1And Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king. 2So it happened, when Jeroboam the son of Nebat heard it (he was still in Egypt, for he had fled from before King Solomon and had been dwelling in Egypt), 3that they sent and called for him. Then Jeroboam and the whole assembly of Israel came and spoke to Rehoboam, saying, 4Your father had made our yoke severe; now therefore, lighten the hard service of your father, and his heavy yoke which he had put on us, and we will serve you. 5So he said to them, Go away for three days, then come back to me. And the people departed. 6And King Rehoboam consulted the elders who stood before his father Solomon while he still lived, and he said, How do you counsel me to answer these people? 7And they spoke to him, saying, If you will be a servant to these people today, and serve them, and answer them, and speak agreeable words to them, then they will be your servants all your days. 8But he rejected the counsel which the elders had given him, and consulted the young men who had grown up with him, who were standing before him. 9And he said to them, What counsel do you give? How should we answer this people who have spoken to me, saying, Lighten the yoke which your father has put on us? 10And the young men who had grown up with him spoke to him, saying, Thus you shall speak to this people who have spoken to you, saying, Your father made our yoke heavy, but you make it lighter on us; thus you shall say to them: My little finger has become fatter than my father's loins! 11And now, whereas my father put a heavy yoke on you, I will add to your yoke; my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions! 12So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam the third day, as the king had spoken, saying, Come back to me the third day. 13And the king answered the people harshly, and rejected the counsel which the elders had given him; 14and he spoke to them according to the counsel of the young men, saying, My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke; my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions! 15Thus the king did not give heed to the people; for the turn of events was from Jehovah, to establish His word, which Jehovah had spoken by the hand of Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat. 16And when all Israel saw that the king had not heeded them, the people answered the king, saying: What portion do we have in David? We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse. To your tents, O Israel! Now, see to your own house, O David! And Israel departed to their tents. 17Thus Rehoboam reigned over the children of Israel who dwelt in the cities of Judah. 18And King Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was over the tribute, but all Israel stoned him with stones, and he died. Therefore King Rehoboam mounted his chariot in haste to flee to Jerusalem. 19Thus Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day. 20And it came to pass when all Israel heard that Jeroboam had come back, that they sent for him and called him to the congregation, and made him king over all Israel. There was no one who followed the house of David, but the tribe of Judah only. 21And when Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, he assembled all the house of Judah with the tribe of Benjamin, one hundred and eighty thousand choice men who were warriors, to fight against the house of Israel, that he might restore the kingdom to Rehoboam the son of Solomon. 22But the Word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God, saying, 23Speak to Rehoboam the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people, saying, 24Thus says Jehovah: You shall not go up nor fight against your brethren the children of Israel. Let every man return to his house, for this thing has come about from Me. Therefore they obeyed the Word of Jehovah, and returned to go back, according to the Word of Jehovah. 25And Jeroboam built Shechem in the mountains of Ephraim, and dwelt there. Also he went out from there and built Penuel. 26And Jeroboam thought in his heart, Now the kingdom may return to the house of David: 27If these people go up to offer sacrifices at the house of Jehovah in Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will turn back to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah, and they will kill me and go back to Rehoboam king of Judah. 28Therefore the king took counsel, made two calves of gold, and said to them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Behold your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt! 29And he set up one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. 30Now this thing became a sin, for the people went before the one, even as far as Dan. 31He made houses on the high places, and made priests from among all the people, who were not of the sons of Levi. 32And Jeroboam instituted a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the feast that was in Judah, and offered sacrifices on the altar. Thus he did at Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he had made. And at Bethel he installed the priests of the high places which he had made. 33Thus he offered up on the altar which he had made at Bethel on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, in the month which he had contrived in his own heart. And he ordained a feast for the children of Israel, and offered sacrifices on the altar and burned incense.
Jamieson Fausset Brown Bible Commentary 1 REFUSING THE OLD MEN'S COUNSEL. (
1Kgs 12:1-5)
Rehoboam went to Shechem--He was the oldest, and perhaps the only son of Solomon, and had been, doubtless, designated by his father heir to the throne, as Solomon had been by David. The incident here related took place after the funeral obsequies of the late king and the period for public mourning had past. When all Israel came to make him king, it was not to exercise their old right of election (
1Sam 10:19-21), for, after God's promise of the perpetual sovereignty to David's posterity, their duty was submission to the authority of the rightful heir; but their object was, when making him king, to renew the conditions and stipulations to which their constitutional kings were subject (
1Sam 10:25). To the omission of such rehearsing which, under the peculiar circumstances in which Solomon was made king, they were disposed to ascribe the absolutism of his government.
Shechem--This ancient, venerable, and central town was the place of convocation; and it is evident, if not from the appointment of that place, at least from the tenor of their language, and the concerted presence of Jeroboam [
1Kgs 12:3], that the people were determined on revolt.
4 Thy father made our yoke grievous--The splendor of Solomon's court and the magnitude of his undertakings being such, that neither the tribute of dependent states, nor the presents of foreign princes, nor the profits of his commercial enterprises, were adequate to carry them on, he had been obliged, for obtaining the necessary revenue, to begin a system of heavy taxation. The people looked only to the burdens, not to the benefits they derived from Solomon's peaceful and prosperous reign--and the evils from which they demanded deliverance were civil oppressions, not idolatry, to which they appear to have been indifferent or approving.
5 he said . . . Depart yet for three days--It was prudent to take the people's demand into calm and deliberate consideration. Whether, had the advice of the sage and experienced counsellors been followed, any good result would have followed, it is impossible to say. It would at least have removed all pretext for the separation. [See on
2Chr 10:7.] But he preferred the counsel of his young companions (not in age, for they were all about forty-one, but inexperienced), who recommended prompt and decisive measures to quell the malcontents.
11 whips . . . scorpions--The latter [instruments], as contrasted with the former, are supposed to mean thongs thickly set with sharp iron points, used in the castigation of slaves.
15 the king hearkened not unto the people, for the cause was from the Lord--That was the overruling cause. Rehoboam's weakness (
Eccl 2:18-
Eccl 2:19) and inexperience in public affairs has given rise to the probable conjecture, that, like many other princes in the East, he had been kept secluded in the harem till the period of his accession (
Eccl 4:14), his father being either afraid of his aspiring to the sovereignty, like the two sons of David, or, which is more probable, afraid of prematurely exposing his imbecility. The king's haughty and violent answer to a people already filled with a spirit of discontent and exasperation, indicated so great an incapacity to appreciate the gravity of the crisis, so utter a want of common sense, as to create a belief that he was struck with judicial blindness. It was received with mingled scorn and derision. The revolt was accomplished, and yet so quietly, that Rehoboam remained in Shechem, fancying himself the sovereign of a united kingdom, until his chief tax gatherer, who had been most imprudently sent to treat with the people, had been stoned to death. This opened his eyes, and he fled for security to Jerusalem.
20 JEROBOAM MADE KING OVER THEM. (
1Kgs 12:20-33)
when all Israel heard that Jeroboam was come again--This verse closes the parenthetical narrative begun at
1Kgs 12:2, and
1Kgs 12:21-24 resume the history from
1Kgs 12:1. Rehoboam determined to assert his authority by leading a large force into the disaffected provinces. But the revolt of the ten tribes was completed when the prophet Shemaiah ordered, in the Lord's name, an abandonment of any hostile measures against the revolutionists. The army, overawed by the divine prohibition, dispersed, and the king was obliged to submit.
25 Jeroboam built Shechem--destroyed by Abimelech (Jdg. 9:1-49). It was rebuilt, and perhaps fortified, by Jeroboam, as a royal residence.
built Penuel--a ruined city with a tower (
Judg 8:9), east of Jordan, on the north bank of the Jabbok. It was an object of importance to restore this fortress (as it lay on the caravan road from Gilead to Damascus and Palmyra) and to secure his frontier on that quarter.
26 Jeroboam said in his heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David--Having received the kingdom from God, he should have relied on the divine protection. But he did not. With a view to withdraw the people from the temple and destroy the sacred associations connected with Jerusalem, he made serious and unwarranted innovations on the religious observances of the country, on pretext of saving the people the trouble and expense of a distant journey. First, he erected two golden calves--the young bulls, Apis and Mnevis, as symbols (in the Egyptian fashion) of the true God, and the nearest, according to his fancy, to the figures of the cherubim. The one was placed at Dan, in the northern part of his kingdom; the other at Beth-el, the southern extremity, in sight of Jerusalem, and in which place he probably thought God was as likely to manifest Himself as at Jerusalem (Gen. 32:1-32;
2Kgs 2:2). The latter place was the most frequented--for the words (
1Kgs 12:30) should be rendered, "the people even to Dan went to worship before the one" (
Jer 48:13;
Amos 4:4-
Amos 4:5;
Amos 5:5;
Hos 5:8;
Hos 10:8). The innovation was a sin because it was setting up the worship of God by symbols and images and departing from the place where He had chosen to put His name. Secondly, he changed the feast of tabernacles from the fifteenth of the seventh to the fifteenth of the eighth month. The ostensible reason might be, that the ingathering or harvest was later in the northern parts of the kingdom; but the real reason was to eradicate the old association with this, the most welcome and joyous festival of the year.
31 made priests of the lowest of the people--literally, "out of all the people," the Levites refusing to act. He himself assumed to himself the functions of the high priest, at least, at the great festival, probably from seeing the king of Egypt conjoin the royal and sacred offices, and deeming the office of the high priest too great to be vested in a subject.