1 Kings 12:2

_AND IT CAME TO PASS, WHEN JEROBOAM THE SON OF NEBAT, WHO WAS YET IN EGYPT, HEARD OF IT, (FOR HE WAS FLED FROM THE PRESENCE OF KING SOLOMON, AND JEROBOAM DWELT IN EGYPT;)_ No JFB commentary on these verses....

1-15 The tribes complained not to Rehoboam of his father's idolatry, and revolt from God. That which was the greatest grievance, was none to them; so careless were they in matters of religion, if they might live at case, and pay no taxes. Factious spirits will never want something to complain of. And when we see the Scripture account of Solomon's reign; the peace, wealth, and prosperity Israel then enjoyed; we cannot doubt but that their charges were false, or far beyond the truth. Rehoboam answered the people according to the counsel of the young men. Never was man more blinded by pride, and desire of arbitrary power, than which nothing is more fatal. God's counsels were hereby fulfilled. He left Rehoboam to his own folly, and hid from his eyes the things which belonged to his peace, that the kingdom might be rent from him. God serves his own wise and righteous purposes by the impruden...

HEARD OF IT - i. e., of the death of Solomon and accession of Rehoboam. This would be more clear without the division into chapters; which division, it must be remembered, is without authority. DWELT IN EGYPT - By a change of the pointing of one word, and of one letter in another, the Hebrew text here will read as in 2 Chronicles 10:2, “returned out of Egypt; and they sent and called him.” In the Septuagint Version the story of Jeroboam is told in two different ways. The general narrative agrees closely with the Hebrew text; but an insertion into the body of 1 Kings 12 - remarkable for its minuteness and circumstantiality - at once deranges the order of the events, and gives to the history in man

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

AND IT CAME TO PASS, WHEN JEROBOAM THE SON OF NEBAT, WHO WAS YET IN EGYPT, HEARD OF IT,.... Of the death of Solomon, and of the meeting of the Israelites at Shechem: (FOR HE WAS FLED FROM THE PRESENCE OF KING SOLOMON; see 1 Kings 11:40 AND JEROBOAM DWELT IN EGYPT;) until the death of Solomon; some render the words, "Jeroboam, returned out of Egypt" d, which agrees with 2 Chronicles 10:2, this he did on hearing the above news, and on being sent for by some of his friends, as follows. d וישב-במצרים "reversus est de Aegypto", V. L. Ex Egypto, ב pro מן, Vatablus....

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...

_And it came to pass_ The LXX. (_Vat_.) having given the substance of this verse as an addition to 1 Kings 11:43, omits it here. The R.V. makes the parenthesis commence a little earlier and extend a little farther than is shewn in A.V. The connexion thus becomes: And it came to pass when -Jeroboam … HEARD OF IT ( FOR HE was yet in Egypt WHITHER he had fled … AND they sent … him;) THAT Jeroboam" &c. _heard_of it] There must have been some interval between the death of Solomon and the gathering of the people at Shechem. The character and purpose of this meeting must also have been settled beforehand, so that news of what was intended could be carried to Jeroboam, and he, seeing events to be promising for his enterprise, could come back into Israel, and take the lead, as in the next verse he is said to have done, of those who petitioned the

I. THE GREAT SCHISM 12:1-24 The gripping narrative of Rehoboam's folly unfolds in the first twenty-four verses of chapter 12. For study purposes this narrative may be divided into five units: (1) the request of Israel (1 Kings 12:1-5); (2) the recommendation of the counselors (1 Kings 12:6-11); (3) the reply of Rehoboam (1 Kings 12:12-15); (4) the rebellion of Israel (1 Kings 12:16-20); and (5) the response of Rehoboam (1 Kings 12:21-24). A. THE REQUEST OF ISRAEL 12:1-5 TRANSLATION (1)

THE REVOLT OF THE TEN TRIBES. REHOBOAM AND JEROBOAM The revolt of the Ten Tribes against the rule of Rehoboam had its origin partly in the discontent which the burdens laid on the people by Solomon had created and which Jeroboam (who knew of it, see 1 Kings 11:28) had perhaps stimulated, and partly in the jealousy subsisting between the northern tribes and Judah, which had manifested itself previously in the separate kingdoms of Ish-bosheth and David, and the insurrections that disturbed David's reign over the whole people (2 Samuel 20:1); whilst the bond of union constituted by a common religious faith must have been weakened by Solomon's idolatry....