rehoboa:si
REHOBOTH-IR
223
statement of the Chronicler (2 Ch 11") that Reho- bciaiii's defection did not occur \intil his fourth year, and the story of his subsequent repentance (12*), are oliWonsly designed to bear out the theory of the orijrinal orthodoxy of tlie kingdom of Judali (see Abijah's speech, 2 Ch 13'°), as well as to heighten the moral and dramatic effect of the Btory. Jerusalem does not seem to have stood a siege. Kesistance was hopeless. Shishak (herein acting treacherously, according to Josephus)utterly denuded the temple and royal palace of their trea- sures, including the famou.s golden shields of Solomon's guard, to which the LXX (2 S 8', 1 K U^') adds the golden shields taken by David from Hadadezer. Dean Stanley well points out that there is a grave irony in the historian's account ( 1 K 4^) of how the elaborate ceremony which had been observed with regard to the "olden shields was continued in the case of their brazen substi- tutes. We learn from the Chronicler (2 Ch 12^) both the number of Shishak's host, to which Joscphus adds 400,000 infantry, and also the nationalities of which it was composed — Libyans, Sukkiiui ( = troglodytes, LXX and Vulg.),and'l'2tlii- oiiians. Ewald (HI iv. 45) conjectures that Edom also joined in the invasion (see Jl 3'"). There may still be seen on the south wall of the temple of Anion at Kamak an inscription — now partially defaced — which deals with this expedition. It gives the list of towns subjugated by Shishak. Some dillieulty has been caused by the inclusion in this list not only of pl.ices in the south, such asShocoh, Gaza, Keilah, and perhaps Jerusalem, but also of many towns of Israel as far north as Megiddo. This does not contradict the biblical narrative, which conlinea itself to the invasion of Judah ; but it seems scarcely reconcilable with the hj-pothesis that Shishak invaded Palestine as Jeroboam's ally. However, Maspero (Journal of the Transac- tiuns of the Victoria Institute of Great Britain, vol. xxvii. p. 63) points out that ' the king of Israel in imploring the aid of Shishak against his rival had thereby made himself vassal toEgj-pt. This would euflice to make his towns figure at Karnak anion" the cities subjected in the course of the campaign. This is a more likely solution of the difficulty than Rawlinson's supjiosition {Sprahcr's Com. in loc), that these were Canaanite or Levitical towns which h.od taken llehoboam's side. The names on this list are engraved on cartouches, over which appear the heads of men of various tj'pes, representing the inhabitants of each town. Considerable interest was formerly excited by one of these names, which Maspero transliterates Jaoud-hn-maluk or Jud- Ivim-mdek. This was rendered by Rosellini ' king of Judah' (!), and the inference was a tempting one, that in the annexed fifjure we had a veritable portrait of Kehoboam himself. But Brugsch {Geogr. Ins. I. iL p. C2), followed by Maspero, in- terprets it as the name of a village in Dan, Jehud, now elYehftdiyeli, near JaH'a. ' The name bears the sign for "country," not for "person."' See, further, Struggle of the Nations, 774.
Sorae minor matters remain to be diHOussed. From Kings we learn the name o( Rehoboani's chief wife only, Maacaii. Rut the Chronicler gives details about his doniestic affairs, noting: the name of a second wife, Maualatii, and perhaps of a tliird. ABillAiL, who is mother of Mahalath according to the KV, but another wife of Kehoboam according to AV and RVm. Josephus reduces the numt>er of his concu)>ines to thirty.
The rise in Judah of the power of the queen-mother is prob- ably to be attributed to Kchoboam's uxoriousnfss. His con- duct towards his sons, whicli is praised by tlie Chronicler, may have rendered the accession of Abijah easier, but was not wise in the Itest sense of the term.
Accfjriling to the JIT of 1 K H" and 2 Ch 12" Rehoboara was 41 years of age at bis accession, and reigned 17 years. He would then have been bom before Solomon came to the throne. Rawlinson would read, with some MSS, 21 in this passage, on the ground, perhaps, tliat the insolence of RtliolMiam to the Israelites is more like the conduct of a petulant youth than of a m^n of mature age. More weight must be given to the second
Greek account, which in 1 K V2-^ says that Rehohoam wa» 1« years of age at his accession, and that he reigned 12 years. The EUtiinent of .\bijah (2 Ch 13") that Uehoboam was 'young and tender-hearted ' (:3jyTn, <.e. ' fainthearted,' see Dt 20») at the time of the rebellion must not be pressed.
There is one other imj>oftant chronological difference between the second Greek account and our present Hebrew text. In tile latter, Jeroboam, even if he took no personal share in the negotiations with Kehoboam (1 K 12'*), certainly left Kgypt immediately after Solomon's death ; whereas in LX.X 1 K 12-i'i-f the marriage of Jeroboam to Shishak's sister-in-law, and the birth of his son Abijah. occur in Kgypt after Rehoboani's accession. But this whole story is in a very confused condition, and is antecedently less probable than that preserved in tlie commoD text. See Jbaoboau ; and of. Swete, Int. to tJT in Gr.
2«'- N. J. D. White.
REHOBOTH 1. The name given by Isaac to a