2 Chronicles 10:1-19

2 Chronicles: God desires loyal people

The *Kingdom called Judah

2 Chronicles Chapter s 10 to 36

Ian Mackervoy

The two *kingdoms – 2 Chronicles 10:1-11

Chapter 10

*Israel separates from Judah – 2 Chronicles 10:1-19

v1 Rehoboam went to Shechem, where all the *Israelites had gone to make him king. v2 Nebat’s son Jeroboam was in Egypt. He had gone there to escape from King Solomon. When he heard about Rehoboam, he returned from Egypt. v3 The *Israelites sent for him. Then, with Jeroboam, they came and they spoke to Rehoboam. v4 They said, ‘Your father forced us to work very hard. Reduce the hard work and the hard labour that your father made us do. Then we will serve you.’

v5 Rehoboam answered, ‘Come back to me after three days.’ So, the people went away.

v6 Then King Rehoboam asked for advice from the older men. These men had advised Solomon when he was alive. He said, ‘Tell me how to answer the people.’

v7 They replied, ‘Be kind to these people. Please them and give to them a favourable answer. Then they will always be your servants.’

v8 But Rehoboam did not act on the advice of the older men. Instead, he asked the young men who had grown up with him. These were the men who advised him. v9 He asked them, ‘What is your advice? How should we answer these people? They said to me, “Your father made us work very hard. Reduce the hard work that he made us do.” ’

v10 The young men who had grown up with him answered him. They replied, ‘Speak to the people. The people said, “Your father forced us to work very hard. Now make our work easier.” You should tell them, “My little finger is thicker than my father’s body. v11 He forced you to work hard but I will make your work even harder. My father hit you with whips. But I will hit you with whips that have sharp points.” ’

v12 After three days, Jeroboam and all the people returned to Rehoboam. The king had said, ‘Come back to me after three days.’ v13 The king answered them in a severe manner. He did not follow the advice of the older men. v14 But he followed the advice of the young men. He said to them, ‘My father forced you to work hard. But I will make you work even harder. My father hit you with whips. But I will hit you with whips that have sharp points.’ v15 So, the king did not listen to the people. God caused this to happen. So, the *LORD could do what he had promised to Nebat’s son Jeroboam. He spoke this promise by Ahijah, a *prophet from the town called Shiloh.

v16 All the *Israelites saw that the king refused to listen to them. Then they said to the king, ‘We have no part in David. We have no part in Jesse’s son. People of *Israel, let us go to our own homes. Let David’s family rule their own people.’ So, all the *Israelites went home. v17 But still Rehoboam ruled over the *Israelites who lived in the towns of Judah.

v18 Hadoram was the officer who forced the people to do hard labour. Rehoboam sent him to the *Israelites. But they threw stones at him until he died. King Rehoboam ran to his *chariot and he escaped to Jerusalem.

v19 Since then *Israel has refused to obey kings in the family of David.

Verse 1 Rehoboam was already king over Judah (9:31). But he went to the city called Shechem for all *Israel to accept him as king. He expected them to agree to his rule because he was from David’s family. But they had come to discuss an agreement with him before they would accept him as king.

Shechem was about 30 miles (48 kilometres) north of Jerusalem. It was in the territory of Ephraim and on the border with Manasseh. Shechem was a centre for the northern *tribes of *Israel. After this event, it became their chief city. There is a modern town now where Shechem was. It is called Nablus.

Verses 2-3 Jeroboam had been an official of King Solomon’s. One day as he went from Jerusalem the *prophet Ahijah met him. Ahijah had a new coat. He took his new coat and he tore it into 12 pieces. Then he told Jeroboam to take for himself 10 pieces. Then Ahijah told him that the *LORD would divide Solomon’s *kingdom. The *LORD would give 10 of the 12 *tribes of that *kingdom to Jeroboam. But the *LORD told him that he must obey God’s laws. Then Solomon tried to kill Jeroboam. But Jeroboam ran away to Egypt (1 Kings 11:26-40). He stayed there until Solomon had died.

Jeroboam came back from Egypt and the *Israelites sent for him. They made him their leader in the discussions with Rehoboam.

Verse 4 Solomon had forced 30 000 *Israelites to be workers. They helped to build the *temple. These *Israelites worked for one month in every three months. So, there were 10 000 of them at work each month (1 Kings 5:13-14). They complained that the work was too hard. They asked Rehoboam to reduce the hard tasks that Solomon had put on them. If he did not force them to work so hard then they would serve him. They would accept him as their king.

Verse 5 Rehoboam did not answer their demands at once. At this time, he was fair and wise. He needed time to decide what his answer should be. He told them to return after three days. The people agreed to this and they went away.

Verses 6-7 Rehoboam asked for advice from the older men. Solomon had come to these men for advice. And they had experience of Solomon’s wisdom. They may have supported the strict decisions of Solomon. So, they were well able to give good advice.

Their advice was to give to the people a favourable answer. He should seem to them to be reasonable and not too strict. He should listen to what they said. And he should agree to reduce the tasks that Solomon had forced them to do. As king, he should be a servant to the nation. If he were a servant then they would always serve him (1 Kings 12:7).

Verses 8-11 Rehoboam did not accept the advice of the older men. He asked for the advice of those who were of his own age. These men had grown up with him. They had no experience of the hard life of many *Israelites. These younger men could see no reason for any change. They thought that to give a favourable answer would show Rehoboam to be weak. Rehoboam should seem to be stronger than Solomon was.

So, they advised him, ‘Say, “My little thing is thicker than my father’s body.” ’ Most translators of the Bible think that the little thing means his little finger. The idea is that Rehoboam’s weakness will be stronger than the strength of his father. He will be much more powerful than Solomon was.

Their advice was to promise the people much harder labour than before. Solomon used whips to make them work. Rehoboam will use whips with sharp points. The ordinary whip had just one string of leather. Rehoboam’s whip would be like the whip that they used on horses. It would have several strings of leather. To make it worse there would be metal bits at the end of each string.

Verses 12-15 The people came back to Rehoboam after the three days. Rehoboam answered their request in a cruel way. He told them what the younger men had advised him to say. He would not listen to the people.

Solomon and Rehoboam must share the blame for the fact that the *kingdom became two *kingdoms. Solomon had forced the *Israelites to do hard labour. And he had not been loyal to the *LORD. He began to *worship other gods. Rehoboam was to blame because he would not follow the wise advice. He made matters worse by his answer to the people. And he had not asked the *LORD for his advice.

But the result of this event was in the purposes of God. Because Solomon was not loyal to God, God had decided to divide the *kingdom. He promised to give 10 *tribes to Rehoboam. But he left the two *tribes with Rehoboam because of his promises to David (1 Kings 11:29-33).

Verses 16-17 Because of his attitude, the people of the 10 *tribes refused to accept Rehoboam as king. He did not want to help them and to ease their hard labour. So, they could not have him as their king. They decided to end the ties between themselves and David’s family. They went home. But Rehoboam was still the king over Jerusalem and Judah.

Verse 18 Rehoboam sent Hadoram to try to solve the problem. But Hadoram was the man responsible for the forced labour (1 Kings 5:14). So, he was not a wise choice for this task. Probably the people hated him before this time. However, when he came to the people they threw stones at him. In this way, they killed him.

Rehoboam was afraid that the people might attack him. So, he ran away back to Jerusalem.

Verse 19 The 10 northern *tribes of *Israel became a separate *kingdom. They would not have a *descendant of David as their king. Instead, they made Nebat’s son, Jeroboam king of the 10 *tribes (1 Kings 12:20).

kingdom ~ the place or territory where a king rules; or, the people that a king rules over.
kingdom ~ the place or territory where a king rules; or, the people that a king rules over.
LORD ~ ‘LORD’ is the special name that God gave to himself. It means that God has always been.
lord ~ someone with authority such as the king.
prophet ~ person who speaks on behalf of God. He or she can sometimes say what will happen in the future. Some prophets worshipped false gods. So, not all prophets spoke words from God.
worship ~ to praise God and to give thanks to him; to show honour to God and to say that we love him very much. But some people worship false gods instead of the real God.
chariot ~ a kind of cart that soldiers use to fight. Horses pulled it.
tribe ~ the *Israelites were divided into the 12 families of the sons of Jacob. These families are the 12 tribes of *Israel.
temple ~ a special building for the worship of God or of other gods. The Jews had one in Jerusalem for the worship of the real God.
worship ~ to praise God and to give thanks to him; to show honour to God and to say that we love him very much. But some people worship false gods instead of the real God.
Jews ~ another name for the *Israelites.
worship ~ to praise God and to give thanks to him; to show honour to God and to say that we love him very much. But some people worship false gods instead of the real God.
descendant ~ a future member of a family or of a nation.