2Ch…
A.M. 3029. — B.C. 975.
The people request Rehoboam to ease their grievances, 2Ch 10:1-5. Rehoboam, rejecting the old men’s counsel, by the advice of the young men, answers them roughly, 2Ch 10:6-15. Ten tribes revolt, 2Ch 10:16-19.
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NOTES ON CHAPTER 10.
2Ch 10:1. Rehoboam, went to Shechem, &c. — See 1 Kings 12., where this chapter is explained, so that little need be added here.
2Ch 10:3. And they sent and called him — Or rather, as the Targum properly translates it, For they sent, assigning a reason why he returned from Egypt.
2Ch 10:4. Thy father made our yoke grievous — It is probable, when Solomon had declined from God, that God left him to himself to act thus impoliticly.
2Ch 10:7. If thou be kind to this people — Moderate counsels are generally best. Gentleness will do what violence will not do. Good words cost nothing but a little self-denial, and yet they purchase great things.
2Ch 10:16. Now, David, see to thine own house — When public affairs are in a ferment, violent proceedings do but make ill worse. Many have been driven to the mischief they did not intend, by being too severely dealt with.
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 v1 The narrative of Kings (marginal reference) is repeated with…
The narrative of Kings (marginal reference) is repeated with only slight verbal differences.
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 vv7, 11, 15, 16 Please. 3 Kings xii., "serve." By a little condescension,…
Please. 3 Kings xii., "serve." By a little condescension, thou mayst establish thy throne. (Calmet) --- The people did not complain, till they saw the riches of the nation wasted on wicked women (Tirinus) and idols. (Du Hamel)
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).
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures 1864 · Public Domain On v1 3. THE KINGS OF THE KINGDOM OF JUDAH FROM…
3. THE KINGS OF THE KINGDOM OF JUDAH FROM REHOBOAM TO ZEDEKIAH.—Ch. 10–36
a. Rehoboam. The Prophet Shemaiah.—Ch. 10–12
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α. Revolt of the Ten Tribes from the House of David: 2Ch_10:1 to 2Ch_11:4
2Ch_10:1.And Rehoboam went to Shechem: for to Shechem was all Israel come to 2make him king. And when Jeroboam the son of Nebat heard it, and he in Egypt, whither he had fled from the presence of Solomon the king, then Jeroboam returned out of Egypt. 3And they sent and called him: and Jeroboam and all Israel came; and they spake to Rehoboam, saying, 4Thy father made our yoke grievous: and now ease thou the grievous service of thy father, and his heavy yoke that he put upon us, and we will serve thee. 5And he said unto them, Yet three days hence return unto me: and the people departed.
6And King Rehoboam took counsel with the elders that stood before Solomon his father when he was living, saying, How do you advise me to return answer to this people. 7And they spake unto him, saying, If thou be kind to this people, and please them, and speak good words to them, they 8will serve thee all thy days. And he forsook the counsel of the old men which they gave, and took counsel of the young men that grew up with him, who stood before him. 9And he said unto them, What do ye advise, that we may return answer to this people, who have spoken to me, saying, Ease thou the yoke which thy father put upon us? 10And the young men that grew up with him spake unto him, saying, Thus shalt thou say unto the people that spake unto thee, saying, Thy father made our yoke heavy, but do thou ease our yoke: thus shalt thou say to them, My little finger is thicker than my 11father’s thighs. And now my father laid a heavy yoke upon you, but I will add to your yoke: my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions.
12And Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day, as the king had spoken, saying, Come again to me on the third day. 13And the king answered them roughly: and King Rehoboam forsook the counsel of 14the old men. And he spake to them after the counsel of the young men, saying, My father made your yoke heavy,1 but I will add thereto: my father 15chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions. And the king hearkened not to the people; for the cause was of God, that the Lord might accomplish His word, which He spake by Ahijah of Shiloh to Jeroboam 16the son of Nebat. And all Israel saw2 that the king hearkened not unto them: the people answered the king, saying, What portion have we in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse; every man to your tents, O Israel: now look to thy house, David. And all Israel went to his tents. 17And the children of Israel that dwelt in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned 18over them. And King Rehoboam sent Hadoram,3 who was over the socage; and the sons of Israel stoned him with stones, that he died: and King 19Rehoboam hastened to get up into his chariot to flee to Jerusalem. And Israel revolted from the house of David unto this day.
2Ch_11:1 And Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, and assembled the house of Judah and Benjamin, a hundred and eighty thousand chosen warriors, to fight with 2Israel, to bring back the kingdom to Rehoboam. And the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah the man of God, saying, 3Speak unto Rehoboam son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all Israel in Judah and Benjamin, saying, 4Thus saith the Lord, Ye shall not go up, nor fight with your brethren: return every man to his house; for this thing is come from me: and they hearkened to the words of the Lord, and returned from going against Jeroboam.
β. Reign of Rehoboam: 2Ch_11:5 to 2Ch_12:16
5And Rehoboam dwelt in Jerusalem, and built cities for defence in Judah. 6, 7And he built Bethlehem, and Etam, and Tekoa. And Beth-zur, and Socho, 8and Adullam. And Gath, and Mareshah, and Ziph. 9And Adoraim, and Lachish, and Azekah. 10And Zorah, and Ajalon, and Hebron, which are in Judah and Benjamin, fenced cities. 11And he fortified the strongholds, and put captains in them, and stores of food, and oil, and wine. 12And in every several city shields and spears, and made them very strong: and he had Judah and Benjamin.
13And the priests and the Levites that were in all Israel resorted to him out of all their border. 14For the Levites left their suburbs, and their possession, and came to Judah and Jerusalem: for Jeroboam and his sons had cast them off from executing the priest’s office unto the Lord. 15And he ordained him priests for the high places, and for the he-goats, and for the calves which he made. 16And after them, out of all the tribes of Israel, such as set their heart to seek the Lord God of Israel, came to Jerusalem to sacrifice to the 17Lord God of their fathers. And they strengthened the kingdom of Judah, and upheld Rehoboam son of Solomon three years; for they walked three years in the way of David and Solomon.
18And Rehoboam took him to wife Mahalath, daughter4 of Jerimoth son of 19David, and of Abihail5 daughter of Eliab son of Jesse. And she bare him sons: Jeush, and Shemariah, and Zaham. 20And after her he took Maachah daughter of Absalom, and she bare him Abijah, and Attai, and Ziza, and Shelomith. 21And Rehoboam loved Maachah the daughter of Absalom more than all his wives and concubines: for he took eighteen wives and sixty6 concubines; and begat twenty and eight sons, and sixty daughters. 22And Rehoboam made Abijah son of Maachah the chief, to be ruler over his brethren: for he thought to make him king. 23And he dealt wisely, and distributed of all his sons in all the countries of Judah and Benjamin, unto all fenced cities; and gave them victual in abundance: and he desired for them many wives.
2Ch_12:1.And it came to pass, when Rehoboam had established the kingdom, and strengthened himself, he forsook the law of the Lord, and all Israel with him. 2And it came to pass in the fifth year of King Rehoboam, that Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, because they had transgressed against the Lord. 3With twelve hundred chariots, and sixty thousand riders: and the people were without number that came with him out of Egypt; Lubites, Succites, and Cushites. 4And he took the fenced cities which pertained 5to Judah, and came to Jerusalem. And Shemaiah the prophet came to Rehoboam, and the princes of Judah that were gathered into Jerusalem before Shishak, and said unto them, Thus saith the Lord, Ye have forsaken 6me, and I also have forsaken you in the hand of Shishak. And the princes of Israel and the king humbled themselves, and said, The Lord is righteous. 7And when the Lord saw that they humbled themselves, the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah, saying, They have humbled themselves; I will not destroy them, but I will soon grant them deliverance; and my wrath shall 8not be poured out upon Jerusalem by Shishak. But they shall be his servants: that they may know my service, and the service of the kingdoms of the lands.
9And Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, and took the treasures of the house of the Lord, and the treasures of the king’s house; he took the whole; and he took the shields of gold which Solomon had made. 10And instead of them King Rehoboam made shields of brass, and committed them into the hand of the captains of the runners, who kept the entrance of the king’s house. 11And when the king entered into the house of the Lord, the runners came and carried them, and brought them again into the chamber of the runners. 12And when he humbled himself, the anger of the Lord turned from him, and he would not destroy him altogether: and in Judah also there were good things.
13And King Rehoboam strengthened himself in Jerusalem, and reigned; for Rehoboam was forty and one years old when he became king, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the Lord had chosen to put His name there out of all the tribes of Israel: and his mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonitess. 14And he did evil; for he did not direct his heart to seek the Lord.
15And the acts of Rehoboam, first and last, are they not written in the words of Shemaiah the prophet, and of Iddo the seer for the register? and the wars of Rehoboam and Jeroboam were continual. 16And Rehoboam slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David: and Abijah reigned in his stead.
EXEGETICAL
Preliminary Remark.—The Chronist presents only the first section of the history of Rehoboam, relating to the revolt of the ten tribes and the division of the kingdom, in exact, mostly literal, agreement with the account of the books of Kings (comp. 2Ch_10:1 to 2Ch_11:4 with 1Ki_12:1-24). The proper history of his reign he treats with considerable enlargement, by the addition of several statements, wanting in the parallel text, concerning his building of forts, reception of the priests and Levites from the northern kingdom, and his family affairs (2Ch_11:5-23). He also reports at length the history of the invasion of Shishak, and the subjection of Rehoboam, and records the words spoken by the prophet Shemaiah at the divine command (2Ch_12:1-12; comp. 1Ki_14:25-28). He refers even to the notes of this Shemaiah as his source for this enlarged account (2Ch_12:15).
1. The Revolt of the Ten Tribes: 2 Chronicles 10; comp. the explanations of Bähr on 1 Kings 12 Here we have only to remark some deviations from the text of Kings.
2Ch_10:2.And when Jeroboam . . . and he in Egypt. 1 Kings: “and he was yet in Egypt” (עוֹדֶנּוּ our narrator omits, because he had related nothing of Jeroboam’s flight from Solomon into Egypt; comp. 1Ki_11:26-40).
2Ch_10:5. Yet three days (wait). 1 Kings: “Go (לְכוּ) yet three days.”
2Ch_10:14. On the reading אָנִי אַכְבִּיד deviating from 1 Kings, see the Crit. Note.
2Ch_10:15. For the cause was of God, literally, “for it was a decree (turning) of God.” Both נְסִבָּה and its parallel סִבָּה in 1 Kings are ά̔παξ λ.
2Ch_10:16. And all Israel saw. If רָאוּ were to be cast out of the text, according to most ancient testimonies (see Crit. Note), it must be translated: “and all Israel (or ‘as to all Israel’), when the king hearkened not unto them, the people answered.”—What portion have we in David? What have we to do with the house of David ? it may take care of itself. See again the fourth line of the strophically - arranged speech.
2Ch_10:18. On the probable identity of the taskmaster (Luther: “receiver of rents”) Adoram, or, as our author writes, Hadoram, with the Adoniram of 1Ki_4:6, see Bähr on 1Ki_12:18.
2Ch_10:19. Unto this day; comp. 1Ch_4:41; 1Ch_4:43; 1Ch_5:26, and the remarks in the Introd. § 5, I. p. 16.
2. Prevention of the War of Rehoboam with Jeroboam by the Prophet Shemaiah: 2Ch_11:1-4. This incident also, that belongs to the history of the revolt of the ten tribes, is recorded by our author in substantial agreement with the author of 1 Kings; comp. 1Ki_12:21-24, and Bähr on the passage. Only to 1Ki_12:20 (Jeroboam is raised by the ten tribes, in solemn assembly, to the throne of the northern kingdom) no parallel is found in our text, because the Chronist sedulously avoids all particulars concerning the history of the kingdom of Israel.
2Ch_11:3. Speak unto Rehoboam . . . and to all Israel in Judah and Benjamin. Observe the peculiar depth, almost New Testament (reminding us of Gal_6:16; Rom_2:29; Rom_4:12) depth of the sense which our author here attaches to the name “Israel.” It is otherwise, certainly, 2Ch_11:1, and again 2Ch_11:16 a, where he specially designates the northern kingdom by “Israel”; yet in 2Ch_11:16 follows immediately after the name Israel, again in that evangelical, deeper, and more universal sense; so 2Ch_12:1.
2Ch_11:4. For this thing is come from me, I have decreed the revolt of the disloyal tribes as a punishment for the disobedience of the house of David; comp. 2Ch_10:15. The there mentioned revelation by Ahijah the prophet of Jeroboam is here confirmed by Shemaiah the prophet of Rehoboam.—And returned from going against Jeroboam. For this 1Ki_12:24 has: “and turned home, according to the word of the Lord,” a deviation arising perhaps from a mere omission in writing. Our text has probably the original; for the twofold mention of the word of Jehovah shortly after one another is somewhat drawling, leading us to suspect a corruption of the text.
3. Building of Forts by Rehoboam: 2Ch_11:5-12 (without parallel in Kings).—And built cities for defence in Judah,לְמָצוֹר, “for a fort.” Judah is here the name, not of the tribe (2Ch_11:10), but of the whole southern kingdom; for a part of the fifteen forts now to be named lay in Benjamin.
2Ch_11:6. And he built Bethlehem and Etam. That Bethlehem was a fort, for which it was fitted by its tolerably high situation on a rocky eminence, we learn only from this passage. On the here mentioned Etam, as different from the more southern one in the tribe of Simeon, see on 4:32. Tobler (Dritte Wanderung, etc., p. 89) has again pointed out our Etam in the Ain Attân, a side glen south-west of Urtâs, or Artâs, the well-known starting-point of Solomon’s aqueduct for Jerusalem. For Tekoa, now Tekua, a hilltop covered with ruins, two hours south of Bethlehem, see the Expl. on Jos_15:59 and on Amo_1:1.
2Ch_11:7. For Beth-zur (now Beit-Sur, between Urtâs and Hebron), comp. Fay on Jos_15:58; for Socho (now Shuweike, three and a half hours south-west of Jerusalem) and Adullam (perhaps = Dula, six miles east of Beit-jibrin), see the same on Jos_15:35.
2Ch_11:8. Gath (comp. 1Ch_18:1; 1Ki_2:39); its situation is not yet exactly ascertained; it is perhaps near Ascalon, where is now found a Wady el Gat, north of the ruins of this city (K. Furrer, Wanderungen, etc., 1865, p. 133); according to others (for example, C. Schick) = the conical hill Tel Safieh in the Shephelah west of Ascalon.—Mareshah = the later Marissa (between Hebron and Philistia) and the present Marash, a ruin twenty-four minutes south of Beit-jibrin or Eleutheropolis; comp. Fay on Jos_15:44; and for Ziph (on the hills of Judah, one and a quarter hour south-east of Hebron), comp. the same on Jos_15:24; Jos_15:55.
2Ch_11:9. Adoraim = the Idumæan city ” Α δωρα, 1Ma_13:20, or Δωρά, Josephus, Antiq.xiii. 15. 4, now Dura, two and a half hours west of Hebron (Robinson, iii. 209).—Lachish = Um Lakish, on the road from Gaza to Hebron; comp. on Jos_10:3; Jos_15:39.—Azekah, according to 1Sa_17:1, Jos_10:10, not far from Socho, but not yet fully ascertained.
2Ch_11:10. And Zorah and Ajalon, both originally (Jos_19:41) cities belonging to the tribe of Dan, which afterwards, on the migration of the Danites to North Palestine (Jdg_18:1), were probably occupied by the Benjamites, and thenceforth reckoned to the tribe of Benjamin. For the situation of Zorah, see on 1Ch_2:53; for Ajalon (now Jalo), the expositors on Jos_10:12. These two Benjamite cities are perhaps the most northerly of the fifteen cities fortified by Rehoboam. All the others, including Hebron, which closes the list (formerly Kiriath-arba, now el-Khalil, the ancient patriarchal city), lie south or south-west of Jerusalem, in the middle or south of the tribe of Judah. It follows, perhaps, from this position of the line of forts on the south border of the kingdom of Judah, and thus in the main directed toward Egypt, that Rehoboam began to establish them after the invasion of Shishak (Keil). So far as the arrangement of our section follows a material rather than a chronological principle of division, nothing seems to stand in the way of this assumption; but it can scarcely be reconciled with 2Ch_7:4; see on this passage.
2Ch_11:11. And he fortified the strongholds, put them in a good state of defence by nominating captains (נְגִידִים), properly, “princes, leaders”), provisioning them and (2Ch_11:12) arming them properly.—And he had Judah and Benjamin. This notice, forming the close of the statement concerning the measures of Rehoboam for the security of his kingdom, leads directly to the following section, which describes the Levitical and priestly followers of Rehoboam as flowing not merely from Judah and Benjamin, but from the whole kingdom.
4. Adhesion of the Levites out of all Israel to the Kingdom of Rehoboam: 2Ch_11:13-17—as is to be expected, a notice peculiar to the Chronist, to which, however, the author of 1 Kings affords an indirect confirmation, in so far as he twice refers to the institution of a new non-Levitical priest-hood on the part of Jeroboam, 1Ki_12:31; 1Ki_13:33 f.—And the priests and the Levites that were in all Israel resorted to him, “placed themselves before him to receive his commands, placed themselves at his disposal;” comp. הִתְיַצֵּבJob_1:6; Job_2:1; Zec_6:5.
2Ch_11:14. For the Levites left their suburbs, their commons or pasture grounds מִגְרָשִׁים as in 2Ch_6:40 ff; 2Ch_13:2; Num_35:2-8).—For Jeroboam and his sons had cast them off from executing the priest’s office. See the fuller account of the erection of the impure worship of Jehovah with a new non-Levitical priesthood in the kingdom of Jeroboam, 1Ki_12:26-31. By the sons of Jeroboam our passage naturally means his successors, none of whom rejected the impure worship which he had introduced. They were also in so far his sons in a spiritual sense, although, with the exception of his immediate successor Nadab, they belonged to other dynasties.
2Ch_11:15. And he ordained him priests. This ויעמד לו וגו׳ continues the proof begun with the second כִּי in 2Ch_11:14.—For the high places (in Dan and Bethel, 1 Kings12:), and the he-goats, etc., the idols of the form of he-goats, after the pattern of the Egyptian Pan, to whom, though not Jeroboam himself, yet his later successors, sinking into a still grosser idolatry, offered sacrifice; comp. Lev_17:7, whence the term שְׂעִירִים is taken. The calves named in the third place are the representatives of Jehovah under the form of a calf, as Jeroboam (after the example of Aaron, Exodus 32) had made them, 1Ki_12:28, and as they retained their places of worship during the whole period of the northern kingdom in Dan, Bethel, and perhaps elsewhere. According to this state of things, the “calves” should properly have been named before the “he-goats.” That the author makes no note of the gradual sinking into grosser idolatry in the development of the northern kingdom, is explained by his theocratic zealous abhorrence of idolatry in general, the various forms and steps of which appear to him all equally bad.
2Ch_11:16. And after them … such as set their heart, etc. On נָתַן לֵב, comp. 1Ch_22:19. What is here related of the emigration of theocratic pious Israelites from the other tribes to Judah and Benjamin is repeated afterwards under Asa (2Ch_15:9) and Hezekiah (2Ch_30:11). That, moreover, the time during which the reign of Rehoboam gathered and attracted the true worshippers of Jehovah in other tribes amounted only to three years, and afterwards made way for an inclination to foreign and idolatrous customs (on which that accession of pious Israelites from the neighbouring kingdom ceased), is manifest from 2Ch_11:17; comp. with 2Ch_12:1 ff.
5. Domestic Affairs of Rehoboam: 2Ch_11:18-23; again without parallel in the books of Kings, and wanting also in the Syr. version of Chronicles (which arises merely from an oversight).—Mahalath, daughter of Jerimoth. The name of the father-in-law of Rehoboam is wanting in the list of the sons of David (1Ch_3:1-8). יְרִימוֹת might possibly be corrupted from יְתְרְעָם, or be a by-form of this name; it is easier to suppose that he was one of the many sons of David by the concubines.—And of Abihail daughter of Eliab son of Jesse. As necessary as the supply of the wanting וְ before אֲבִיחַיִל (see Crit. Note) is the taking of this name as the genitive, thus (contrary to the Sept. and Vulg., which rather make her a second wife of Rehoboam) as the name of the mother of Mahalath. For—1. 2Ch_11:19 shows that only one wife of Rehoboam, the mother of the three there named otherwise unknown sons, should be named; 2. Along with the obscure father of Mahalath we expect the name of her mother, who is more celebrated, because she descends from Eliab the brother of David; 3. A daughter of Eliab the eldest brother of David (1Ch_2:13; 1Sa_17:13) could scarcely have been a wife of Rehoboam the grandson of David; even as granddaughter of Eliab (comp. 2Ch_11:20), Abihail suited better in age a son of David than a son and successor of Solomon.
2Ch_11:20. And after her he took Maachah daughter of Absalom. This second wife of Rehoboam is perhaps to be regarded, not strictly as the daughter, but the granddaughter of Absalom, the daughter of Tamar, the only daughter, and perhaps only child, of this unlucky prince; comp. 2Sa_14:27; 2Sa_18:18, and Josephus, Antiq.viii. 10. 1, as well as 2Ch_13:2 of our book.—And she bare him Abijah. Only this first-born of Maachah, whose name, moreover, is constantly written Abijam (אֲבִיָּם) in 1 Kings, is more particularly known to us as the successor of Rehoboam; the three younger sons, Attai, Ziza, and Shelomith, do not occur elsewhere.
2Ch_11:21. For he took eighteen wives (נשׂא, as in 2Ch_13:21) and sixty concubines. On account of the number of daughters immediately after given as sixty, it is not improbable that Josephus, who tells only of thirty concubines, deserves the preference; comp. Crit. Note.
2Ch_11:22. To be ruler among his brethren; to this explanatory apposition to לָרֹאשׁ is added the following כִּי לְהַמְלִיכוֹ, as a further determination of that which the king meant by Abijah’s elevation to be chief. On the breviloquence here, comp. Ew. § 351, c.
2Ch_11:23. And he dealt wisely, and distributed of all his sons in all the countries of Judah and Benjamin; he showed his prudence as sovereign and as father by appointing his numerous sons as captains in the several forts of his kingdom, employing them usefully, and separating them from one another, to prevent any attempts at rebellion among them.—And he desired for them many wives, made many marriages between them and the daughters of the land, both to make them contented and to make firmer connections between his house and the inhabitants of the land. The desiring or asking (שָׁאַל) of wives for his sons became him as their father and natural guardian: the author will scarcely charge him with an immoral, pimp-like gratification of the lusts of his sons.
6. The Invasion of Shishak: 2Ch_12:1-12; comp. the briefer narrative of 1Ki_14:25-28.—And it came to pass, when Rehoboam had established the kingdom, and strengthened himself, literally, “at the time of the establishing” (כְּהָכִין, inf. act. with indefinite subject), and on the strengthening of him or it (כְּחֶזְקָתוֹ, from the nom. verbaleחֶזְקָה, strengthening; comp. 2Ch_26:16; Dan_11:2).—He forsook the law of the Lord (by a partial falling into idolatry; comp. 1Ki_14:22 ff.), and all Israel with him, all the inhabitants of the southern kingdom, who are here, somewhat to their shame, designated Israelites; comp. 2Ch_12:6 and 2Ch_11:3.
2Ch_12:2. And it came to pass in the fifth year of King Rehoboam, thus soon but not immediately after his apostasy from the Lord. Concerning Shishak (= Sheshonk, Sesonchis, the first king of the 22d dynasty of Manetho), and the relievo proceeding from him, celebrating the present campaign against the Jews, and victory over Rehoboam, that probably exhibits Rehoboam himself among his captives, see Thenius on 1Ki_11:40, and Bähr on 1Ki_14:25.
2Ch_12:3. With twelve hundred chariots, and sixty thousand riders. In 1 Kings these data concerning the strength of the Egyptian army are wanting, though they are by no means incredible. Of the auxiliaries of Shishak, the Lubites (לוּבִים) are certainly those Egyptian Libyans (the Libyœgyptii of the ancients) who are also named with the Egyptians in 2Ch_16:8, Nah_3:9, Dan_11:43, and from whom the Lehabim of the Mosaic table of nations are perhaps not different; comp. Knobel on Gen_10:13. The Succites (סֻכִּיִּים) are, according to the Sept. and Vulg., troglodytœ, cavedwellers, to which the Hebrew etymon seems to point, dwellers in holes of the earth, probably of Ethiopian origin, and inhabiting the mountains of Eastern Egypt. The Cushites are probably inhabitants of Ethiopia proper, that is, Abyssinia, as they are also named, Nah_3:9, as allies of Egypt (along with “Put” and “Lubim”).
2Ch_12:4. And he took the fenced cities which pertained to Judah; comp. 2Ch_11:5 ff. These may not yet have been very strong, or their works proved insufficient against the military force of Egypt; comp. on 2Ch_11:10.
2Ch_12:5-8. The Prophetic Mission of Shemaiah, and the consequent Submission of the Jews and Mitigation of their Punishment,—a section quite wanting in 1 Kings.—But I will soon grant them deliverance. בִּמְעָט, properly, “for a little,” that is, in, a short time, soon; comp. Ezr_9:8 (rightly Berth., Keil, etc., against Kamph., who translates: “a small deliverance”).—And my wrath shall not be poured out upon Jerusalem by Shishak. No judgment of full extirpation shall overtake the capital; comp. 2Ch_34:25.—That they may know my service and the service of the kings of the lands; that they may experience what a difference there is between the government of the Lord in the theocracy of Israel, and the so much more oppressive rule of heathen kings.—On 2Ch_12:9-11, comp. Bähr’s remarks on 1Ki_14:26-28.
2Ch_12:12. And when he humbled himself, literally, “and in his self-humiliation.” On the following elliptical phrase: וְלֹא לְהַשְׁחִית, “and not to destroy” (did Jehovah’s wrath turn itself), comp. the like breviloquence in 2Ch_11:12, and the passage there quoted from Ew.—And in Judah also there were good things. This was a further motive to the Lord to restrain his wrath, in addition to the first motive, consisting in the repentance of Rehoboam.
7. Close of the History of Rehoboam: 2Ch_12:13-16 (comp. 1Ki_14:21-22; 1Ki_14:29-31).—And King Rehoboam strengthened himself; comp. 2Ch_1:1; 2Ch_13:21; concerning the following note of age, which it seems necessary to change into twenty-one years, comp. Bähr on 1Ki_14:21.—Naamah the Ammonitess, the daughter of the Ammonite King Nahash (1Ch_19:1), according to a probable note of the Sept. after 1Ki_12:24.
2Ch_12:14. For he did not direct his heart. For this phrase, comp. 2Ch_19:3; 2Ch_30:19; Ezr_7:10.
2Ch_12:15. Are they not written in the words of Shemaiah the prophet. On this quotation, and especially on the obscure phrase “for the register” (לְהְתְיַחֵשׂ), see Introd. § 5, II.—And the wars of Rehoboam and Jeroboam, their smaller dealings and disputes, in which their continued hostile disposition showed itself; see Bähr on 1Ki_14:30.
EVANGELICAL AND MORAL REFLECTIONS ON CH. 10–12
1. In the reign of Rehoboam, as the Chronist represents it, is signalized above all the tendency to keep the kingly ideal of David and Solomon pure from the dark stains of untheocratic opinion and destructive apostasy into idolatry. Some time after the beginning of his reign, this corrupt influence comes out distinctly and clearly, accompanied with divine punishments as its evil effect (2Ch_12:1 ff.), though in the first three years Rehoboam and his subjects “walked in the way of David and Solomon” (2Ch_11:17). Yet in the first half of the section, the account of the secession of the ten tribes under Jeroboam, several expressions betray the acquaintance of the author with the fact that corruption had begun already under Solomon. The polygamy and idolatry of this glorious king, and the consequent divine corrections and threatenings of punishment, he had not mentioned in his representation of the history of Solomon (comp. the Evangelical and Ethical Reflections on 2 Chronicles 1-9.). But now in Rehoboam there is express reference to that which had been prophesied on account of those errors of Solomon by Ahijah the Shilonite against him, and in favour of Jeroboam (2Ch_10:15; comp. 1Ki_11:29-39). And this part of our author’s narrative indicates that his religious and moral fall had already been productive of many immediate evils in his kingdom, that his government had become latterly quite a misgovernment (comp. 1Ki_11:14 ff.), by the mention of the repeated request of the dissatisfied people: “lighten the heavy yoke which thy father laid on us” (2Ch_10:4; 2Ch_10:9-10; comp. 2Ch_12:15), and by the report of the words of the ten tribes betraying an already deepseated dissatisfaction with the previous government; “What portion have we in David ? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse” (2Ch_12:16). Thus, according to our author, the ideal time of David and Solomon closes with this, that it presents at last the germs of a growing and grasping corruption, while that which had to be recorded concerning it is first introduced in the section belonging to Rehoboam, and therefore chiefly in the form of an appendix to the already concluded history of Solomon. Indeed, to our author, the evangelical result of the reign of Solomon is simply that which is brought forward in 1 Kings 11. “Along with a great outgrowth of public prosperity, we observe a gangrene commencing, that gnaws unceasingly, and destroys the religion of the people, the condition of their salvation, and this salvation itself. It becomes manifest that the peace, which a merely human ruler can give, bears in itself the germ of decay, that it brings with it temptations, which a lesser anointed of the Lord (like David or Solomon) cannot give the power to withstand. The result of the whole brilliant period is a Kyrie Eleison and an: O that Thou wouldst rend the heavens and come down!” (Hengstenberg, Gesch. des Reiches Gottes unter dem Alten Bunde, ii. 2, 146 f.)
2. Thus the Chronist partly only places Rehoboam, with respect to the beginning of his reign, in an unfavourable contrast with the brilliant reign of his father Solomon. In a certain respect (particularly with regard to the tendency to tyrannical cruelty and domineering pride; see 2Ch_10:10; 2Ch_10:14) he puts them on a par, and makes the son only gradually different from the father, by descending a step lower. So with regard to the further course of Rehoboam’s reign. At first Rehoboam continues the effort of his father, if not to enlarge, at least to establish the kingdom (comp. 2Ch_11:5-12 with 2Ch_1:14 ff., 2Ch_8:1-10, 2Ch_9:25-28). But certainly his fortifications are of no avail to ward off the war-storm bursting on the country from Egypt, no more than his defiant threat of a warlike attack could have hindered the dismemberment of the kingdom that still held together under his father (comp. 2Ch_10:15 ff., 2Ch_11:1 ff.). He likewise applied himself during the first three years of his reign to the theocratically pure and correct principles of government which were followed by his father, if not to the last yet during the greater part of his reign, with so much blessing to himself and his people. He thereby makes Jerusalem and the southern kingdom for a time the refuge and gathering-place of the pious worshippers of the Lord of priestly and non-priestly descent from the whole kingdom, and, so to speak, effects the transfer of the tribe of Levi to his sway, so far only as those of them who were scattered among all the tribes can find a settlement in Judah and Benjamin. But this attractive power in the sense of forming and consolidating a theocracy (2Ch_11:13-17) did not last long. After three years, he “forsook the law of the Lord, and all Israel with him” (2Ch_12:1). What Solomon was able to do during at least two-thirds of his reign of forty years, to maintain the “hearing heart” and the true wisdom with which the Lord had endowed him, this Rehoboam was scarcely able to do during a sixth part of his reign of seventeen years. In this also he resembles his father; but he behaves much worse, and seems to surpass him in a bad sense. Hence he has to endure much greater shame and humiliation; for if the Lord had only to threaten Solomon thus: “I will humble the seed of David, but not for ever” (1Ki_11:39), this prophetic threat pronounced by Ahijah is now fulfilled in bitter earnest on him and his people (2Ch_12:2 ff.); and what the prophetic interpreter says in behalf of a right understanding of the misfortune that had befallen them (2Ch_12:7-8) is certainly not altogether comfortless, but at the same time not unconditionally promising. The punishment shall be mild, not of long endurance; but for a time its bitterness shall be required, that they may understand what it is to prefer the rule of a heathen king to the mild sway of God.
3. There is something peculiar in the position which the Chronist gives to the family history of Rehoboam (2Ch_11:18-23). He tells of his eighteen wives and sixty (or, if the number is to be reduced according to Josephus, thirty) concubines with objective candour, without adding a judgment unfavourable to the moral character of the king. While he passes with significant silence over the extravagant polygamy of the latter years of Solomon, to spare the great and wise king, and even thereby indicates the un-theocratic and immoral character of an immoderate harem, he seems to find the married life of Rehoboam not more offensive than that of David, of whom he expressly named at least seven lawful wives, and mentioned besides the possession of an indefinite number of concubines, without expressing any disapprobation. The manner also in which Rehoboam procured for his sons many wives from the daughters of the land (2Ch_11:23), he adduces merely as a proof of his prudent dealing, not in the tone of serious blame or moral disapprobation. He places this statement also before the account of his fall into idolatry, without noticing in the way of censure the manifest connection of the two things, the polygamy of himself and his sons, and his giving way to the worship of foreign gods. He almost appears, indeed, as afterwards in the case of Abijah’s fourteen wives and thirty-eight children (2Ch_13:21), to have regarded the taking of many wives and begetting of numerous children as something laudable, serving to multiply and perpetuate the house of David. This manner of thinking is characteristic of the strict theocrats of the later times, that form the transition to the Pharisaic orthodoxy of the New Testament epoch (comp. Introd. § 6). Because the law does not directly forbid polygamy, he readily allows on this point an almost unlimited compliance with the lusts of the flesh, while he censures with strictness the as it were only theocratic error of which the same king becomes guilty by falling into idolatry in the fourth year of his reign, as he had before shown his abhorrence of that still greater idolatrous error of the king and subjects of the northern kingdom in the strongest, indeed almost hyperbolical, terms (2Ch_11:15). We meet here the same rather externally orthodox than morally strict tendency, which our author discovers also in many other points. It is the ethically imperfect and crude, not yet evangelically consecrated and glorified, stage of the legal standpoint of the Old Testament, which is expressed in this lax position of the Chronist with regard to the custom of polygamy. New Testament statements, such as those relating to Moses’ regard to the hard-heartedness of the Jews, to the killing power of the letter of the law, to the shadowy and not essential character, to the weakness and impotence of the law (Mat_19:8; 2Co_3:6; Rom_8:3; Col_2:17; Heb_10:1, etc.), first receive their full light and deeper meaning by a phenomenon like this (comp. also Joh_1:17; Gal_2:16 ff; Gal_3:10 ff; Gal_4:3; Gal_4:9 ff.).
Footnotes:
[1]For אָבִי הִכְבִּיד, “my father made heavy” (so also 1Ki_12:14), the best mss. and some old prints (1 Soncin., Complut.): אָנִי אַכְבִּיד, “I will make heavy” your yoke, and will now add to it. Nordi, Berth., etc., give the latter reading the preference.
[2] רָאוּ is certainly wanting in most mss., in the old translations (Sept., Vulg, Chald., though not Syr. and Arab.), and in the older polyglots, but can scarcely be spared.
[3]For הֲדֹרָם 1Ki_12:18 presents אֲדֹרָם (comp. 2Sa_20:24). So also Sept. cod. Al. in our passage, whereas cod Vat. writes ’Αδωνιράμ (comp. 1Ki_4:6), probably correct as to the fact; see Exeg. Expl.
[4]With the Keri, which alters בֵּן into בַּת, agree several mss., as well as the Sept. and Vulg. (in the Syr. version the passage 2Ch_11:18-23 is altogether wanting).
[5]The ו before אביחיל is certainly wanting in all copies of the Hebrew text, but was read by the Sept., and cannot be dispensed with.
[6]All the mss. and versions certainly testify to the number sixty; but internal grounds of probability speak for the number, given by Josephus, Antiq. viii. 10. 1, of only thirty concubines; comp. the Exeg. Expl.
Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv3, 7, 15 And they sent--rather, "for they had sent," &c. This…
And they sent--rather, "for they had sent," &c. This is stated as the reason of Jeroboam's return from Egypt.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv1, 2, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18 Ch. 2Ch_10:1-15 (= 1Ki_12:1-15). The Conference at Shechem
Ch. 2Ch_10:1-15 (= 1Ki_12:1-15). The Conference at Shechem
1. Shechem] Chosen for its central position, for it is in the heart of Western Palestine.
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 vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19 (1) To Shechem.—Sh’kémah, with accusative ending; Kings, Sh’kem. “Were…
(1) To Shechem.—Sh’kémah, with accusative ending; Kings, Sh’kem. “Were come,” pf. plural; Kings, singular.
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 vv1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 10, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 This chapter begins the fourth and last great division…
This chapter begins the fourth and last great division of the work once called in its unity, "The Chronicles." This fourth and last division, therefore, will see us to the end of our ch. 36., where we find, by a historical anticipation of above fifty years, the memorable proclamation of Cyrus, which authorized the return of the captive Jews, and sanctioned the rebuilding of the temple. This stretch of history, divided in our Authorized Version into twenty-seven chapters, covers, therefore, a period of about four hundred and fifty years; it ignores almost totally the career of Israel, and, in clearest accord with its post-captive and prophetic objects, abides uninterruptedly by that of the sacred dynasty of Judah. The kings are in number twenty, beginning with Rehoboam, ending with Zedekiah, of whom, however, the last four can be credited with but little semblance of independent authority, for they were the alternate vassals of the rival and antagonistic powers of Egypt and Assyria. The longest reigns of the twenty were those of Manasseh (fifty-five years, B.C.. 697-642); of Uzziah or Azariah (fifty-one years, B.C. 809-758); of Asa (forty-one years, B.C.. 959918); of Jehoash (forty years, B.C. 878-838); of Josiah (thirty-two years, B.C 640-609); of Hezekiah (twenty-nine years, B.C. 726-697); of Amaziah (twenty-nine years, B.C.838-809); of Jehoshaphat (twenty-five years, B.C. 918-893); and of Rehoboam (Seventeen years, B.C. 979-962). The last of the mournful procession was Zedekiah, who was mocked with the title for eleven years (B.C.. 598-587). In the dates of this chronology, though slight differences are found, there is little room for variation when once the initial and, in consequence, final dates are fixed. The line of succession is hereditary throughout, and almost entirely of strict lineal descent, i.e. from father to son, if we except, first, the interruption caused by the Queen Athaliah, mother of her predecessor Ahaziah; secondly, Joash, her grandson and successor, who was son of Ahaziah; thirdly, Jehoiachim (so named by the King of Egypt, but formerly named Eliakim), who was brother of his predecessor Jehoahaz; and, fourthly, Zedekiah (or Mattaniah), who was the paternal uncle (2Ki_24:17) of his predecessor Jehoiachin, and who was put on the throne by Nebuchadnezzar, against whom he in due time rose in rebellion, and by whom he was sent captive to Babylon, after seeing his sons slain, and having thereupon his own eyes put out. After him them was no more a king in Judah. It will be obvious that, if the years marking the duration of the succeeding reigns be summed up, we shall obtain too large a result, as they often or always overlapped one another, and, of course, did not fall into exact years. The initial date we take as B.C.. 979, and the final date at the end of Zedekiah"s eleven years, culminating in the destruction of Jerusalem, as B.C. 587. Some chronologies quote these dates, however, B.C.. 975-588. Side by side with these preliminary notes respecting Judah, it may be stated that the initial and final dates for the separate kingdom of the ten tribes, Israel, with their nineteen kings, were B.C. 979 (975) to the date of Samaria taken, B.C. 719, or (as some would date the overthrow of Israel) B.C. 722 or 721. It need scarcely be said that, if forty years are added for the reign of Solomon, and forty years for that of David, we shall be conducted to the date of either B.C.. 1059 or 1055 as the beginning of the Davidic royal line, and may count the duration of that royal line as numbering about 472 years. An interesting table, showing some slight differences of date, may be found in pp. 53, 54 of the second edition of Conder"s "Handbook to the Bible.
The verses of this chapter, nineteen in number, correspond with those of 1Ki_12:1-19. They so correspond as to convince us that both writers took from one original, or, at any rate, one former source. But they are particularly instructive also in another direction. Our vers. 2 and 3 are in order, and quite intelligible. Vers. 2 and 3 of the parallel are not so, and convince us either that the carelessness of copyists was more than usual (even when our Authorized Version "of it" is cancelled) or, which is a by far less acceptable supposition, that the carelessness of the compiler or writer was great. Though these two lengths of nineteen verses each so closely correspond as to show both indebted to one former source, they also evince clearly that neither writer absolutely bound himself by the exact words of his pattern, but took the meaning, and slightly altered, so to say, grammar and syntax of sentences.
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This verse would have been far better placed last in the previous chapter, but now, left without note of time, it purports to tell us that (whereas by the last clause of the previous chapter "Rehoboam reigned in his" father Solomon"s "stead," and had been presumably accepted as his heir and successor in Jerusalem and all Judaea) Rehoboam, now somewhat later on, repairs to Shechem (the ancient capital, and the prized position of the high-spirited tribe of Ephraim) to receive some final recognition as king from "all Israel." Rehoboam. Solomon"s son by Naaraah; an Ammonite princess. (1Ki_14:21, 1Ki_14:31) Eurydemus may be considered as a close reproduction in Greek of the Hebrew name Rehoboam. To his son Abijah, by his favourite wife Maachah, who was the third of the wives that belonged to the house of Jesse, he bequeathed the kingdom. Wanting any positive Scripture statement of the matter of Rehoboam going to Shechem, we believe the explanation given above is the most probable, and that it was not any designed stroke of policy, with the view of conciliating or flattering Ephraim. Though no formal statement of it be made here, yet it is quite intelligible that the opinions, feelings, and readiness to express them on the part of Ephraim and "Israel" were well enough known, and had to be reckoned for. Shechem. For many reasons one of the most interesting geographical names in all the Old Testament. It was the ancient capital, as Shiloh, near to it, was the ancient seat of the national worship. It was situate in Ephraim, with Ebal to the immediate north, and Gerizim to the immediate south. Its upper slopelands (its position on which is possibly the origin of the name, "a shoulder" commanded a view of the Mediterranean. It was the half-way resting-place, at the end of the second day"s journey, for travellers from Galilee to Jerusalem, and hence bore the name in later times, it is thought, of Mabertha, or Mabartha aTrb) Pliny"s Mamortha. Vespasian subsequently named it Neapolis, the modern Nablous. The Authorized Version synonyms of Shechem appear as Sichem, Sychem, Sychar. (Joh_4:5, Joh_4:20) In post-Captivity times, a new temple on Gerizim was the cathedral of Samaritan worship, which was levelled by John Hyrcanus, B.C. 129. Jacob"s well is a hall: mile south-east, and Joseph"s tomb two miles east. (Jos_24:32) Almost every one of the references to Shechem are of great interest on one account or another, and to turn to each of them in order is to read the Scripture narrative of the place. The leading references are subjoined (Gen_12:6 Gen_33:18, 19 34:35:1-4:37:12, 28 43:22 49:5-7; Deu_27:11; Jos 9 20:7 21:20, 21 24:1, 25, 32; Jud_1:9:7, 22, 34-45 21:1; 2Ki_17:5, 2Ki_17:6, 24 18:9; 1Ch_6:67 1Ch_7:28; Ezr_4:2; Jer_41:5; Joh_4:5; Act_7:16 Act_8:5) The article "Shechem," by Dr. Hackett, in Dr. Smith"s "Bible Dictionary," vol. 3. pp. 1234-1240, is of exceptional interest. All Israel. No doubt this expression may mean even here the assemblage of the federated twelve tribes. Considering the immediate recurrence of the expression in ver. 3, it must be, however, that the Jeroboam party of the ten tribes (headed by the strong and self-conscious Ephraimites) are especially in view; in point of fact, of course, all the twelve tribes were represented in the gathering of ver. 1. There can be no division of opinion about this, though the meeting be represented as one demanded or occasioned by the attitude of Israel, in the lesser comprehension of the name.
Vers. 1-19.
A notable and very mournful instance of lacking wisdom through not asking of God.
The compiler of the Chronicles, in the pursuit of the special objects which he had in view, feels that he need lose no time in details, or in parts of the whole history, which were to be found elsewhere, but which were less important to his own object. The fifteenth verse of this chapter supplies us with an instance of this, its reference to Ahijah the Shilonite finding full explanation in the fuller parallel. (1Ki_11:29-40) Our own familiarity with the mournful history and mournful needlessness of the schism, and the method in which it was brought about, which is the subject of this chapter, seems to lose for us nothing of that same mournfulness. Men may make use of the contents of this portion of the history of Israel (as of other portions of Holy Scripture, which seem to trench on the unfathomable depth of the doctrine of God"s election and fore-ordination) to find their (ever very easily found) theoretic difficulties, as unconcealedly suggested by the words of the above-quoted fifteenth verse. But it remains the same, that the election and the fore-ordaining of One who foreknows, and whose word of prophecy is as sure as the word of any other being after the event, are altogether different phenomena, different facts from what they otherwise should seem to be. Still, the central mystery must needs remain, before which we wonder, exercise faith, and silently adore, or we should not be creatures in the presence of the Creator. The history of this crisis of the nation highly favoured reminds us
I OF THE SURE WORD OF GOD. The forewarning, "Thou shalt surely die," was not more truly fulfilled than the forewarning made now, not a century and a quarter ago, that the nation that would have an earthly king would come to find, not its gain therein, but its loss. The dicta of revealed religion (for such both of the above forewarnings may be justly styled) are great, simple, and eternal for man. And from instances on a universal scale, and then on a national scale, are we, as individuals, mercifully, most forcibly, and most graciously admonished.
II THE ERRING UNCERTAINTY FIRST, AND THEN THE CERTAIN ERRINGNESS OF THE MAN WHO FAILS TO MAKE GOD AND RIGHT, DUTY AND TRUTH, HIS SWORN GUIDE. High place, high office, high responsibility, these give the prominence which is needed to enforce the example of such truth. The deviation is not more real than in the humblest, lowliest life, but it is more conspicuous. Let us note, as circumstances bearing on the case, what follows.
1. Rehoboam must have had some forewarning of the place to which he was to come. Solomon"s was not a sudden death, nor his son"s a sudden, unexpected accession.
2. Rehoboam must have had some acquaintance with the severity of the oppression and servitude of the people as a whole, and probably some anticipation of the likelihood of the representations, which in fact they made to him, of their experiences.
3. These representations, and the manner in which they were broughtbefore Rehoboam, were far from unreasonable.
4. Rehoboam, to all appearance, is disposed to begin by acting wisely. He will wait three days before replying. He will utilize that interval by asking the advice of the experienced. He asks it; it is given, and given rightly.
5. There can be little doubt that it was at this point that self and self-willshowed themselves in Rehoboam. Perhaps he had already heard, already knew, the feeling and the reckless bias of the younger men for it is significantly said they were of those who had been brought up with him, and who were his chief associates now or otherwise, if his own inclination and will were strong enough of themselves, he did not lean to the judgment of the old men, and hoped for different advice from the younger men, though it were but the merest prop to his own wish. He asks their advice, and is flattered and is glad that it leaps with the thought of his own brave and bravado spirit! In this show of right-doing, in this superficial wisdom, so different from that special wisdom noted in his father, one fatal defect existed. He asked the advice of the old. That it might not be said he asked the advice of one class alone, he asked the advice of the young also. But he did not ask the advice of God, he did not pray for the direction of God. And his foot slipped; he stumbled and fell, and that fall was great. Two things were wrong with even his earthly wisdom. To ask the advice of the young at all was a mistake, and to a great extent even a contradiction in terms. For inevitably they were wanting in the experience which was necessary to draw upon for advice. To ask the advice of the young, after having asked and received that of the aged, was a greater mistake. It looked like a sham and a delusion, and a self-deception, and a craving after serf-deception; and such it was. It was an affront to common sense, an insult to his own conscience, and a sop thrown to self that enemy which is often, very often, a man"s worst, very worst enemy! Rehoboam asked advice of those persons who he knew wouldn"t be above giving the advice which he wanted. So be, indeed, easily got what he wanted. So it may be said again God permitted him to have what he saw he was bent on having, as he permitted the people and nation to have, some hundred and twenty years before, the king they were bent on having. But he lived to rue the day, and rueing it still ever, he died. An unreasonable, a cruel, and a brutally insolent answer alienated once and for ever the hearts, service, and lives of the larger part of the people from their king; but a king who had disentitled himself. A very few days and he was a fugitive (ver. 18), though to his own capital that capital one lamentably dismembered in its provinces. So stumble and. so fall, sooner or later, those who set at naught kindness, justice, God, to serve self, folly, and time present.
III THE INFINITE RISK OF MISCHIEF IRREPARABLE THAT LURKS IN THE INTEMPERATE SIN, THE INTEMPERATE TEMPER, OR, PUT GENERALLY, THE INTEMPERATE ACTION, OF MEN IN AUTHORITY, BY REASON OF THE EASY EXCUSE FOR SCHISM, THE FACILE THOUGH SUPERFICIAL DEFENCE OF IT, THEREBY OFFERED TO THE VERY LIPS OF THOSE WHO ARE, OR OUGHT TO BE, UNDER THEIR AUTHORITY, AND WHO OTHERWISE WOULD HAVE REMAINED IN HAPPY UNQUESTIONING SUBORDINATION TO THAT AUTHORITY. The illustration and instance of this here is patent and glaring. The disaster was enormous. The long-trailed consequences were mournful, melancholy, miserable. The fault and sin of the ten tribes or their representatives are undeniable. Their sweet reasonableness of yesterday and three days ago is, unfortunately, not simply blown to the winds or evaporated into thin air worse by far, it is converted into a determined breaking loose from some of the holiest bonds wherewith it is the mercy of Heaven to bind on earth. The kingdom of God is one; the Church of God is one; the people of God are one. Disguise it as laxity of creed may, disguise it as laxity of practice may, disguise it as the great ancient or even greater modern cleavages of apostasy may, the calamity is of the nature of an avalanche alike of faith and of good works, and ever buries beneath its disastrous debris, not bodies but souls innumerable, and of immeasurable worth. Hence the golden calves, instead of the One only Object of worship, without image or likeness. Hence Bethel and Dan, instead of Jerusalem without compare. Hence priests of the lowest life, i.e. without the credentials of devotion, love, Divine call and appointment. Hence, instead of the one altar, many, but these rended, their ashes poured out to the ground, and incense a rejected abomination, and all the long-drawn sequel of woe untraceable by human eye, irremediable by human power. Does not the world take more loss from the dissensions of the Church than all the Church takes from the united enmities of the world?
HOMILIES BY W. CLARKSON Vers. 1-4.
Two young men.
These two young men, Rehoboam and Jeroboam for we may regard them as such, though the former was forty years old when he began to reign may be viewed together, as they were brought together, and may furnish us with some useful suggestions for the guidance of our life. We have them
I STARTING FROM DIFFERENT ENDS OF THE SOCIAL SCALE. Rehoboam born in the palace, born to the purple, surrounded with every luxury, accustomed to the utmost deference, expecting the greatest things. Jeroboam commencing his career almost at the bottom of the scale, losing his father when quite young, obliged to work hard to sustain his widowed mother, obtaining employment as a workman in connection with one of King Solomon"s works, with "no prospects" in life.
II MEETING MIDWAY IN THEIR CAREER. When they looked one another in the face at Shechem, what was it that each saw in the other? Probably the king"s son saw in the son of Nebat a man who was clothed in presumption, who had forgotten his position, who was entertaining a daring and criminal purpose in his heart. And probably Jeroboam saw in the enthroned monarch a man who was unfitted for his post, unequal to the strain that would be put upon his powers, a feeble man who would prove an easy prey to his own designs. No kindly feeling, we may be sure, shone in the eyes of either prince or subject as they confronted one another that day at Shechem.
III CHALLENGED TO MAKE A CHOICE ON A CRITICAL OCCASION. Rehoboam was now called upon to decide definitely what policy he would pursue in his administration whether that of leniency and popularity, or that of stringency and force; whether he would "rule by love or fear." Jeroboam had, at this point in his life, to decide whether he would adopt the safe policy of continuing in retreat, or the bold and venturesome one of heading a national revolt, and being either crushed beneath the feet of authority or raised to the height of a successful revolution.
IV DISAPPOINTING THE HOPES OF THEIR BEST FRIENDS. Singularly enough, the names of both these men signified "enlarger or multiplier of the people;" they pointed, probably, to the hopes of their parents concerning them. But though they both occupied the throne, and one of them rose to a much higher position than could have been anticipated at his birth, both men failed in the sight of God and in the estimate of the wise. The one by his folly estranged and lost the greater part of his kingdom; the other led Israel into shameful and ruinous apostasy.
1. Be not much affected by social position; very great advantages in this respect will not carry us far along the path of true success; without character their value will soon expire. On the other hand, great disadvantages may be overcome by industry, energy, patience, virtue.
2. Be prepared to make the decisive choice, whenever the critical moment may come. We cannot be sure when this will arrive, but there will come an hour there may come more hours than one when a decision has to be taken by us on which the gravest consequences, to ourselves or to others, will depend. Shall we then be equal to the occasion? Shall we be prepared to speak the wise word, to choose the right course, to take the step that will lead upward and not downward? This will depend on the character that we shall have been forming before that time comes. If we shall have been neglecting our opportunity and misusing our privileges, we shall then be found wanting; but if we shall have been gathering wisdom at every open source, we shall be able to speak, to act, to decide as God would have us do, as we shall afterwards thank God we did.
3. Aspire to fulfil the best hopes and prophecies of younger days. We may have a name, a reputation, to uphold. Our parents and teachers may be looking for good and even great things from us. Let us be earnest and eager to live such a life, that not only shall there be no painful discrepancy between the hope and the reality, but that there shall be a happy and satisfying correspondence between the two. C.
HOMILIES BY T. WHITELAW Ver. 1.
The coronation of a king.
I THE PERSON OF THE MONARCH. Rehoboam, the man "who enlarges the people," a name upon which his subsequent history was a satire.
1. The child of a heathen mother. This was Naamah, the Ammonitess (1Ki_14:31) a daughter of the last Ammonite king, Hanun, the son of Nahash. (1Ch_19:1, etc.) Rehoboam probably suffered in character and constitution from his taint of heathen blood.
1. The son of a distinguished father. Judged at the worst, Solomon was a great king, no less renowned for administrative faculty than for wisdom and wealth. The first two, it is clear, do not pass from sire to son by the law of heredity. A man may bequeath money to his son, but he is helpless in the matter of intellectual wealth. A king may hand on crown and throne to his descendant, but he cannot communicate capacity to rule.
2. The heir of an extensive empire. The sovereignty of the undivided kingdom and of all the tributary princes fell into his hands on his father"s decease.
II THE SCENE OF THE CORONATION. Shechem.
1. A spot of rare beauty. Eighteen hours distant from Jerusalem, and situated at the foot of Mount Gerizim, in the mountain range of Ephraim (Jud_1:9:7) the modern Nablous, near the site of the ancient Shechem, "is the most beautiful, perhaps it might be said the only very beautiful spot in Central Palestine" (Stanley, "Sinai and Palestine," pp. 233, 234).
2. A scene of inspiring memories. Patriarchs had pitched tents and erected altars there. (Gen_12:6, 7 33:18-20) Thither Joshua had convened the princes and elders, the heads and representatives of the people, when the conquest of Canaan had been completed, and made a covenant with them, setting them a statute and ordinance so practically constituting Shechem the first capital of the and. (Jos_24:1, Jos_24:25) There Joseph"s bodes were consigned to a sepulchre in the parcel of ground which Jacob had bought of Hamor for a hundred pieces of silver. (Jos_24:32) There, on the two mountains which overlooked the valley, Gerizim and Ebal, had been placed the blessing and the curse as commanded by Jehovah (Deu_11:29, Deu_11:30; Jos_8:31, Jos_8:33) There also the first attempt, though unsuccessful, at king-making had been made. (Jud_1:9:1)
3. A locality unauthorized for coronations. Stanley speaks of it as having been the custom, even after the erection of Jerusalem into the capital, to inaugurate new reigns at Shechem, citing as a modern parallel "the long continuance of Rheims, the ancient metropolitan city of France, as the scene of the French coronations" ("Sinai and Palestine," p. 239); but, as Rehoboam"s is the only coronation that took place at Shechem (in addition to the above-mentioned crowning of Abimelech), one example, or even two, can hardly be said to constitute a custom. The proper place for carrying out such a second coronation as the northern tribes contemplated was Jerusalem, the metropolis of the entire kingdom, just as when they had acknowledged David"s sovereignty (2Sa_5:1) they came to Hebron, at that time the capital of Judah. Besides, Rehoboam had already been crowned at Jerusalem, and in that act the northern tribes should have taken part. That they stood aloof and claimed for themselves a right of either acquiescing in or repudiating the sovereignty of Rehoboam shows, if not that they still had a right of free election to the crown, at least that their fusion with Judah was not so complete as, after seventy-three years, it might have been. Their intention, probably, was to acknowledge Rehoboam as king, but at the same time to assert their freedom by insisting on his compliance with certain demands and conditions. Hence they abstained from the national gathering at Jerusalem, and summoned Rehoboam to a new assembly at Shechem to receive their fealty as if they were a separate empire. "It was a significant hint to Rehoboam, if he had properly understood it" (Ewald).
III THE GIVERS OF THE CROWN. All Israel The ten tribes as distinguished from Judah and Benjamin, which had already taken the oath of allegiance to the son of Solomon. (2Ch_9:31) The northern tribes, from the time of David"s accession to the throne of Saul, (2Sa_2:4) when they adhered to the sceptre of Ishbosheth, Saul"s son, (2Sa_2:10) had asserted a semi-national independence; this again, after having lain in abeyance for the greater part of a century, suddenly flamed up, and gave ominous outlook of trouble to the young prince.
LESSONS.
1. Kings" crowns oftentimes conceal thorns.
2. Those thrones are stablest which rest on the free choice and affection of subjects.
3. Those peoples are best ruled whose sovereigns by their lives show theyhave been enthroned by God. W.
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 v1 And Rehoboam went to Shechem.
2Ch_10:1-19
And Rehoboam went to Shechem.
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Rehoboam
A cause so stated must succeed. There will be difficulty, but the end is assured. The reasonable always triumphs, due time being given for the elucidation of its purposes, and the manifestation of its real spirit. Violence can have but a short day; the tempest cries itself to rest. Ease thou somewhat the grievous servitude of thy father, and his heavy yoke that he put upon us, and we will serve thee. They wanted ease for service, for loyalty. Where there is no ease how can there be homage, thankfulness, devotion, or any of the high qualities of patriotism? How tempted men are, who are not themselves disquieted, to tell other people to bear their burdens uncomplainingly! The sufferers should sometimes be admitted to the witness-box. There is danger lest our personal comfortableness should disqualify us from judging the case of downtrodden men. Wherever there is weakness the Christian Church should be found; wherever there is reasonableness the Christian sanctuary should offer hospitality. Is there anything more detestable than that a man who has his own way seven days a week, whose footsteps are marked by prosperity, whose very breathing is a commercial success, should stand up and tell men who are bleeding at every pore to be quiet and contented, and not create disturbance in the body politic? If Jeroboam had come with a petition conceived in another tone it ought to have been rejected; it would have been irrational, violent, contemptuous; but the reasonableness of the request will ensure its victory in the long run. How easy it is to think of Rehoboam as the foolish son of a wise father! But are we not unjust to the son in so regarding him? Was Solomon the wise man he is often made out to be? The answer would be Yes--and No. There was no greater fool than Solomon; and he attained his supremacy in folly because there was no man so wise. If the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! If he had not been son of the morning some shallow pit might have held him; but being son of the morning, and detaching himself from the gravitation of God, the pit into which he falls is bottomless. Pliny says no man can be always wise. That is true philosophically and experimentally; for all men have vulnerable heels, or are exposed to temptations to lightness of mind, amounting in some instances almost to frivolity; they are also the subjects of a singular rebound, which makes them appear the more frivolous because when we last saw them they were absorbed in the solemnity of prayer. Solomon himself is not wise in this matter of government. The history shows that the people were appealing, not against Rehoboam, who had yet had no opportunity of proving his quality as a king, but against his father: Thy father made our yoke grievous. We are prone to copy the defects of our ancestors and their idols rather than their excellences. We are tempted in wrong directions, Folly has often more charms for us than wisdom. Rehoboam made a cautious reply, and therein, he began, well; he said to the petitioners,Come again unto me after three days. This looked hopeful. King Rehoboam utilised the interval by taking counsel with the old men that had stood before Solomon his father while he yet lived, saying, What counsel give ye me to return answer to this people? And they spake unto him, as old men ought to speak. Rich is the king whose old men talk in such a strain! They were patriots and philanthropists and philosophers; they were Christians before the time. Marvellous is the power of kindness. They will do most in life who are most considerate. If when the people returned after three days Rehoboam had spoken so, the welkin would have rung with the resonant cheers of a delighted, thankful, because emancipated, people. We have opportunities of this kind: let every man know that in proportion to his kindness will be the quality and the durableness of his influence. Kindness is not weakness. It takes Omnipotence to be merciful, in the largest degree and fullest quality of the term. He to whom power belongs holds in His other hand the angel whose name is Mercy. But he forsook the counsel which the old men gave him, and took counsel with the young men that were brought up with him, that stood before him (2Ch_10:8)--showing that he understood the message of the people perfectly; he correctly represented the popular will, and therefore he increased his own responsibility, because he was not the victim of ignorance. And the young men that were brought up with him spake unto him, saying (2Ch_10:10-11). Woe to the nation whose young men talk so! A young oppressor is an infant devil. Young men talking so will ruin any occasion. This may appear to be a very advanced policy, a very spirited policy, home and foreign. It is a spirited policy: but what is the name of the spirit that inspires it? Does a controversy of this kind begin in a question, and end in an answer? Or is there a reply? Are there such things in history as retorts, reprisals, rebounds, consequences? Let it be known, and laid down as the basis-principle of all action, social, ecclesiastical, and imperial, that there is no right of tyranny. Oppression has no veritable and reputable credentials. Men are not at liberty to take counsel whether they shall be gentle or ungentle. The law is unwritten, because eternal, that even righteousness must be administered in mercy. It might be supposed that the king had taken a most patriotic course in consulting the old and the young. He had done nothing of the kind: he had omitted to consult Him who had called his house to the royalty. Rehoboam should have consulted the King-maker whose throne is on the circle of the earth, and whose sceptre toucheth the horizon, and whose will is the law of monarchy and commonwealth. All human consultation is a species of under-counsel, valuable within proper limits, and right as recognising the education, the intelligence, and the political instinct of the times; but all consultation, to result in profoundest wisdom, must be intensely, almost exclusively, religious. Kings should talk to their King. The greater the man the nearer should he stand to God. The gospel never gives liberty to oppression. Employers may adopt this course if they please, but they will find it end in ruin. We must recognise the difference between employing cattle and employing men. A parent may adopt this course if he pleases, but his children will chastise him, sting him, with many a disappointment. The world has been educated by oppression. The Lord Himself has used it as an instrument in His hands. A curious expression occurs to this effect in the fifteenth verse--for the cause was of God. Rehoboam had not taken Him into account, but the Lord took the matter into His own hand. The ministry of the universe is a ministry co-operative, and is not to be understood in parts and sections, but can only be understood by those who take in the whole circumference on which the Almighty operates; and that cannot be done here and now. The Saviour of the world was not murdered by the Jews, except in a secondary and transient sense; He was delivered up from before the foundation of the world that He might make on the universe an infinite impression and reveal to the universe the law of life and the law of sacrifice. If our movement is towards trust, liberty, leniency, philanthrophy, beneficence, we are entitled to believe that this is the very logic of love, the rigorous reasoning of piety itself. This will apply to nations, to families, to employers, to all men to whom is remitted the question, Shall the policy be severe, or shall it be clement and hopeful? Rehoboam will be punished: have no fear of that. With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. You can make your whips thongs of scorpions, but upon your own back shall the lacerating lash be laid; you can play the fantastic trick before high heaven and make the angels weep, but the bitterness shall be yours: the triumphing of such a policy is short, the end of it is everlasting punishment. What could we do without such laws as these? They are the very ribs of the universe, the very security of society, the corner-stone on which Gods fabric rests. We are not the subjects of accidents, the changing whims of statesmen; we are not dependent upon general elections for the grand issue of things: the Lord reigneth. Let us be true and calm. Only the gospel of Jesus Christ can get at the heart of things; deal with causes, fountains, origins, and purify the spring of all life. Here the Saviour is gentle in His might, mighty in His gentleness; He says, Marvel not that I say unto you, Ye must be born again. When the soul is right the hands will take to the new policy with skill that might have been learned in heaven and that is inspired by the spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ. (J. Parker, D. D.)
A political crisis and a fatal policy
I. We see here on the part of the ten tribes, the expression of a reasonable political aspiration.
II. The example of Rehoboam teaches by contrast what our spirit and method, as Christian men and a Christian nation, ought to be at this time.
III. And that a generous Christian policy only will effect the pacification of a discontented people the example of Rehoboam proves. (W. Bishop.)
A wise prince will avoid overtaxing his people
The Chinese Emperor Tehou set out on a journey to visit the vast provinces of his empire, accompanied by his eldest son. One day he stopped his car in the midst of some fields where the people were hard at work. I took you with me, said he to his son, that you might be an eye-witness of the painful toils of the poor husbandmen, and that the feeling their laborious station should excite in your heart might prevent your burdening them with taxes!
The foolish ruler and the revolting tribes
I. The grievance stated.
1. Reasonable demand.
(1) Heavy taxes.
(2) Forced service.
(3) Long endured.
2. A national demand.
II. The consultation held.
III. The decision given.
IV. The results which followed. (J. Wolfendale.)
Advice
Judge Buller, when in company of a young gentleman of sixteen, cautioned him against being led astray by the example or persuasion of others, and said: If I had listened to the advice of some of those who called themselves my friends when I was young, instead of being a judge of the Kings Bench, I should have died long ago a prisoner at the Kings Bench.
The experience of old men
I wonder why young people dont make more use of old people than they do. I find it fascinating to hear old sailors talk, and to listen to their many stories of hair-breadth escapes. One Of the privileges of old age is to be a guide to the young. Young men should take warning and instruction from old men, for they have been over the ground and know all the risks and dangers of life. (George Dawson.)
Two methods of treating men
I propose to use the incident to illustrate the two methods of treating men--the conciliatory and the unconciliatory--the principle applies to all men in some of the relations of life; and the question is, What is the true, and consequently the safe, basis of all government?
1. Social positions are graduated. The strong man will of necessity, sooner or later, go to the front and claim the influence which belongs of right to his powers; and the weak man will be left at the point that exhausts his strength. Democracy does not equalise men.
2. No elevation of rank gives one man the right to tyrannise over another. Tyranny is necessarily associated with littleness of nature, littleness somewhere; there may be many great qualities, but the nature as a whole is of a low type.
3. The whole tenor of the gospel is in favour of magnanimous conduct on the part of those who hold any degree of rulership. This is an incidental proof of the supernatural origin of the gospel, etc.
4. Pass in review a few of the cases in which the two methods of treating men come into operation. Kings, employers, parents, pastors, all have their choice as to which method they will adopt.
5. The maintenance of a conciliatory policy is quite consistent with--
(1) Headship;
(2) firmness;
(3) justice. (Pulpit Analyst.)
Moderation in princes
The advice of an ancient French counsellor to his sovereign at his departure was good. Being wished to lay down some general rules for government, he took a paper, and wrote on the top of it moderation, in the middle of it moderation, and at the bottom moderation. (J. Trapp.)
Taking counsel of the young
So did our King Richard II., to his utter ruin. So Xerxes despised the grave counsel of his uncle Artabanus, and was led wholly by the young Mardonius to the loss of all. The like is reported of Dionysius, king of Sicily; Croesus, king of Lydia; Nero, emperor of Rome; James that reigned in Scotland in Edward IVs time; and Lantrer, of whom it is reported that he lost the kingdom of Naples from the French king, his master, and all that he had in Italy, because he would not ask nor follow the advice of those who were wiser than himself. (J. Trapp.)
Pampered in youth, ruined in prime
Many a bright scriptural character is set before us for our example; this man is set before us for our warning. There were two things that contributed to make his life a failure.
I. He was brought up in the lap of luxury. His father lived in a style of magnificence that has never been equalled. In the midst of this was Rehoboams youth and boyhood spent. Nothing could have been morally worse for him than that. I ask the head of some large academy, What is the chief cause of the ruin of many lads belonging to respectable families? and he whispers, Too much money, The president of one of the largest educational institutions in America stated that he believed the surest protection to young men against the perils of opening life was poverty. The being free from the necessity of working for a living has been the worst thing in the lot of many a young man. I have personally known youths who were unfortunate enough to start life with a patrimony of £200 a year, and they never came to anything. In the life of Mr. Nasmyth he says: I often observe in shop windows every detail of model ships and model steam-engines, supplied ready-made for those who are said to be of a mechanical turn. Thus the vital uses of resourcefulness are done away with and the sham exhibition of mechanical genius is paraded before you by the young impostors, the result, for the most part, of too free a supply of pocket-money. I have known too many instances of parents being led, by such false evidence of constructive skill, to apprentice their sons to some engineering firm and after paying vast sums, finding out that the pretender comes out of the engineering shop with no other practical accomplishment than that of glove-wearing and cigar-smoking. The connection between Rehoboam and kid gloves may not at first be apparent, and yet there is a good deal in it, for had he been brought up less luxuriously, had he known something in his early days of real hard work, he might have turned out a more sensible and successful man.
II. His refusal of the advice of men who were older and wiser than himself. Evil companionship proved his destruction. Well might he have said, Save me from my friends. Their advice may have been meant for the best, yet like the bear which from friendly motives, tried his paw to remove a fly from his masters face, they did more harm than good. Nothing tells upon our life more distinctly than our early choice of companions. We take the colour of the society we keep, as the frogs of Ceylon do that of the leaf on which they sit. Be slow to form your friendships. Have nothing to do with any one--no matter how smart and plausible he be--who jests at sacred things. Be certain you will get no good from one who wants to shake you out of what he calls your old-fashioned principles. Never make a friend of one who avows himself an unbeliever. The fear of God is the root of all true nobleness of character, said a French monarch, when once asked to give his consent to a dishonourable treaty. The blood of Charlemagne is in my veins; and who dares to propose this thing to me? Some of you young men have a pedigree still more worthy to glory in. We want no Rehoboams amongst us. We want the sons to be better than their fathers. (J. T. Davidson.)
The folly of self-will
Dr. Anderson, of the American Board, told me that a young man once came to the mission-house in Boston as a candidate for the foreign mission field. Dr. Anderson invited him to spend the night with him in Roxbury, and as they were walking together, the young man suddenly said, I prefer to walk on the right side. Dr. Anderson said to him, May I ask why you walk on the right side? Are you deaf in one ear? No, said the young man, but I prefer to walk on the right side, and I always will walk on the right side. That young man was not sent abroad. It was evident that a man who was bent on having his own way, without giving reasons, would be likely to make mischief, and his right side would be pretty sure to be the wrong side. (H. H. Jessup.)
The mystery of Divine working
I. Events of history controlled and directed to accomplish Divine purposes.
II. In the accomplishment of Divine purposes men act as free agents.
III. Men thus acting as free agents are responsible for them actions. (J. Wolfendale.)
Paroxysms in history
Nature has her paroxysms. Sir Roderick Murchison affirms that by no possible extension of gradual and insensible causes could huge masses of Tertiary rocks have been so thrown over as to pass under the older rocks of the Alps, out of which they were formed. That operation, he says, must have been paroxysmal, and no slow process could have accomplished it. The crust and outline of the earth are, in short, full of evidences that many of the ruptures and overthrows of the strata, as well as great denudations, could not even in millions of years have been produced by agencies like those of our times. (Scientific Illustrations.)
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The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Expositor's Bible 1887 · Public Domain On v1 2 Chronicles 10-13
REHOBOAM AND ABIJAH: THE IMPORTANCE OF RITUAL
2 Chronicles 10-13
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THE transition from Solomon to Rehoboam brings to light a serious drawback of the chroniclers principle of selection. In the history of Solomon we read of nothing but wealth, splendor, unchallenged dominion, and superhuman wisdom; and yet the breath is hardly out of the body of the wisest and greatest king of Israel before his empire falls to pieces. We are told, as in the book of Kings, that the people met Rehoboam with a demand for release from "the grievous service of thy father," and yet we were expressly told only two chapters before that "of the children of Israel did Solomon make no servants for his work; but they were men of war, and chief of his captains, and rulers of his chariots and of his horsemen." (2Ch_8:9) Rehoboam apparently had been left by the wisdom of his father to the companionship of headstrong and featherbrained youths; he followed their advice rather than that of Solomons grey-headed counselors, with the result that the ten tribes successfully revolted and chose Jeroboam for their king. Rehoboam assembled an army to re-conquer his lost territory, but Jehovah through the prophet Shemaiah forbade him to make war against Jeroboam.
The chronicler here and elsewhere shows his anxiety not to perplex simple minds with unnecessary difficulties. They might be harassed and disturbed by the discovery that the king, who built the Temple and was specially endowed with Divine wisdom, had fallen into grievous sin and been visited with condign punishment. Accordingly everything that discredits Solomon and detracts from his glory is omitted. The general principle is sound; an earnest teacher, alive to his responsibilities, will not wantonly obtrude difficulties upon his hearers; when silence does not involve disloyalty to truth, he will be willing that they should remain in ignorance of some of the more mysterious dealings of God in nature and history. But silence was more possible and less dangerous in the chroniclers time than in the nineteenth century. He could count upon a docile and submissive spirit in his readers; they would not inquire beyond what they were told: they would not discover the difficulties for themselves. Jewish youths were not exposed to the attacks of eager and militant skeptics, who would force these difficulties upon their notice in an exaggerated form, and at once demand that they should cease to believe in anything human or Divine.
And yet, though the chronicler had great advantages in this matter, his own narrative illustrates the narrow limits within which the principle of the suppression of difficulties can be safely applied. His silence as to Solomons sins and misfortunes makes the revolt of the ten tribes utterly inexplicable. After the account of the perfect wisdom, peace, and prosperity of Solomons reign, the revolt comes upon an intelligent reader with a shock of surprise and almost of incredulity. If he could not test the chronicles narrative by that of the book of Kings and it was no part of the chroniclers purpose that his history should be thus tested-the violent transition from Solomons unbroken prosperity to the catastrophe of the disruption would leave the reader quite uncertain as to the general credibility of Chronicles. In avoiding Scylla, our author has fallen into Charybdis; he has suppressed one set of difficulties only to create others. If we wish to help intelligent inquirers and to aid them to form an independent judgment, our safest plan will often be to tell them all we know ourselves and to believe that difficulties, which have no way marred our spiritual life, will not destroy their faith.
In the next section the chronicler tells how for three years Rehoboam administered his diminished kingdom with wisdom and success; he and his people walked in the way of David and Solomon, and his kingdom was established, and he was strong. He fortified fifteen cities in Judah and Benjamin, and put captains in them, and store of victuals, and oil and wine, and shields and spears, and made them exceeding strong. Rehoboam was further strengthened by deserters from the Northern Kingdom. Though the Pentateuch and the book of Joshua assigned to the priests and Levites cities in the territory held by Jeroboam, yet their intimate association with the Temple rendered it impossible for them to remain citizens of a state hostile to Jerusalem. The chronicler indeed tells us that "Jeroboam and his sons cast them off, that they should not execute the priests office unto Jehovah, and appointed others to be priests for the high places and the he-goats and for the calves which he had." It is difficult to understand what the chronicler means by this statement. On the face of it, we should suppose that Jeroboam refused to employ the house of Aaron and the tribe of Levi for the worship of his he-goats and calves, but the chronicler could not describe such action as casting "them off that they should not execute the priests office unto Jehovah." The passage has been explained to mean that Jeroboam sought to hinder them from exercising their functions at the Temple by preventing them from visiting Judah; but to confine the priests and Levites to his own kingdom would have been a. strange way of casting them off. However, whether driven out by Jeroboam or escaping from him, they came to Jerusalem and brought with them from among the ten tribes other pious Israelites, who were attached to the worship of the Temple. Judah and Jerusalem became the home of all true worshippers of Jehovah; and those who remained in the Northern Kingdom were given up to idolatry or the degenerate and corrupt worship of the high places. The chronicler then gives us some account of Rehoboams harem and children, and tells that he dealt wisely, and dispersed his twenty-eight sons "throughout all the lands of Judah and Benjamin, unto every fenced city." He gave them the means of maintaining a luxurious table, and provided them with numerous wives, and trusted that, being thus happily circumstanced, they would lack leisure, energy, and ambition to imitate Absalom and Adonijah.
Prosperity and security turned the head of Rehoboam as they had done that of David: "He forsook the law of Jehovah, and all Israel with him." "All Israel" means all the subjects of Rehoboam; the chronicler treats the ten tribes as cut off from Israel. The faithful worshippers of Jehovah in Judah had been reinforced by the priests, Levites, and all other pious Israelites from the Northern Kingdom; and yet in three years they forsook the cause for which they had left their country and their fathers house. Punishment was not long delayed, for Shishak, king of Egypt, invaded Judah with an immense host and took away the treasures of the house of Jehovah and of the kings house.
The chronicler explains why Rehoboam was not more severely punished. Shishak appeared before Jerusalem with his immense host: Ethiopians, Lubim or Lybians, and Sukiim, a mysterious people only mentioned here. The LXX and Vulgate translate Sukiim "Troglodytes," apparently identifying them with the cave-dwellers on the western or Ethiopian coast of the Red Sea. In order to find safety from these strange and barbarous enemies, Rehoboam and his princes were gathered together in Jerusalem. Shemaiah the prophet appeared before them and declared that the invasion was Jehovahs punishment for their sin, whereupon they humbled themselves, and Jehovah accepted their penitent submission. He would not destroy Jerusalem, but the Jews should serve Shishak, "that they may know My service and the service of the kingdoms of the countries." When they threw off the yoke of Jehovah, they sold themselves into a worse bondage. There is no freedom to be gained by repudiating the restraints of morality and religion. If we do not choose to be the servants of obedience unto righteousness, our only alternative is to become the slaves "of sin unto death." The repentant sinner may return to his true allegiance, and yet he may still be allowed to taste something of the bitterness and humiliation of the bondage of sin. His Shishak may be some evil habit or propensity or special liability to temptation, that is permitted to harass him without destroying his spiritual life. In time the chastening of the Lord works out the peaceable fruits of righteousness, and the Christian is weaned forever from the unprofitable service of sin.
Unhappily the repentance inspired by trouble and distress is not always real and permanent. Many will humble themselves before the Lord in order to avert imminent ruin, and will forsake Him when the danger has passed away. Apparently Rehoboam soon fell away again into sin, for the final judgment upon him is, "He did that which was evil, because he set not his heart to seek Jehovah." David in his last prayer had asked for a "perfect heart" for Solomon, but he had not been able to secure this blessing for his grandson, and Rehoboam was "the foolishness of the people, one that had no understand ing, who turned away the people through his counsel." (Ecclesiasticus 47:23)
Rehoboam was succeeded by his son Abijah, concerning whom we are told in the book of Kings that "he walked in all the sins of his father, which he had done before him; and his heart was not perfect with Jehovah his God, as the heart of David his father." The chronicler omits this unfavorable verdict; he does not indeed classify Abijah among the good kings by the usual formal statement that "he did that which was good and right in the eyes of Jehovah," but Abijah delivers a hortatory speech and by Divine assistance obtains a great victory over Jeroboam. There is not a suggestion of any evil-doing on the part of Abijah; and yet we gather from the history of Asa that in Abijahs reign the cities of Judah were given up to idolatry, with all its paraphernalia of "strange altars, high places, Asherim, and sun-images." As in the case of Solomon, so here, the chronicler has sacrificed even the consistency of his own narrative to his care for the reputation of the house of David. How the verdict of ancient history upon Abijah came to be set aside we do not know. The charitable work of whitewashing the bad characters of history has always had an attraction for enterprising annalists; and Abijah was a more promising subject than Nero, Tiberius, or Henry VIII The chronicler would rejoice to discover one more good king of Judah; but yet why should the record of Abijahs sins be expunged, while Ahaziah and Amon were still held up to the execration of posterity?
Probably the chronicler was anxious that nothing should mar the effect of his narrative of Abijahs victory. If his later sources had recorded anything equally creditable of Ahaziah and Amon, be might have ignored the judgment of the book of Kings in their case also.
The section to which the chronicler attaches so much importance describes a striking episode in the chronic warfare between Judah and Israel. Here Israel is used, as in the older history, to mean the Northern Kingdom, and does not denote the spiritual Israel-i.e., Judah-as in the previous chapter. This perplexing variation in the use of the term "Israel" shows how far Chronicles has departed from the religious ideas of the book of Kings, and reminds us that the chronicler has only partially and imperfectly assimilated his older material.
Abijah and Jeroboam had each gathered an immense army, but the army of Israel was twice as large as that of Judah: Jeroboam had eight hundred thousand to Abijahs four hundred thousand. Jeroboam advanced, confident in his overwhelming superiority and happy in the belief that Providence sides with the strongest battalions. Abijah, however, was nothing dismayed by the odds against him; his confidence was m Jehovah. The two armies met in the neighborhood of Mount Zemaraim, upon which Abijah fixed his camp. Mount Zemaraim was in the hill-country of Ephraim, but its position cannot be determined with certainty; it was probably near the border of the two kingdoms. Possibly it was the site of the Benjamite city of the same name mentioned in the book of Joshua in close connection with Bethel. {Jos_18:22} If so, we should look for it in the neighborhood of Bethel, a position which would suit the few indications of place given by the narrative.
Before the battle, Abijah made an effort to induce his enemies to depart in peace. From the vantage-ground of his mountain camp he addressed Jeroboam and his army as Jotham had addressed the men of Shechem from Mount Gerizim. {Jdg_9:8} Abijah reminded the rebels-for as such he regarded them-that Jehovah, the God of Israel, had given the kingdom over Israel to David forever, even to him and to his sons, by a covenant of salt, by a charter as solemn and unalterable as that by which the heave-offerings had been given to the sons of Aaron. {Num_18:19} The obligation of an Arab host to the guest who had sat at meat with him and eaten of his salt was not more binding than the Divine decree which had given the throne of Israel to the house of David. And yet Jeroboam the son of Nebat had dared to infringe the sacred rights of the elect dynasty. He, the slave of Solomon, had risen up and rebelled against his master.
The indignant prince of the house of David not unnaturally forgets that the disruption was Jehovahs own work, and that Jeroboam rose up against his master, not at the instigation of Satan, but by the command of the prophet Abijah. {2Ch_10:15} The advocates of sacred causes even in inspired moments are apt to be one-sided in their statements of fact.
While Abijah is severe upon Jeroboam and his accomplices and calls them "vain men, sons of Belial," he shows a filial tenderness for the memory of Rehoboam. That unfortunate king had been taken at a disadvantage, when he was young and tender-hearted and unable to deal sternly with rebels. The tenderness which could threaten to chastise his people with scorpions must have been of the kind-
"That dared to look on torture and could not look on war";
it only appears in the history in Rehoboams headlong flight to Jerusalem. No one, however, will censure Abijah for taking an unduly favorable view of his fathers character.
But whatever advantage Jeroboam may have found in his first revolt, Abijah warns him that now he need not think to withstand the kingdom of Jehovah in the hands of the sons of David. He is no longer opposed to an unseasoned youth, but to men who know their overwhelming advantage. Jeroboam need not think to supplement and complete his former achievements by adding Judah and Benjamin to his kingdom. Against his superiority of four hundred thousand soldiers Abijah can set a Divine alliance, attested by the presence of priests and Levites and the regular performance of the pentateuchal ritual, whilst the alienation of Israel from Jehovah is clearly shown by the irregular orders of their priests. But let Abijah speak for himself:
"Ye be a great multitude, and there are with you the golden calves which Jeroboam made you for gods." Possibly Abijah was able to point to Bethel, where the royal sanctuary of the golden calf was visible to both armies: "Have ye not driven out the priests of Jehovah, the sons of Aaron and the Levites, and made for yourselves priests in heathen fashion? When any one comes to consecrate himself with a young bullock and seven rams, ye make him a priest of them that are no gods. But as for us, Jehovah is our God, and we have not forsaken Him; and we have priests, the sons of Aaron, ministering unto Jehovah, and the Levites, doing their appointed work: and they burn unto Jehovah morning and evening burnt offerings and sweet incense: the shewbread also they set in order upon the table that is kept free from all uncleanness; and we have the candlestick of gold, with its lamps, to burn every evening; for we observe the ordinances of Jehovah our God; but ye have forsaken Him. And, behold, God is with us at our head, and His priests, with the trumpets of alarm, to sound an alarm against you. O children of Israel, fight ye not against Jehovah, the God of your fathers; for ye shall not prosper."
This speech, we are told, "has been much admired. It was well suited to its object, and exhibits correct notions of the theocratical institutions." But like much other admirable eloquence, in the House of Commons and elsewhere, Abijahs speech had no effect upon those to whom it was addressed. Jeroboam apparently utilized the interval to plant an ambush in the rear of the Jewish army.
Abijahs speech is unique. There have been other instances in which commanders have tried to make oratory take the place of arms, and, like Abijah, they have mostly been unsuccessful; but they have usually appealed to lower motives. Sennacheribs envoys tried ineffectually to seduce the garrison of Jerusalem from their allegiance to Hezekiah, but they relied on threats of destruction and promises of "a land of corn and wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of oil olive and honey." There is, however, a parallel instance of more successful persuasion. When Octavian was at war with his fellow-triumvir Lepidus, he made a daring attempt to win over his enemys army. He did not address them from the safe elevation of a neighboring mountain, but rode openly into the hostile camp. He appealed to the soldiers by motives as lofty as those urged by Abijah, and called upon them to save their country from civil war by deserting Lepidus. At the moment his appeal failed, and he only escaped with a wound in his breast; but after a while his enemys soldiers came over to him in detachments, and eventually Lepidus was compelled to surrender to his rival. But the deserters were not altogether influenced by pure patriotism. Octavian had carefully prepared the way for his dramatic appearance in the camp of Lepidus, and had used grosser means of persuasion than arguments addressed to patriotic feeling.
Another instance of a successful appeal to a hostile force is found in the history of the first Napoleon, when he was marching on Paris after his return from Elba. Near Grenoble he was met by a body of royal troops. He at once advanced to the front, and exposing his breast, exclaiming to the opposing ranks, "Here is your emperor; if any one would kill me, let him fire." The detachment, which had been sent to arrest his progress, at once deserted to their old commander. Abijahs task was less hopeful: the soldiers whom Octavian and Napoleon won over had known these generals as lawful commanders of Roman and French armies respectively, but Abijah could not appeal to any old associations in the minds of Jeroboams army; the Israelites were animated by ancient tribal jealousies, and Jeroboam was made of sterner stuff than Lepidus or Louis XVIII Abijahs appeal is a monument of his humanity, faith, and devotion; and if it failed to influence the enemy, doubtless served to inspirit his own army.
At first, however, things went badly with Judah. They were outgeneraled as well as outnumbered: Jeroboams main body attacked them in front, and the ambush assailed their rear. Like the men of Ai, "when Judah looked back, behold, the battle was before and behind them." But Jehovah, who fought against Ai, was fighting for Judah, and they cried unto Jehovah; and then, as at Jericho, "the men of Judah gave a shout, and when they shouted, God smote Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah." The rout was complete, and was accompanied by terrible slaughter. No fewer than five hundred thousand Israelites were slain by the men of Judah. The latter pressed their advantage, and took the neighboring city of Bethel and other Israelite towns. For the time Israel was "brought under," and did not recover from its tremendous losses during the three years of Abijahs reign. As for Jeroboam, Jehovah smote him, and he died; but "Abijah waxed mighty, and took unto himself fourteen wives, and begat twenty-and-two sons and sixteen daughters." His history closes with the record of these proofs of Divine favor, and he "slept with his fathers, and they buried him in the city of David, and Asa his son reigned in his stead."
The lesson which the chronicler intends to teach by his narrative is obviously the importance of ritual, not the importance of ritual apart from the worship of the true God; he emphasizes the presence of Jehovah with Judah, in contrast to the Israelite worship of calves and those that are no gods. The chronicler dwells upon the maintenance of the legitimate priesthood and the prescribed ritual as the natural expression and clear proof of the devotion of the men of Judah to their God.
It may help us to realize the significance of Abijahs speech, if we try to construct an appeal in the same spirit for a Catholic general in the Thirty Years War addressing a hostile Protestant army. Imagine Wallenstein or Tilly, moved by some unwonted spirit of pious oratory, addressing the soldiers of Gustavus Adolphus:-
"We have a pope who sits in Peters chair, bishops and priests ministering unto the Lord, in the true apostolical succession. The sacrifice of the Mass is daily offered; matins, lauds, vespers; and compline are all duly celebrated; our churches are fragrant with incense and glorious with stained glass and images; we have crucifixes, and lamps, and candles; and our priests are fitly clothed in ecclesiastical vestments; for we observe the traditions of the Church, but ye have forsaken the Divine order. Behold, God is with us at our head; and we have banners blessed by the Pope. O ye Swedes, ye fight against God; ye shall not prosper."
As Protestants we may find it difficult to sympathies with the feelings of a devout Romanist or even with those of a faithful observer of the complicated Mosaic ritual. We could not construct so close a parallel to Abijahs speech in terms of any Protestant order of service, and yet the objections which any modern denomination feels to departures from its own forms of worship rest on the same principles as those of Abijah. In the abstract the speech teaches two main lessons: the importance of an official and duly accredited ministry and of a suitable and authoritative ritual. These principles are perfectly general, and are not confined to what is usually known as sacerdotalism and ritualism. Every Church has in practice some official ministry, even those Churches that profess to owe their separate existence to the necessity for protesting against an official ministry. Men whose chief occupation is to denounce priestcraft may themselves be saturated with the sacerdotal spirit. Every Church too, has its ritual. The silence of a Friends meeting is as much a rite as the most elaborate genuflection before a highly ornamented altar. To regard either the absence or presence of rites as essential is equally ritualistic. The man who leaves his wonted place of worship because "Amen" is sung at the end of a hymn is as bigoted a ritualist as his brother who dare not pass an altar without crossing himself. Let us then consider the chroniclers two principles in this broad sense. The official ministry of Israel consisted of the priests and Levites, and the chronicler counted it a proof of the piety of the Jews that they adhered to this ministry and did not admit to the priesthood any one who could bring a young bullock and seven rams. The alternative was not between a hereditary priesthood and one open to any aspirant with special spiritual qualifications, but between a duly trained and qualified ministry on the one hand and a motley crew of the forerunners of Simon Magus on the other. It is impossible not to sympathies with the chronicler. To begin with, the property qualification was too low. If livings are to be purchased at all, they should bear a price commensurate with the dignity and responsibility of the sacred office. A mere entrance fee, so to speak, of a young bullock and seven rams must have flooded Jeroboams priesthood with a host of adventurers, to whom the assumption of the office was a matter of social or commercial speculation. The private adventure system of providing for the ministry of the word scarcely tends to either the dignity or the efficiency of the Church. But, in any case, it is not desirable that mere worldly gifts, money, social position, or even intellect should be made the sole passports to Christian service; even the traditions and education of a hereditary priesthood would be more probable channels of spiritual qualifications.
Another point that the chronicler objects to in Jeroboams priests is the want of any other than a property qualification. Any one who chose could be a priest. Such a system combined what might seem opposite vices. It preserved an artificial ministry; these self-appointed priests formed a clerical order; and yet it gave no guarantee whatever of either fitness or devotion. The chronicler, on the other hand, by the importance he attaches to the Levitical priesthood, recognizes the necessity of an official ministry, but is anxious that it should be guarded with jealous care against the intrusion of unsuitable persons. A conclusive argument for an official ministry is to be found in its formal adoption by most Churches and its uninvited appearance in the rest. We should not now be contented with the safeguards against unsuitable ministers to be found in hereditary succession; the system of the Pentateuch would be neither acceptable nor possible in the nineteenth century: and yet, if it had been perfectly administered, the Jewish priesthood would have been worthy of its high office, nor were the times ripe for the substitution of any better system. Many of the considerations which justify hereditary succession in a constitutional monarchy might be adduced in defense of a hereditary priesthood. Even now, without any pressure of law or custom, there is a certain tendency towards hereditary succession in the ministerial office. It would be easy to name distinguished ministers who were inspired for the high calling by their fathers devoted service, and who received an invaluable preparation for their life-work from the Christian enthusiasm of a clerical household. The clerical ancestry of the Wesleys is only one among many illustrations of an inherited genius for the ministry.
But though the best method of obtaining a suitable ministry varies with changing circumstances, the chroniclers main principle is of permanent and universal application. The Church has always felt a just concern that the official representatives of its faith and order should commend themselves to every mans conscience in the sight of God. The prophet needs neither testimonials nor official status: the word of the Lord can have free course without either; but the appointment or election to ecclesiastical office entrusts the official with the honor of the Church and in a measure of its Master.
The chroniclers other principle is the importance of a suitable and authoritative ritual. We have already noticed that any order of service that is fixed by the constitution or custom of a Church involves the principle of ritual. Abijahs speech does not insist that only the established ritual should be tolerated; such questions had not come within the chroniclers horizon. The merit of Judah lay in possessing and practicing a legitimate ritual, that is to say in observing the Pauline injunction to do all things decently and in order: The present generation is not inclined to enforce any very stringent obedience to Pauls teaching, and finds it difficult to sympathize with Abijahs enthusiasm for the symbolism of worship. But men today are not radically different from the chroniclers contemporaries, and it is as legitimate to appeal to spiritual sensibility through the eye as through the ear; architecture and decoration are neither more nor less spiritual than an attractive voice and impressive elocution. Novelty and variety have, or should have, their legitimate place in public worship; but the Church has its obligations to those who have more regular spiritual wants. Most of us find much of the helpfulness of public worship in the influence of old and familiar spiritual associations, which can only be maintained by a measure of permanence and fixity in Divine service. The symbolism of the Lords Supper never loses its freshness, and yet it is restful because familiar and impressive because ancient. On the other hand, the maintenance of this ritual is a constant testimony to the continuity of Christian life and faith. Moreover, in this rite the great bulk of Christendom finds the outward and visible sign of its unity.
Ritual, too, has its negative value. By observing the Levitical ordinances the Jews were protected from the vagaries of any ambitious owner of a young bullock and seven rams. While we grant liberty to all to use the form of worship in which they find most spiritual profit, we need to have Churches whose ritual will be comparatively fixed. Christians who find themselves most helped by the more quiet and regular methods of devotion naturally look to a settled order of service to protect them from undue and distracting excitement.
In spite of the wide interval that separates the modern Church from Judaism, we can still discern a unity of principle, and are glad to confirm the judgment of Christian experience from the lessons of an older and different dispensation. But we should do injustice to the chroniclers teaching if we forgot that for his own times his teaching was capable of much more definite and forcible application. Christianity and Islam have purified religious worship throughout Europe, America, and a large portion of Asia. We are no longer tempted by the cruel, loathsome rites of heathenism. The Jews knew the wild extravagance, gross immorality, and ruthless cruelty of Phoenician and Syrian worship. If we had lived in the chroniclers age and had shared his experience of idolatrous rites, we should have also shared his enthusiasm for the pure and lofty ritual of the Pentateuch. We should have regarded it as a Divine barrier between Israel and the abominations of heathenism, and should have been jealous for its strict observance.
William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v1 CRITICAL NOTES.] Here begins the fourth part of the…
CRITICAL NOTES.] Here begins the fourth part of the book of Chronicles, extending from the division of the kingdom to the decree of Cyrus, authorising the return of the exiles and confining itself to the affairs of the kingdom of Judah. The present chapter includes the proposal of the people to Rehoboam (2Ch_10:1-5); the counsel given to him (2Ch_10:6-11); and the answer that provokes the revolt (2Ch_10:12-19). This corresponds to 1Ki_12:1-19 [Murphy].
2Ch_10:1-5.—Proposal to the people. Shechem, a judicious step, meeting there not simply because central and convenient, but honouring the capital of Ephraimites and removing disaffection. King. assembled to receive Rehoboam as lawful king and join in usual acclamations (1Sa_10:24; 1Ki_1:39) [cf. Speak. Com.] 2Ch_10:2. Jer. an Ephraimite appointed by Solomon to civil administration of house of Joseph (1Ki_11:28), of which Ephraim a branch. Cause of flight to Egypt given (1Ki_11:29-40). He returned to be leader and spokesman of people. 2Ch_10:4. Yoke, pomp and style of Solomon made taxation heavy. Vast building operations required forced labour, &c. Ease, grant relief, make concessions, most reasonable request.
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2Ch_10:6-11.—Counsel given to the king. Old men who served under Solomon and well able to advise. 2Ch_10:7. Spake, yield to will of people, for once be servant, be ruled by them and attach to thyself servants for ever. 2Ch_10:8 Forsook, refused good words, consulted younger advisers, who gave counsel more flattering and agreeable to king’s temper.
2Ch_10:12-19.—Little finger. Proverbial for increasing rather than diminishing burdens. “Finger not in original; but may be safely implied. The meaning is, ‘You shall find my hand heavier on you than my father’s; as much heavier as if my little finger were thicker than his loins’ ” [Speak. Com.]. Whips, often with sharp bones or pieces of lead tied to end. Scorpions, i.e., scourges with sharp points (Latin scorpio), “iron thorns” inflicting exquisite pain. Harsh and foolish answer. 2Ch_10:15. Cause, i.e., the turn of events was from the Lord, to fulfil his word (1Ki_2:29-31). 2Ch_10:16. What portion? Words of sedition by Sheba (2Sa_20:1), expressing deep-rooted aversion to royal house and resulting in open rebellion. 2Ch_10:18. Adoram, identified by some with Ad. of 1Ki_4:6; 1Ki_5:14; and Adoram of 2Sa_20:24. “The three names mark three distinct persons, perhaps of same family, who were respectively contemporary with David, Solomon, and Rehoboam” [Speak. Com.]. Sent to alleviate burdens. Stoned, usual mode of mob vengeance. 2Ch_10:18. King himself narrowly escaped the same fate. From that time Israel and Judah separated and distinguished one from another.
HOMILETICS
THE REPRESENTATIVE ASSEMBLY.—2Ch_10:1-5
I. The place of meeting. “Shechem” wisely chosen by Rehoboam, to remove dissatisfaction; at the advice of judicious men, whose counsels he afterwards rejected. A place of great antiquity, noted for conventions (Jos_24:1) and royalty (Judges 9).
II. The purpose in view. The future government of the nation.
1. To make Rehoboam king. King with officers of state around; tribes drawn up under their leaders ready to receive him. How proclaimed? Not with hearty shouts of “God save the king.” A pause and solemn silence. Jeroboam steps forward!
2. To represent the people. “Make our yoke lighter and we will serve thee.” This unexpected; surprised and annoyed Rehoboam; not what he came for, not what he liked! Not bold enough to deny, not grace enough to concede. Delay dangerous, may breed suspicion and intensify ill-feeling.
III. The conclusion arrived at. “Come again unto me after three days.” King did not commit himself to rash impromptu reply. Adjournment might seem wise, but demands just, prompt redress would have been better than prudent caution. “There is a gift whose recompense is double” (Sir_20:10).
THE FOOLISH RULES AND THE REVOLTING TRIBES.—2Ch_10:6-19
The four scenes may be treated separately or in one sketch.
I. The grievance stated. Real, not imaginary; outspoken and not kept back. “The grievous servitude of thy father and his heavy yoke that he put upon us.”
1. A reasonable demand. Couched in a spirit of fairness and loyalty. Reason and justice will ever triumph. Violence and storms spend themselves for nothing, (a.) Heavy taxes. Splendour of Solomon’s court, the magnitude of his undertakings, such that neither tribute of dependent states, presents of foreign princes, nor profits of commercial enterprises could support. He was obliged to levy taxes for necessary revenue. (b.) Forced service. This chief ground of complaint (cf. 1Ki_4:6; 1Ki_5:13-14; 1Ki_11:28). Each tribe called upon to render without payment. “Forced labour has been among the causes leading to insurrection in many ages and countries. It alienated the people of Rome from the last Tarquin (Liv. 1:56); it helped to bring about the French revolution, and it was for many years one of the principal grievances of the Russian serfs” [Speak. Com.]. (c.) Long endured. “Put upon us by thy father.” Complaint of past reign. Solomon wise, but oppressive in government. “No man can always be wise,” says Pliny. We are more apt to copy the defects of our ancestors than imitate their virtues; to remember the evil of their lives, not their benefits.
2. A national demand. It was the voice of “all Israel.” The people unanimous; not a few merely turbulent and dissatisfied. Thus was prophecy fulfilled. “This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you; he will take your sons, &c.” (1Sa_8:11-18).
II. The consultation held. If impolitic to delay, it was prudent to seek advice.
1. With aged counsellors. Wise, experienced, and suitable. “How do ye advise?” “With the ancient is wisdom, and in length of days understanding.” Be kind, concede, speak good words, and they will be thy servants for ever. Advice—(a), just; (b), timely; (c), far-seeing; and (d), wise. Happy the ruler with such statesmen! No sentimentalists, but true patriots and philosophers! Kindness wins and overcomes. “A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger.”
2. With young counsellors. Conceited, proud, and inexperienced. They recommend oppression and defiance. Yield nothing, put more on, afflict with scorpions. This considered spirited and kingly! but (a), unreasonable; (b), foolish; (c), cruel; and (d), destructive. “Wise men lay up knowledge: but the mouth of the foolish is near destruction.”
III. The decision given. “The king answered the people roughly, and forsook the old men’s counsel that they gave” (2Ch_10:13). This—
1. Unexpected. Demands reasonable; ease and make yoke “lighter.” Delay gave time to think, and this course resolved upon!
2. Foolish. Rough words unbecoming; display weakness, ignorance, and pride. A grain of wisdom would have taught that such conduct would widen the breach between him and his people.
3. Presumptuous. Kings made to serve, not to tyrannise; should rule for the good of the people and not for selfish purposes. The way to govern is to serve. Those kings safest who stoop lowest. “I would rather be king of the French than king of France,” said Louis XIV., i.e., rule in the hearts of the people than over the territories of the kingdom. “Whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister; and whosoever of you will be chiefest, shall be servant of all.”
4. Mischievous. This tone like that of the nobility of France before the great revolution, calculated to irritate (cf. the Ephraimites, Jdg_12:1-4; men of Israel and Judah, 2Sa_19:41-43; and the harsh words of Eliphaz, Job_22:5), to add fuel to the fire. Mischievous in themselves and in results. “How many thousand souls are hurt every day by the words of others!” [Baxter]. How sad the result here! “The beginning of the words of the mouth is foolishness: and the end of talk is mischievous” (Sir_11:13).
IV. The results which followed (2Ch_10:16). Whatever ground for resisting before, they now receive provocation, which accounts for strong words and firm resolve.
1. Revolt. Threatened, insulted, they raised a shout expressive and well understood. “To your tents, O Israel!”
2. Resistance. Hadoram sent, the man who was” over the levy” (Rev. Vers.) of forced labourers, whose presence would rouse Israel to anger, exasperate, and outrage. A foolish and imprudent act. “Israel stoned him with stones, that he died.”
3. Final separation (2Ch_10:19). God prevented the king from filling the land with blood. “It was with one exception (Hadoram) a bloodless revolt” [Stanley]. The attempt to recover lost tribes forbidden. The determination of king, the loyalty and number of Judah and Benjamin of no avail. The thing was done and could not be altered. The army disbanded and submitted to the God of battles. “For the cause was of God, that the Lord might perform his word.” Even if right appear on our side, better sit still than fight in disobedience to God. When God’s will is known ever submit, whatever loss may be involved.
THE MYSTERY OF DIVINE WORKING.—2Ch_10:15
The cause, the Hebrew circuit, or turning about, was of God; for here was a “wheel within a wheel, as Ezekiel 1.” [Trapp]. The original idea of the disruption was that it was a divine dispensation. “The thing was from the Lord.” “It was as much a part of the divine economy of the national destinies, as the erection of the monarchy itself, or as the substitution of the House of David for the House of Saul” [Stanley].
I. Events of history controlled and directed to accomplish divine purposes. God’s will supreme and ultimate. “The turn of events” not aimless and independent. The current directed, turned, according to God’s pleasure and word.
II. In the accomplishment of divine purposes men act as free agents. Neither the folly of the king, nor rebellion of people pre-ordained. Events from natural order. Men not fated, but free to act; are under moral, not physical government. “But as for you, ye thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.”
III. Men thus acting as free agents are responsible for their actions. We are not subjects of accidents, bereft of power to do good or evil, but morally responsible for our actions. The hands of the Jews were wicked in crucifying Christ, though he was delivered up to them “by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God” (Act_2:23). Those who rebel against God and lose heaven will have to blame themselves for wilfulness and folly.
TWO METHODS OF TREATING MEN.—2Ch_10:6-11
I. The conciliatory. II. The unconciliatory. Social positions are graduated. Yet no elevation of social rank gives one man the right to tyrannise over another. Pass in rapid review a few of the cases in which the two methods of treating men come into constant operation. The maintenance of a conciliatory policy is quite consistent with a headship.
1. Firmness;
2. Justice. What is the cure for all false relations among men? The gospel of reconciliation [Beecher].
GOVERNMENTS AND SUBJECTS
From the whole narrative learn—
I. That governments create dissatisfaction among their subjects by injustice. Order, contentment, and affection essential to prosperity in government. Severe laws, over-taxation, curtailment of liberties, and coercive measures create uneasiness and opposition. “The government of a prudent man is well ordered” (Sir_10:1).
II. That it is right for subjects to agitate for the removal of injustice. Within right to get redress in just and legal methods. History abounds, in critical and stirring times, in witnesses against oppression and tyranny. Wrong to submit to despotisms. “I know how to add sovereign to the king’s person, but not to his power,” said Pym.
III. That it is wise for rulers to listen to the complaints of injustice. Concessions more becoming than extravagant assertions of “divine right.” Mild and merciful procedure quickens the spirit of freedom; destroys jealousy towards a ruler’s actions and character, and the best safeguard of thrones and constitutions. “When a king speaks ‘good words,’ they seem to be better than if spoken by other lips; when a king is kind, he seems to add to his kindness by his very kingliness; the stoop of his condescension redoubles the value of his benefaction. If when the people returned after three days Rehoboam had spoken so, the welkin would have rung with the resonant cheers of a delighted, thankful, because emancipated, people” [Dr. Parker].
HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS
2Ch_10:1-12. Rehoboam the headstrong. Only son of Solomon, but did not profit by his father’s Wisdom
1. His training. Not like that of his father. (a) His mother an idolatress (2Ch_12:13), not the wise, good mother which Solomon seems to have had (Pro_4:3). Hence the mother’s influence over the young prince. (b) He had not the good example which Solomon had in David. Solomon’s later years degenerate, what wonder if his son was far behind!
2. His accession. Without difficulty (cf. 1Ki_11:43) at the death of his father, when about 41 years old. (a) By promise of perpetual sovereignty to David’s posterity; (b) By public assembly of representatives. “Met not to exercise right of election (1Sa_10:19-21); for after God’s promise, their duty was submission to the authority of rightful heir; but their object was to renew the conditions to which their constitutional kings were subject (1Sa_10:25), and to the omission of rehearsing which, under the peculiar circumstances in which Solomon was made king, they were disposed to ascribe the absolutism of his government” [Jamieson].
3. His trouble. Kings not without. “Uneasy is the head that wears the crown.” (a) A corrupt empire; (b) A dissatisfied people; (c) A dark future.
4. His folly. Wisdom not inherited as wealth. Some infatuated, nothing can teach them. Men have no right to tyrannise in social, political, or religious affairs. The rough answer was a fearful mistake. “He that walketh with wise men shall be wise; but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.”
2Ch_10:2-3; 2Ch_10:12-15. Jeroboam the first king of Israel.
1. His early life. Jeroboam (whose people is many) “son of Nebat,” an Ephrathite, i.e., belonging to territory of Ephraim; of Zereda (2Ch_4:17; cf. Jdg_5:22), a town near Scythopolis. Mother Zeruah, a widow, reduced by the execution of her husband at beginning of Solomon’s reign, if Jeroboam be identical with Shemei (cf. 2Sa_16:5; cf. 1Ki_2:46).
2. His natural ability. “A mighty man of valour” (1Ki_11:27); mighty in power as Nimrod (Gen_10:8); in wealth, as Boaz, Kish, and other Israelites (Rth_2:1; 1Sa_9:1; 2Ki_15:20). But clever, of strong natural capacity; active and enterprising (Sept. a man of works).
3. His rapid promotion. Solomon discerning his talents, “seeing the young man that he was industrious, that he did the king’s business (Dan_8:27), made him ruler; set him over all the charge, the burden;” superintendent of taxes and public works (1Ki_11:27-28). “The hand of the diligent shall bear rule” (Pro_12:24; Pro_22:29).
4. His prophetic designation. By prophet Ahijah in symbolic action (1Ki_11:29-39). From which time he became a marked man by Solomon.
5. His seditious conduct. Ambitious, impatient for the death of Solomon, he was led to plot and conspire, and in consequence driven to Egypt. Chosen of God, yet could not wait for Providence. Incurred penalty of death by rebellion.
6. His accession to the throne. Chosen at length by people and permitted to become first king of Israel.
2Ch_10:7. Be kind. The power of kindness in winning affection and service. Lenity and moderation in a prince is very prevalent with the people, as to win their affections at first, so to hold them in obedience ever after. The advice of an ancient French counsellor to his sovereign at his departure from court was good. Being wished to lay down some general rules for government, he took a paper, and wrote on the top of it “moderation,” in the middle of the leaf “moderation,” and at the bottom “moderation” [Trapp].
2Ch_10:6-11. I. The national council.
1. Assembled and consulted by the king;
2. Composed of old and young, wise and foolish men. II. The resolution adopted.
1. From whom it came;
2. What its nature;
3. What its results. Forsook old men, whom he consulted for fashion’s sake, as Xerxes did when he invaded Greece. Resolved beforehand to stand upon his pantoufles and not at all to stoop to the people. He had those about him, doubtless, that would tell him, as some Court parasites did our King John, when he had yielded to the requests of his barons for the subjects’ liberty, that now he was “a king without a kingdom, a lord without a dominion, and a subject to his subjects” [Trapp]. Consulted young men. So did our king Richard II., to his utter ruin. So Xerxes despised the grave counsel of his uncle Artabanus, and was led wholly by young Mardonius to the loss of all. The like is reported of Dionysius, king of Sicily; Crœsus, king of Lydia; Nero, emperor of Rome; James that reigned in Scotland in Edward IV.’s time; and Lantrer, of whom it is reported that he lost the kingdom of Naples from the French king, his master, and all that he had in Italy, because he would not ask nor follow the advice of those who were wiser than himself [Ibid.].
2Ch_10:12-15. The adjourned meeting.
1. The decision given. Haughty and imperious.
2. The effect produced. (a) On the aged counsellors; (b) On deputies; (c) On the nation [adapted from Bib. Mus.].
2Ch_10:16. To your tents, O Israel. “It was a national watchword, and not the war-cry of a single tribe which led the revolt” [Stanley].
1. Its antiquity. Raised in time of David, now with fatal effect (2Sa_20:1).
2. Its ingratitude. What have we to do with David?
3. Its selfishness. Cut themselves off from their brethren and their sovereign. To your tents, let us have a king of our own!
2Ch_10:16-19. The great secession.
1. Its strange beginning.
2. Its remarkable progress.
3. Its fatal consequences. Two kingdoms; rival worship. Weakness, jealousy, and political decline of Jewish nation. Terrible is progress of strife. One angry word, one look of revenge, one act of resentment, will kindle a fire which may set a neighbourhood or a nation into flame. A drop of revenge soon becomes a river, and the river a torrent, which sweeps everything before it. “The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water. Therefore leave off contention before it be meddled with.”
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 10
2Ch_10:6-10. Counsel. Judge Buller, when in the company of a young gentleman of sixteen, cautioned him against being led astray by the example or persuasion of others, and said: “If I had listened to the advice of some of those who called themselves my friends when I was young, instead of being a judge of the King’s Bench, I should have died long ago a prisoner at the King’s Bench.”
2Ch_10:12-15. Answered. Who knows what he is till he is tried, and until he meets his own trial? for every one is not discovered in the same way; he may be firm in one peril and fail in another [Jay]. His friends were summoned on a point so nice, to pass their judgment and to give advice; but fixed before, and well resolved was he, as those who ask advice are wont to be [Pope].
2Ch_10:16-19. When any one person or body of men seize into their hands the power in the last resort, there is properly no longer a government, but what Aristotle and his followers call the abuse and corruption of one [Swift].
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Sermon Bible 1900 · Public Domain On v1 2Ch 10:7
2Ch 10:7
(with 2Ch 10:11)
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This incident illustrates the two modes of treating men—the conciliatory and the unconciliatory. The principle applies to all men in some of the relations of life; and the question is, What is the true, and consequently the safe, basis of all government?
I. Social positions are graduated. The strong man will of necessity sooner or later go to the front and claim the influence which belongs of right to his powers, and the weak man will be left at the point which exhausts his strength. Democracy does not equalize men. Universal suffrage would not mean universal equality.
II. Though social positions are graduated, yet no elevation of rank gives one man the right to tyrannise over another. Tyranny is necessarily associated with littleness of nature, littleness somewhere; there may be many great qualities, but the nature as a whole is of a low type. The maintenance of a conciliatory policy is quite consistent with (1) headship; (2) firmness; (3) justice. What is the cure of all false relations among men? The Gospel of reconciliation. That includes everything. To all those who have to work among men it is important to remember the two methods, conciliation and tyranny.
Parker, Pulpit Analyst, vol. ii., p. 452.
References: 2Ch 1:10.—Clergyman’s Magazine, vol. ix., p. 18. 2Ch 2:11.—Spurgeon, My Sermon Notes: Genesis to Proverbs, p. 99. 2Ch 5:13-14, and 2Ch 7:1-3.—Ibid., Sermons, vol. vii., Nos. 375-378. 2Ch 6:18.—Christian World Pulpit, vol. viii., p. 165; W. Jay, Thursday Penny Pulpit, vol. v., p. 265. 2Ch 6:28, 2Ch 6:30.—J. Keble, Sermons for the Christian Year: Septuagesima to Ash Wednesday, p. 372. 2Ch 6:34, 2Ch 6:35.—H. B. Moffat, The Pulpit, vol. iv., p. 313. 2Ch 9:17-19.—J. M. Neale, Sermons for the Church Year, vol. ii., p. 274. 2Ch 10:4, 2Ch 10:13, 2Ch 10:19.—W. Bishop, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxx., p. 45.
2Ch 10:8
There were two things that contributed specially to make the life of Rehoboam a failure.
I. He was brought up in the lap of luxury, and that is not good for any man. Had Solomon’s son been brought up less luxuriously, had he known something in his early days of real hard work, had he met with difficulties and rebuffs such as fall to the lot of many, he might have turned out a more sensible and successful man.
II. He refused the advice of men who were older and wiser than himself. Evil companionship proved his destruction. We take the colour of the society we keep, as the frogs of Ceylon do that of the leaf on which they sit. Be slow to form your friendships. Endeavour first to take the measure of every man who courts your company.
J. Thain Davidson, Forewarned—Forearmed, p. 33.
The Sermon Bible, ed. William Robertson Nicoll (1888–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
J. R. Dummelow 1909 · Public Domain On v1 Reign of Rehoboam
Reign of Rehoboam
This chapter is a repetition of 1Ki_12:1-19 with slight differences.
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2. Returned out of Egypt] Preferable to 1Ki_12:2, 'Jeroboam dwelt in Egypt.'
4. Thy father made, etc.] The passages in 1Ki_5:13-14; 1Ki_11:28, which throw light upon the oppressiveness of Solomon, are omitted by the Chronicler.
J. R. Dummelow, A Commentary on the Holy Bible (Macmillan, 1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v16 "Israel," the ten tribes other than Judah and Benjamin,…
Israel
"Israel," the ten tribes other than Judah and Benjamin, often called "Israel" in distinction from Judah. The division of the kingdom marks an epoch of great importance in the history of the nation. Henceforth it is "a kingdom divided against itself." Mat 12:25. The two kingdoms are to be reunited in the future kingdom.; Isa 11:10-13; Jer 23:5; Jer 23:6; Eze 37:15-28. See "Kingdom" (O.T.), (See Scofield "Gen 1:26") See Scofield "Zec 12:8". (N.T.),; Luk 1:31; 1Co 15:28. "Israel,"; Gen 12:2; Gen 12:3; Rom 11:26.
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Arno C. Gaebelein 1922 · Public Domain On v1 1. Rehoboam made king (2Ch 10:1)
II. THE REBELLION OF THE TEN TRIBES
CHAPTER 10
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1. Rehoboam made king (2Ch 10:1)
2. Jeroboam’s return from Egypt and his request (2Ch 10:2-5)
3. Rehoboam’s answer (2Ch 10:6-15)
4. The revolt and Rehoboam’s flight (2Ch 10:16-19)
What followed Solomon’s fall when he turned away from the Lord, who so graciously had appeared unto him twice, is unrecorded in the Chronicles. 1Ki 11:9-43 contains these events. Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, had lifted up his hand against Solomon (1Ki 11:27). He planned secretly a revolt against the king, and when he went out of Jerusalem, most likely to carry out his plans, the prophet Ahijah met him, and in renting his own garment into ten pieces announced that God would take the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon and give to Jeroboam the ten tribes. Then Solomon sought to kill Jeroboam and he fled into Egypt, and was in Egypt until Solomon died. It is here where the account in Chronicles comes in. Rehoboam (enlarger of the people), the only son of Solomon mentioned in the Bible, went to Shechem, where all Israel had come together to make him king. Jeroboam had returned from Egypt and appeared on the scene, sent by the people to conduct negotiations in their behalf. Jeroboam demanded a lightening of the heavy burden of forced labor and taxation which Solomon had put upon them. If this request would be granted they were ready to serve Jeroboam. The King asked for three days to consider the demand. He first turned to the aged men and consulted those who had been closely associated with his father. They advised him to use kindness to avert the threatening rebellion. “A soft answer turneth away wrath, but grievous words stir up anger” (Pro 15:1). If Rehoboam had heeded this inspired saying of his father, he would have followed the advice which had been given. But instead he turned to the young men, “the young men (Hebrew: children) that had grown up with him.” They readily gave advice how the peoples’ demand, “Ease somewhat the yoke that thy father did put upon us,” should be answered. It was foolish advice. The threat to increase their burdens, and that while his father had used whips he would use scorpions (a cruel whip to which pieces of sharp metal were attached) was to overawe the people and bring them into submission. It seems almost impossible that Rehoboam should follow such advice. If Ecc 2:18-19 applies to this son of Solomon, the father’s fears were well founded. He certainly showed that he was not a wise man, but a fool. Yet there was another reason why Rehoboam listened to the foolish counsel. “So the king hearkened not unto the people, for the cause was of God, that the Lord might perform His Word, which He spake by Ahijah, the Shilonite, to Jeroboam, the son of Nebat. And the offended people answered the king with the same spirit and declared their independence. In contempt they said, “And now David see to thine own house.” Then foolishly Rehoboam sent one of the officials who were hated on account of their office, Hadoram, who was over the tribute. The people became infuriated and stoned him to death. King Rehoboam had to make haste to escape a similar fate. The revolt had come. “And Israel rebelled against the house of David.” The words spoken to Solomon (1Ki 11:11-13) were now fulfilled.
Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Paul E. Kretzmann 1924 · Public Domain On vv1, 12 The Demand of the Northern Tribes.
The Demand of the Northern Tribes.
v. l And Rehoboam went to Shechem, one of the chief cities of the northern tribes and almost in the center of Canaan; for to Shechem were all Israel come to make him king. Cf l Kings 12.
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v. 2. And it came to pass, when Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who was in Egypt, whither he had fled from the presence of Solomon the king, after the prophet Ahijah had promised Jeroboam the position as king of the northern tribes, 1Ki 11:40, heard it, received information of this move to make Rehoboam king, that Jeroboam returned out of Egypt.
v. 3. And they sent and called him, the people of the northern tribes had sent him word, because he was an influential man. and because some of them may have known of Ahijah’s promise. So Jeroboam and all Israel came and spake to Rehoboam, saying, stating the conditions under which they would accept him as their king,
v. 4. Thy father made our yoke grievous, by heavy taxes and by other burdens which he had deemed necessary for his ambitious plans, although they had redounded to the welfare of the nation as such; now, therefore, ease thou somewhat the grievous servitude of thy father and his heavy yoke that he put upon us, reducing its pressing burden to some extent, and we will serve thee.
v. 5. And he said unto them, Come again unto me after three days. He wanted time to consider their proposition from every angle. And the people departed.
v. 6. And King Rehoboam took counsel with the old men that had stood before Solomon, his father, while he yet lived, tried and experienced counselors, saying, What counsel give ye me to return answer to this people?
v. 7. And they, out of the fullness of their ripe experience, spake unto him, saying, If thou be kind to this people, and please them, and speak good words to them, they will be thy servants for ever. It is doubtful whether the northern tribes would have remained loyal even with this soft answer returned to them, but at any rate it would have taken from them every pretext for separation.
v. 8. But he, inexperienced, imperious, and tyrannically inclined, forsook the counsel which the old men gave him, and took counsel with the young men that were brought up with him, having always been surrounded with the pomp, power, and luxury of magnificent court life and therefore regarding the common people as a herd for bearing burdens, that stood before him.
v. 9. And he said unto them, What advice give ye that we may return answer to this people which have spoken to me, saying, Ease somewhat the yoke that thy father did put upon us?
v. 10. And the young men that were brought up with him spake unto him, in the arrogant manner which he evidently liked, saying, Thus shalt thou answer the people that spake unto thee, saying, Thy father made our yoke heavy, but make thou it somewhat lighter for us, a contemptuous repetition of the people’s demand; thus shalt thou say unto them, My little finger shall be thicker than my father’s loins.
v. 11. For whereas my father put a heavy yoke upon you, loading a very grievous burden upon them, I will put more to your yoke; my father chastised you with whips, figuratively speaking, but I will chastise you with scorpions, a whip with many thongs, whose ends were weighted with sharp points, used for punishing slaves. It is a blessing to a country if its ruler surrounds himself with experienced, trustworthy counselors, who will give the best advice at the right time. But woe to the land whose ruler chooses men as counselors who are out of touch with the needs of the country!
Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv1, 3, 6, 8, 10, 12, 15, 16, 17 all Israel was coming
all Israel was coming
Here "Israel" is a metonym for the men of Israel. The word "all" is a generalization. AT: "the men of Israel were coming" (See: Metonymy and Hyperbole and Generalization)
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Jeroboam ... Nebat
These are the names of men. See how you translated these names in 2 Chronicles 9:29. (See: How to Translate Names)
translationWords
Rehoboam
Shechem
Israel
king
Jeroboam
Egypt
king
Solomon
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 vv1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 16, 18 10:1 Shechem was in the heart of the territory…
10:1 Shechem was in the heart of the territory of the northern tribes; the need for Rehoboam to go there for confirmation reflects either weak national unity or the comparative strength and influence of the northern tribes. • Rehoboam reigned from 931 to 913 BC.
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.