1 Kings 12

1Ki 12:1-5.

REFUSING THE

OLD

MEN'S

COUNSEL.

1. 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

(1Sa 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

(1Sa 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

[1Ki 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.

5-8. 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

2Ch 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.

15-18. the king hearkened not unto the people, for the cause was from

the Lord--That was the overruling cause. Rehoboam's weakness

(Ec 2:18, 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

(Ec 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.

1Ki 12:20-33.

JEROBOAM

MADE

KING OVER

THEM.

20-24. when all Israel heard that Jeroboam was come again--This

verse closes the parenthetical narrative begun at

1Ki 12:2,

and 1Ki 12:21-24

resume the history from

1Ki 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

(Jud 9:1-49).

It was rebuilt, and perhaps fortified, by Jeroboam, as a royal

residence.

built Penuel--a ruined city with a tower

(Jud 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.

26-32. 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

(Ge 32:1-32;

2Ki 2:2).

The latter place was the most frequented--for the words

(1Ki 12:30)

should be rendered, "the people even to Dan went to worship before the

one"

(Jer 48:13;

Am 4:4, 5; 5:5;

Ho 5:8; 10:8).

The innovation was a sin because it was setting up the worship of God

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.