XIV. The first section of this chapter (1 Kings 14:1) concludes the first division of the book, which gives in considerable detail the history of the reign of Solomon, and the revolution, political and religious, which marked the disruption of the kingdom, The second (1 Kings 14:21) begins the shor... [ Continue Reading ]
ABIJAH (“whose father is Jehovah”). — The coincidence of names in the sons of Jeroboam and Rehoboam is curious. Possibly it may be more than coincidence, if (as seems likely) the births of both took place about the same time, when Jeroboam was in favour with Solomon.... [ Continue Reading ]
SHILOH, the regular habitation of Ahijah, is hardly mentioned in Scripture after the time of Eli, and the destruction which then seems to have fallen upon it, probably after the great defeat by the Philistines (Jeremiah 7:12). It is evident that the old blind prophet still remained there, and exerci... [ Continue Reading ]
AND TAKE. — The presentation of this offering, designedly simple and rustic in character, accords with the custom (1 Samuel 9:7) of approaching the prophet at all times with some present, however trifling. In itself an act simply of homage, it would easily degenerate into the treatment of the prophe... [ Continue Reading ]
WERE SET. — The same word is rendered “were dim” in 1 Samuel 4:15. The metaphor is evidently drawn from the solid opaque look of the iris, when affected by cataract or some similar disease.... [ Continue Reading ]
I EXALTED THEE. — There is throughout a close allusion to Ahijah’s prophecy (1 Kings 11:31; 1 Kings 11:37), which promised Jeroboam “a sure house, like that of David,” on condition of the obedience of David. The sin of Jeroboam lay in this — that he had had a full probation, with unlimited opportuni... [ Continue Reading ]
BUT HAST DONE EVIL ABOVE ALL THAT WERE BEFORE THEE. — The language is strong, in the face of the many instances of the worship of false gods in the days of the Judges, and the recent apostasy of Solomon — to say nothing of the idolatry of the golden calf in the wilderness, and the setting up of the... [ Continue Reading ]
HIM... AND HIM. — The first phrase is used also in 1 Kings 21:21; 2 Kings 9:8, to signify, “every male,” implying (possibly with a touch of contempt) that even the lowest should be destroyed. The words following have in the original no conjunction _and_ between them. They are in antithesis to each o... [ Continue Reading ]
HIM THAT DIETH. — The same judgment is repeated in 1 Kings 16:4; 1 Kings 21:24. (Comp. also Jeremiah 36:30.) The “dogs” are the half-wild’ dogs, the scavengers of every Eastern city; the “fowls of the air” the vultures and other birds of prey. In ancient times the natural horror of insult to the rem... [ Continue Reading ]
BECAUSE IN HIM THERE IS FOUND SOME GOOD THING. — There is something singularly pathetic in this declaration of early death, in peace and with due mourning, as the only reward which can be given to piety in the time of coming judgment. It is much like the prophetic declaration to Josiah at the time o... [ Continue Reading ]
SHALL RAISE HIM UP A KING. — Baasha. (See 1 Kings 15:27.) For, like Jeroboam, he had (see 1 Kings 16:2) a probation before God, in which he failed, drawing down doom on his house. BUT WHAT? EVEN NOW. — The exact meaning of these words has been much disputed. The LXX. renders “and what? even now;” th... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HE SHALL ROOT UP ISRAEL. — The first prophecy of future captivity, and that “beyond the river” (Euphrates), is here pronounced against the kingdom of Israel, on account of their share in the idolatry of Jeroboam, and in the worse abominations of the “groves.” Of all such utterances we must remem... [ Continue Reading ]
TIRZAH. — From this incidental notice it would seem that Jeroboam had removed his habitation, temporarily or permanently, to Tirzah, a place renowned for beauty (Song of Solomon 6:4), and farther from the hostile frontier than Shechem. It seems to have continued as the capital till the foundation of... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE REST. — The preceding verse closes the detailed record of Jeroboam’s reign. His exaltation and the promise to him, his idolatry and its punishment, are all that the historian cares to narrate. All else is summed up in the words “how he warred” (see below, 1 Kings 14:30, and 1 Kings 15:6) and... [ Continue Reading ]
AND REHOBOAM. — Here begins the second series of the book — a series of brief annals, touching only the main points of the history of the kings of Israel and Judah, till the appearance of Elijah (1 Kings 17:1). In respect of the kingdom of Judah, and of Israel so far as it is connected with Judah, i... [ Continue Reading ]
FORTY AND ONE YEARS OLD WHEN HE BEGAN TO REIGN. — It has been noticed that the age of forty-one assigned to Rehoboam at his accession, here and in the Chronicles (both in the Hebrew text and the ancient versions) and in the history of Josephus, presents some difficulty in relation to the youth ascri... [ Continue Reading ]
HIGH PLACES, AND IMAGES, AND GROVES. — On the “high places,” see 1 Kings 3:2, and Note there. The “images” of this passage seem undoubtedly to have been stone pillars, as the “groves” (_i.e._, the asherahs) were wooden stumps of trees (possibly in both cases surmounted by some rude representation of... [ Continue Reading ]
SODOMITES. — See 1 Kings 15:12; 2 Kings 23:7. There is a horrible significance in the derivation of this word, which is properly “consecrated,” or “devoted;” for it indicates the license, and even the sanction, of unnatural lusts in those consecrated to the abominations of Nature-worship. The appear... [ Continue Reading ]
SHISHAK. — His invasion is narrated at greater length in the record of Chronicles (2 Chronicles 12:2), which contains a description of his army, and a notice of the preservation of Jerusalem from destruction, though not from surrender, on the repentance of the people at the call of Shemaiah. It reco... [ Continue Reading ]
HE EVEN TOOK AWAY ALL. — There is a touch of pathos in the description of the utter spoil of the treasures in which Solomon and Israel had gloried, and which now served only to buy off the victorious Egyptians. There is no notice of any sack of Jerusalem, nor, as in later cases, of any desecration o... [ Continue Reading ]
IN THEIR STEAD. — The notice of this substitution is not only a curious point of accurate detail, but perhaps intended as a symbolic representation of the change which had passed upon Judah, by which only the semblance of its old glory remained, and its “fine gold had become brass.”... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEN THE KING WENT. — Hence we see that Rehoboam still worshipped in the house of the Lord. If his idolatry were like that of his father, it would not have prevented this; but in 2 Chronicles 12:6; 2 Chronicles 12:12 it is implied that after the invasion he “humbled himself,” and returned to the Lor... [ Continue Reading ]
THE CHRONICLES OF THE KINGS OF JUDAH. — In 2 Chronicles 12:15 the acts of Rehoboam are said to be “written in the book of Shemaiah the prophet, and of Iddo the seer concerning genealogies.”... [ Continue Reading ]
THERE WAS WAR ... — Of such war we have no record, since the day when Shemaiah forbade Rehoboam’s invasion of the new kingdom; nor is there even mention of any action of Israel in aid of the Egyptian attack, although it is likely enough that such action was taken. The meaning may simply be that ther... [ Continue Reading ]