1 Kings 12:18

_SO WHEN ALL ISRAEL SAW THAT THE KING HEARKENED NOT UNTO THEM, THE PEOPLE ANSWERED THE KING, SAYING, WHAT PORTION HAVE WE IN DAVID? NEITHER HAVE WE INHERITANCE IN THE SON OF JESSE: TO YOUR TENTS, O ISRAEL: NOW SEE TO THINE OWN HOUSE, DAVID. SO ISRAEL DEPARTED UNTO THEIR TENTS._ No JFB commentary on these verses....

16-24 The people speak unbecomingly of David. How soon are good men, and their good services to the public, forgotten ! These considerations should reconcile us to our losses and troubles, that God is the Author of them, and our brethren the instruments: let us not meditate revenge. Rehoboam and his people hearkened to the word of the Lord. When we know God's mind, we must submit, how much soever it crosses our own mind. If we secure the favour of God, not all the universe can hurt us....

Verse 1 Kings 12:18. _KING REHOBOAM SENT ADORAM_] As this was the person who was superintendent over the _tribute_, he was probably sent to collect the ordinary taxes; but the people, indignant at the _master_ who had given them such a brutish answer, stoned the _servant_ to death. The sending of Adoram to collect the taxes, when the public mind was in such a state of fermentation, was another proof of Rehoboam's folly and incapacity to govern....

Adoram has been identified with Adoniram (marginal references), and even with the Adoram of 2 Samuel 20:24. But it is highly improbable that the same person was chief superintendent of the forced labors during the whole of Solomon’s long reign, and also during a part of David’s and Rehoboam’s. We may therefore conclude that the three names mark three distinct persons, perhaps of the same family, who were respectively contemporary with the three kings. Adoram was chosen, as best acquainted with the hardships whereof the rebels complained, to arrange some alleviation of their burthens....

EXPOSITION THE REVOLT OF THE TEN TRIBES.—With the reign of Rehoboam, on which our historian now enters, we begin the second great period in the history of the Hebrew monarchy, so far as it is related in these Books of KINGS. The first, which comprises the Augustan age of Israel, the short-lived maturity of the race in the reign of Solomon, has extended over forty years, from B.C. 1015 to B.C. 975. The second, which is the period of the existence of the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah side by side—that is to say, from the disruption to the carrying away of Israel into captivity—extends over two centuries and a half, viz; from B.C. 975 to B.C. 722, and is, with few exceptions, a period of steady and shameful decline. And in giving his account of the division of the kingdom, our historian, _more suo_, confines himself to the recital

THEN KING REHOBOAM SENT ADORAM, WHO WAS OVER THE TRIBUTE,.... There was one of this name in this office in the time of David, 2 Samuel 20:24, this is the same with Adoniram, as Jarchi thinks, see 1 Kings 4:6, him he sent either to collect the tribute of the Ephraimites, to show his authority; or rather to call the people back to have some further discourse with them, and endeavour to soften things, and bring them to a compliance, so Josephus l; but it was too late, and he employed a very improper person; the heavy taxes were their complaint, and a tax gatherer, and especially one that was at the head of the tribute, must be of all men the most disagreeable to them; this is another instance of the folly and false steps of Rehoboam: AND ALL ISRAEL STONED HIM WITH STONES, THAT HE DIED; the

III. THE DIVIDED KINGDOM 1. Rehoboam and the Revolt of the Ten Tribes CHAPTER 12 _ 1. The revolt of the northern tribes (1 Kings 12:1)_ 2. The threatening war averted (1 Kings 12:21) 3. Jeroboam's wicked schemes (1 Kings 12:25) Rehoboam (enlarger of the people) is the only son of Solomon mentioned in the Bible (1 Chronicles 3:10). Ecclesiastes 2:18; Ecclesiastes 4:13 seem to give a h

THE REVOLT OF THE NORTHERN TRIBES. It is doubtful whether this section is Judæ an or not. It bears some resemblance to 2 Samuel 9-20, and the parts of 1 K. which seem to be a continuation of that history. On the other hand it is not favourable to the house of David, The writer assumes, that Israel has a right to elect a king, and that Solomon could not, like David, have nominated his successor. This passage may be an extract from a northern source, perhaps the chronicles of the kings of Israel. Difficulty is occasioned by the LXX additions, and has to be discussed in connexion with 1 Kings 12, 14. Evidently Jeroboam's rebellion against Solomon was more serious than is implied in 11, and the prestige of his throne had suffered considerably. SHECHEM. At the end of Solomon's reign the prestige of the older scenes in Israel's history seems to have revived. Jerusalem is no longer the importa...

STONED HIM. One of the nine stonings recorded See note on Leviticus 24:14. MADE SPEED. Hebrew strengthened himself. TO JERUSALEM: from Shechem....

_Then king Rehoboam sent Adoram_ The same man who is called Adoniram in ch. 1 Kings 4:6. He presided over the forced-labour service, and it was an additional sign of the infatuation of Rehoboam, that a person so likely to be obnoxious to the people should be sent as the king's representative. Josephus tells us that Rehoboam's design was to appease and mollify the irritation caused by his answer. He could hardly have found worse means for his end. _who was over the tribute_ Read, with R.V. -over the LEVY." See above on 1 Kings 4:6. _and all Israel stoned him_ The LXX. omits -all Israel." _Therefore king Rehoboam made speed_ The marginal rendering of A.V. points out the literal meaning of the verb in this clause -he strengthened himself." The idea is -he made use of every effort,