1 Kings 12:20

_AND IT CAME TO PASS, WHEN ALL ISRAEL HEARD THAT JEROBOAM WAS COME AGAIN, THAT THEY SENT AND CALLED HIM UNTO THE CONGREGATION, AND MADE HIM KING OVER ALL ISRAEL: THERE WAS NONE THAT FOLLOWED THE HOUSE OF DAVID, BUT THE TRIBE OF JUDAH ONLY._ When all Israel heard that Jeroboam was come again. This verse closes the parenthetical narrative begun at 1 Kings 12:2, and 1 Kings 12:21 resume the history from 1 Kings 12:1. THEY SENT AND CALLED HIM UNTO THE CONGREGATION, х_ 'EL_ (H413) _ HAA`EEDAAH_ (H5712)] - the assembly of representatives. AND MADE HIM KING OVER ALL ISRAEL. There was no c

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 12:20. _MADE HIM KING OVER ALL ISRAEL_] What is called Israel here, was ten-twelfths of the whole nation; and had they a right to call another person to the throne? They had not, - they had neither _legal_ nor _constitutional right_. Jeroboam was not of the blood royal; he had no affinity to the kingdom. Nothing could justify this act, but the just judgment of God. God thus punished a disobedient and gainsaying people; and especially Solomon's family, whose sins against the Lord were of no ordinary magnitude....

The first act of the Israelites, on learning what had occurred at Shechem, was to bring together the great “congregation” of the people (compare Judges 20:1), in order that, regularly and in solemn form, the crown might be declared vacant, and a king elected in the room of the monarch whose authority had been thrown off. The congregation selected Jeroboam. The rank, the talent, and the known energy of the late exile, his natural hostility to the house of Solomon, his Ephraimitic descent, his acquaintance with the art of fortification, and the friendly relations subsisting between him and the great Egyptian king, pointed him out as the most suitable man for the vacant post. If, according to the Septuagint, Shishak had not only protected him against Solomon, but also given him an Egyptian princess, sister to his own queen, in marriage, his position must have been such that n

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 ALL ISRAEL HEARD THAT JEROBOAM WAS COME AGAIN,.... Out of Egypt; the chief men knew of it before, for he had headed them in their approach and address to Rehoboam; but the people in common had not, and especially those of the various tribes besides that of Ephraim: THAT THEY SENT AND CALLED HIM UNTO THE CONGREGATION, AND MADE HIM KING OVER ALL ISRAEL; they sent for him from his tent or house, which probably was in Shechem, and gave him an invitation to come to their assembly, met together to deliberate about a king; when they unanimously chose him to be king over Israel, that is, over the ten tribes, and inaugurated him into his office: THERE WAS NONE THAT FOLLOWED THE HOUSE OF DAVID BUT THE TRIBE OF JUDAH ONLY; in which Benjamin was included, as appears from the following verse; that being joined to it, and mixed with it, and both having a part in Jerusalem,...

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...

JUDAH ONLY. See note on "one tribe" (1 Kings 11:32)....

_when all Israel heard that Jeroboam was come again_ R.V. WAS RETURNED. This change is made because the words are like 2 Chronicles 10:2, and the two should be represented as agreeing. The movement described in these words is that of the whole ten tribes. At first Jeroboam had been summoned by the leading men that he might be their adviser and perhaps spokesman. Now when their request has been rejected the whole people agree that he shall be made their king. _but the tribe of Judah only_ So Rehoboam was left in the position of David at his accession, king of Judah only. The LXX. adds here -and Benjamin" to accord with the previous variations in 1 Kings 11:32; 1 Kings 11:36. See notes there....