When Solomon died, the ten tribes sent to call Jero- boam from Egypt; and he appears to have headed the deputation that came before the son of Solomon with a demand of new securities for the rights which the measures of the late king had compromised. It may somewhat excuse the harsh answer of Rehoboam that the demand was urged by a body of men headed by one whose pretensions were so well known and so odious to
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the house of Davi<l. It cannot be <lpnicil that, in making their applications thus offensively, they struck the lirst blow, althouijh it is possible that tliey, in the first in- stance, intended to use the presence of Jeroboam for no other purpose than to frij;hten tlie kiuLf into coini)liance. The imprudent answer of Kehoboam rendered a revolu- tion inevitable, and Jeroboam was then called to reign over the ten tribes by the style of " King of Israel" (1 Kings xii, 1-20). Autumn, B.C. 973. See Kkhohoam. (For the general course of his conduct on the throne, see the article Israel, Kingdoji or.) The leading object of his policy was to widen the breach between the two kingdoms, and to rend asunder those common interests among all the descendants of Jacob, which it was one great object of the law to combine and interlace. To this end he scrupled not to sacrifice the most sacred and inviolable interests and obligations of the covenant peo- ple by forbidding his subjects to resort to the one tem- ple and altar of Jehovah at Jerusalem, and by establish- ing shrines at Dan and Beth-el — the extremities of his kingdom — where "golden calves" were set up as the symbols of Jehovah, to which the people were enjoined to resort and bring their offerings. See Calf, Gold- ex. The pontificate of the new establishment he united to his crown, in imitation of the F.gvpl iau kings (1 Kings xii, 26-33). He was officiating in that ea|)aeity at Beth- el, offering incense, when a propliet (Josei)hus, A fit. viii, 8, 5, calls him Jadon, i. e. proljably Iddo; compare Anf. viii, 15, 4; Jerome, Qua'st. Ihbr. on 2 Chron. x, 4) ap- peared, and in the name of the Lord announceil a coming time, as yet far off, in which a king of the house of Da- vid, Josiah by name, should burn upon that luiholy altar the bones of its ministers. He was then preparing to verify, by a commissioned prodigy, the truth of the ora- cle he had delivered, when the king attempted to arrest him, but was smitten with palsy in the arm he stretched forth. At the same time the threatened prodigy took place — the altar was rent asunder, and the ashes strewed far around. Awe-struck at this twofold miracle, the king begged the prophet to intercede with God for the restoration of his hand, which was accordingly healed (1 Kings xiii, 1-6). B.C. 973. This measure had, how- ever, no abiding effect. The policy on which he acted lay too deep in what he deemed the vital interests of his separate kingdom to be even thus abandoned; and the force of the considerations which determined his conduct may in part be appreciated from the fact that jio subsequent king of Israel, however well disposed in other respects, ever ventured to lay a finger on this schis- matical establishment (1 Kings xiii, 83, 34). Hence " the sin of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, wherewith he sinned and made Israel to sin," became a standing ]ihrase in describing that iniquity from which no king of Israel departed. See Idolatry.
The contumacy of Jeroboam eventually brought upon him the doom which he probably dreaded beyond all others — the speedy extinction of the dynasty which he had taken so much pains and incurred so much guilt to establish on firm foundations. His son Abijah being sick, he sent his wife, disguised, to considt the prophet Ahijah, who had predicted that he should be king of Israel. The prophet, although he had become blind with age, knew the queen, and saluted her with, "Come in, thou wife of Jeroboam, for I am sent to thee with lieavy tidings." These were not merely that the son should die — for that was intended in mercy to one who alone, of all the house of Jeroboam, had remained faith- ful to his (ioil, and was the only one who should obtain an honored grave — but that his race should be violently and utterly extinguished : " I will take away the rem- nant of the house of Jeroboam as a man taketli away dung, till it be all gone" (1 Kings xiv, 1-18). The son died as soon as the mother crossed the threshold on her return; and, as the death of Jeroboam himself is the next event recorded, it would seem that lie did not long survive his son (1 Kings xiv, 20). B.C. early in 951.— Kitto. (See Kitto's Dailt/ Bible IllustruHoiis, ad loc.)
"Jeroboam was at constant war with the house of Judah, but the only act distinctly recorded is a battle with Abijah, son of Kehoboam, in which, in sjiite of a skilful ambush made by Jeroboam, and of much supe- rior force, he was defeated, and for the time lost three ini]K)rtant cities— Bcth-cl. Jeshanah, and Ephraim. The Targum on Kuth iv, 20 mentions Jeroboam's having stationed guards on the roads, which guards had been slain by the people of Netophah ; but what is here al- luded to, or when it took place, we have at present no clew to" (Smith). The Sejit. has a long addition to the Biblical r.ccount (at 1 Kings xii, 24), evidently taken from some apocrj-phal source. Josephus simply follows the Hebrew text. (See Cassel, Kijniy Jeroboam, Erfurt, 1857.)