Worthless men were gathered to him, wicked fellows who strengthened themselves against Rehoboam the son of Solomon, when Rehoboam was young and tender hearted, and could not withstand them.
Parallel Translations
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Worthless men were gathered to him, wicked fellows who strengthened themselves against Rehoboam the son of Solomon, when Rehoboam was young and tender hearted, and could not withstand them.
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And there are gathered unto him vain men, the children of Belial, and have strengthened themselves against Rehoboam the son of Solomon, when Rehoboam was young and tenderhearted, and could not withstand them.
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And there were gathered unto him vain men, base fellows that strengthened themselves against Rehoboam the son of Solomon, when Rehoboam was young and faint-hearted, and could not withstand them.
Cross-references (19)
Passages linked to 2 Chronicles 13:7 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Judges 9:4 They gave him seventy pieces of silver out of the house of Baal Berith, with which Abimelech hired vain and reckless fellows who followed him.
- 2 Chronicles 12:13 So king Rehoboam strengthened himself in Jerusalem and reigned; for Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which Yahweh had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel to put his name there. His mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonitess.
- Deuteronomy 13:13 certain wicked fellows have gone out from among you and have drawn away the inhabitants of their city, saying, “Let’s go and serve other gods,” which you have not known,
- Judges 11:3 Then Jephthah fled from his brothers and lived in the land of Tob. Outlaws joined up with Jephthah, and they went out with him.
- 1 Samuel 22:2 Everyone who was in distress, everyone who was in debt, and everyone who was discontented, gathered themselves to him; and he became captain over them. There were with him about four hundred men.
- 1 Kings 21:10 Set two men, wicked fellows, before him, and let them testify against him, saying, ‘You cursed God and the king!’ Then carry him out, and stone him to death.”
- 1 Kings 21:13 The two men, the wicked fellows, came in and sat before him. The wicked fellows testified against him, even against Naboth, in the presence of the people, saying, “Naboth cursed God and the king!” Then they carried him out of the city and stoned him to death with stones.
- 2 Chronicles 10:16 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.
- 2 Chronicles 11:1-4 When Rehoboam had come to Jerusalem, he assembled the house of Judah and Benjamin, one hundred eighty thousand chosen men who were warriors, to fight against Israel, to bring the kingdom again to Rehoboam. But Yahweh’s word came to Shemaiah the man of God, saying, “Speak to Rehoboam the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all Israel in Judah and Benjamin, saying, ‘Yahweh says, “You shall not go up, nor fight against your brothers! Every man return to his house; for this thing is of me.” ’ ” So they listened to Yahweh’s words, and returned from going against Jeroboam.
- Job 30:8 They are children of fools, yes, children of wicked men. They were flogged out of the land.
- Psalms 26:4 I have not sat with deceitful men, neither will I go in with hypocrites.
- Proverbs 12:11 He who tills his land shall have plenty of bread, but he who chases fantasies is void of understanding.
- Proverbs 28:19 One who works his land will have an abundance of food; but one who chases fantasies will have his fill of poverty.
- Ecclesiastes 10:16 Woe to you, land, when your king is a child, and your princes eat in the morning!
- Isaiah 3:4 I will give boys to be their princes, and children shall rule over them.
- Acts 17:5 But the unpersuaded Jews took along some wicked men from the marketplace, and gathering a crowd, set the city in an uproar. Assaulting the house of Jason, they sought to bring them out to the people.
- 1 Corinthians 14:20 Brothers, don’t be children in thoughts, yet in malice be babies, but in thoughts be mature.
- Titus 1:10 For there are also many unruly men, vain talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision,
- Hebrews 5:12 For although by this time you should be teachers, you again need to have someone teach you the rudiments of the first principles of the revelations of God. You have come to need milk, and not solid food.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (10 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain This word in the Chaldean tongue is Raca, which…
This word in the Chaldean tongue is Raca, which our Savior useth, Matt. 5:22.
Hebrew, children of Belial.
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Meaning, in heart and courage.
Or, faint hearted.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 2Ch 13:7 And there are gathered unto him vain…
2Ch 13:7 And there are gathered unto him vain men, the children of Belial, and have strengthened themselves against Rehoboam the son of Solomon, when Rehoboam was young and tenderhearted, and could not withstand them.
Ver. 7. And there are gathered unto him vain men.] Rachas brainless fellows, light and empty; yokeless also and masterless; men of no piety or common honesty. Such also were Catiline’s comrades among the Romans.
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When Rehoboam was young.] Not in age, but in experience, policy, and valour; he was imbellis et metculosus, hen-hearted, as we say, and - as a young plant, not yet rooted - easily shaken and swayed by the insolencies of his rebellious subjects.
And could not withstand them.] Thus he layeth the fault - like a good child - wholly upon his father; with whom, it is like, he was displeased for obeying the prophet Shemaiah, {2Ch 11:4} and not reducing his rebels at first, as he might have done, but for his folly and faint-heartedness, saith Abijah.
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 The children of Belial; such as have cast off…
The children of Belial; such as have cast off the yoke and obedience which they owed both to God and to their king.
When Rehoboam was young; not in age, for he was then forty-one years old, but in his kingdom, which he had but newly obtained, and in experience in politic, and especially in military, affairs, to which he was wholly a stranger, as having been born and bred up in a time of great peace and security.
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Tender-hearted, i.e. cowardly and fearful, who durst not adventure to chastise the rebels as he should have done. But therein Abijah forgets his duty, both to his father, whom he falsely traduceth; and to God, by whose express command Rehoboam was restrained from the war against Israel, which otherwise he had both courage and resolution to prosecute, as appears from the history, 1Ki 12:21.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And now ye think to withstand the kingdom of…
And now ye think to withstand the kingdom of the Lord in the hand of the sons of David,.... To oppose them, prevail over them, and get it out of their hands, which is delivered to them by the Lord, as the Targum:
and ye be a great multitude; of which they boasted, and in which they trusted, being ten tribes to two, and in this army two to one:
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and there are with you golden calves which Jeroboam made you for gods; or, "but (r) there are with you", &c. which Abijah suggests would be so far from helping them, that they would be their ruin, they having, by the worship of them, provoked the Lord against them.
(r) So Grotious, Schnidt, and others.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 7. When Rehoboam was young and tender-hearted] Therefore…
Verse 7. When Rehoboam was young and tender-hearted] Therefore he could not be forty-one when he came to the throne; 2Ch 13:3. Children of Belial here signifies men of the most abandoned principles and characters; or men without consideration, education, or brains.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain 2Ch 13:7. Vain men, children of Belial — Such…
2Ch 13:7. Vain men, children of Belial — Such as have cast off the yoke and the obedience which they owed both to God and to their king. When Rehoboam was young — Not in age, for he was then forty-one years old, but in his kingdom, which he had but newly obtained, and in experience in politics, and especially in military affairs, to which he was, indeed, wholly a stranger, having been born and brought up in a time of great peace and security.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Vain. The saem term is used as in Matthew…
Vain. The saem term is used as in Matthew v. 22. (Calmet) --- Rekim, "stupid men." (Haydock) --- Septuagint, "pestiferous." Syriac, "impious." --- Heart. Protestants, "young and tender-hearted." (Haydock) --- But Roboam was not very young; (3 Kings xiv. 21.) and we may adhere to the Vulgate. (Calmet) --- Septuagint, "he was a youth, and timid." (Haydock) --- Abia speaks of his father with little respect, and seems to have forgotten that he had laid down his arms in obedience to God’s order. (Calmet)
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).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 7. are gathered] R.V. were gathered.
7. are gathered] R.V. were gathered.
children of Belial] R.V. sons of Belial (mg. sons of worthlessness). The general sense “worthless persons” is clear, but the precise meaning of Belial, and whether the word be a proper name or a common noun, cannot be decided at present.
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young] Lit. a child. If this word is to be literally understood, the statement made is erroneous, for Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he began to reign (2Ch_12:13). It is probable, however, that the word is used metaphorically to describe one who was young (as indeed his conduct shewed) in experience of government; so Solomon (1Ki_3:7) calls himself a little child, by which he simply meant to express his consciousness of the smallness of his own ability when compared with the greatness of the task which lay before him. Cp. 1Ch_29:1.
tender hearted] i.e., according to Heb. phraseology, weak in understanding, the heart being considered to be the seat of the mind. Or we may translate the Heb. phrase as in Deu_20:8, fainthearted.
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 (7) And there are gathered.—Omit are.
(7) And there are gathered.—Omit are.
Vain men (rĕqîm, Jdg_9:4; Jdg_11:3).—Said of the followers of Abimelech and the freebooter Jephthah. Neither this nor the following phrase, “the children of Belial” (literally, sons of worthlessness, i.e., men of low character and estimation) occurs again in the Chronicles. (See Jdg_19:22; Jdg_20:13; 1Ki_21:10; 1Ki_21:13, for the latter.)
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Have strengthened.—Omit have.
Young and tender-hearted.—Rather, a youth and soft of heart, faint-hearted. A similar phrase occurred 1Ch_29:1. The expression is somewhat inexact, as Rehoboam was forty-one when he ascended the throne (2Ch_12:13). But Abijah is naturally anxious to put the case as strongly as possible against Jeroboam, and to avoid all blame of his own father. In 2 Chronicles 10 Rehoboam appears as haughty and imperious, rather than timid and soft-hearted.
Could not withstand them.—Did not show himself strong or firm (2Ch_12:13).
Against them.—Before them. (Comp. 1Ch_12:17; a usage of the chronicler’s.)
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 Are gathered have strengthened themselves. The aorist tense is…
Are gathered have strengthened themselves. The aorist tense is needed for the rendering in both these cases; e.g. "And vain men gathered to him, and strengthened themselves against him." Vain men; Hebrew, This word, and one very slightly different in form, and their adverb, occur in all forty-one times; rendered in the Authorized Version "empty" nineteen times, "vain" eighteen times, and "without cause," "to no purpose," and "void" the remaining four times. It is the word that is used of the "empty" pit of Joseph; (Gen_37:24) of the "empty ears" of corn; (Gen_41:27) of "empty" pitchers and other vessels (Jud_1:7:16; 2Ki_4:3; Jer_14:3 Jer_51:34; Eze_24:11) And in all the other cases expresses metaphorically the emptiness of head, of heart, or of reason, with the same simple force of language appropriate, it appears, then as now. Children of Belial ; Hebrew, lYlib. This word is found twenty-seven times, and, including seven marginal options, is rendered in the Authorized Version "Belial" twenty-three times; the four exceptions being "wicked" three times, and "naughty" once. The derivation of it marks the one expressive meaning of "without profit." Young and tender-hearted. Hard as it is to put these objections to the credit of a man forty-one years of age (see our note, (2Ch_10:8 2Ch_12:13) at all, yet, if so, they can only be explained as some do explain them, of a blamable ignorance, inexperience, and instability.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.