1 Kings 11:13

_HOWBEIT I WILL NOT REND AWAY ALL THE KINGDOM; BUT WILL GIVE ONE TRIBE TO THY SON FOR DAVID MY SERVANT'S SAKE, AND FOR JERUSALEM'S SAKE WHICH I HAVE CHOSEN._ I will give one tribe to thy son - i:e., the large and populous tribe of Judah, including the small tribe of Benjamin, which was contiguous, and, in fact, divided with it the possession of Jerusalem. Josephus ('Antiquities,' b. 7:, ch. 7:, sec. 5) expressly mentions 'two tribes.' There were left to Rehoboam the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Levi (2 Chronicles 11:12), and multitudes of Israelites, who, after the schism of the kingdom, established their residence within the territory of Judah, to enjoy the privileges of the true religion (1 Kings 12:17). These are all reckoned as one tribe. Respecting Solomon's multiplic

9-13 The Lord told Solomon, it is likely by a prophet, what he must expect for his apostacy. Though we have reason to hope that he repented, and found mercy, yet the Holy Ghost did not expressly record it, but left it doubtful, as a warning to others not to sin. The guilt may be taken away, but not the reproach; that will remain. Thus it must remain uncertain to us till the day of judgment, whether or not Solomon was left to suffer the everlasting displeasure of an offended God....

Verse 1 Kings 11:13. _WILL GIVE ONE TRIBE - FOR DAVID MY SERVANT'S SAKE_] The line of the _Messiah_ must be preserved. The _prevailing lion_ must come out of the tribe of Judah: not only the tribe must be preserved, but the _regal line_ and the _regal right_. All this must be done for the _true David's_ sake: and this was undoubtedly what God had in view by thus miraculously preserving the tribe of Judah and the royal line, in the midst of so general a defection. _AND FOR JERUSALEM'S SAKE_] As _David_ was a type of the _Messiah_, so was _Jerusalem_ a type of the _true Church_: therefore the _OLD_ _Jerusalem_ must be preserved in the hands of the tribe of Judah, till the _true David_ should establish the _NEW Jerusalem_ in the same land, and in the same city. And what a series of providences

ONE TRIBE - i. e., (marginal reference) the tribe of Judah. Benjamin was looked upon as absorbed in Judah, so as not to be really a tribe in the same sense as the others. Still, in memory of the fact that the existing tribe of Judah was a double one 1 Kings 12:2 l, the prophet Ahijah tore his garment into twelve parts, and kept back two from Jeroboam 1 Kings 11:30....

EXPOSITION SOLOMON'S DEFECTION.—The observant reader will have already remarked in this history some intimations of Solomon's approaching fall. Among these are, first, the repeated warnings which are addressed to him, especially in 1 Kings 9:6, and, second, his repeated transgressions of the law by which he ruled. We have already heard of the multiplication of silver and gold (1 Kings 10:14-11), in defiance of Deuteronomy 17:17, and of the multiplication of horses (1 Kings 10:27-11), in disregard of...

HOWBEIT, I WILL NOT REND AWAY ALL THE KINGDOM,.... The whole kingdom of Israel: BUT WILL GIVE ONE TRIBE TO THY SON; but it seems he had both Benjamin and Judah, and only ten tribes were rent from him; the reason of this mode of expression may be, either because he gave him one of the tribes of Israel, besides that of Judah, which was his own tribe; or only the tribe of Judah is meant, the whole tribe of Benjamin not being his, since Bethel, and some other places in that tribe, were in the possession of Jeroboam; or rather both these are called but one, because their inheritances lay together, and were mixed with one another; and particularly both had a share in the city of Jerusalem, and the kingdom always after the division went by the name of Judah only: and this tribe was given FOR DAVID MY SERVANT'S SAKE; because of the promise to him, that there should not want one of his seed to...

7. SOLOMON'S FAILURE: JUDGMENT ANNOUNCED AND THE BEGINNING OF DISRUPTION CHAPTER 11 _ 1. Solomon's polygamy and departure from God (1 Kings 11:1)_ 2. Hadad the Edomite (1 Kings 11:14) 3. Rezon the second adversary (1 Kings 11:23) 4. Jeroboam (1 Kings 11:26) 5. Solomon's reign and death (1 Kings 11:41) “But--.” An ominous word with which this chapter begins. It introduces us to the sad picture of Solomon's great apostasy. “He shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people

SIN OF SOLOMON, AND THE ADVERSARIES RAISED UP IN CONSEQUENCE. From various differences in the arrangement of the earlier verses in the LXX and Heb., it has been supposed that in its original form the narrative merely recorded the fact that Solomon had a number of wives, and that he built sanctuaries and offered sacrifice to their gods. In its present form the influence of a Deuteronomic editor is unmistakable. But the account of Solomon's adversaries (1 Kings 11:14 ff.) must be derived from an earlier source; and even as it stands does not necessarily mean that they were raised up in punishment of his sin. Hadad, the Edomite (1 Kings 11:14) must have troubled him early in his reign (1 Kings 11:21 f.), and Rezon wa

ONE TRIBE. Benjamin reckoned as part of Judah....

but _will give one tribe_ The reference is to the tribe of Judah from which the southern kingdom took its name. Benjamin which went with Judah was so small as to be hardly worth accounting of, and Simeon was also absorbed in Judah. The same form of words is used below (1 Kings 11:32) in the account of Ahijah's action, though it is expressly said in a previous verse -Take thee ten pieces." One reason for the close union of Benjamin with Judah was that the territorial division between the two tribes was such as to make the Temple the common property of both. The city of the Jebusite, which David conquered, and all the ground north of the valley of Hinnom was in the tribe of Benjamin. _for Jerusalem's sake, which I have chosen_ In Deuteronomy 12:5 it is signified that God will choose some plac