"What portion have we in David? What inheritance in Jesse's son? To your tents, O Israel ? Now see to thy own house, O David !"
Rehoboam sent Adoram or Adoniram, who had been chief receiver of the tribute during the reigns of his father and his grandfather (1 Kings iv, 6; 2 Sam. xx, 24), to reduce the rebels to reason, but he was stoned to death by them, whereupon the king and his attendants fled in hot haste to Jerusalem. So far all is plain, but there is a doubt as to the part which Jeroboam took in these transactions. According to 1 Kings xii, 3 he was summoned by the Ephraimites from Egypt (to which country he had fled from the anger of Solomon) to be their spokesman at Rehoboam's coronation, and actual- ly made the speech in which a remission of burdens was requested. There is no real contradiction to this when we read in ver. 20 of the same chapter that after the success of the insurrection and Rehoboam's flight, "when all Israel heard that Jeroboam was come again, they sent and called him unto the congregation and made him king." We find in the Sept. a long supplement to this Pith chapter, possibly ancient, containing fuller de- tails of Jeroboam's biography than the Hebrew. See Jeroboam. In this we read that after Solomon's death he returned to his native place, Sarira in Ephraim, which he fortified, and lived there quietly, watching the turn of events until the long-expected rebellion broke out, when the Ephraimites heard (doubtless through his own agency) that he had returned, and invited him to Shechem to assume the crown. From the same supple- mentary narrative of the Sept. we might infer that more than a year must have elapsed between Solomon's death and Rehoboam's visit to Shechem, for, on receiving the news of the former event, Jeroboam requested from the king of Egypt leave to return to his native country. This the king tried to prevent by giving him his sister- in-law in marriage ; but on the birth of his child Abijah, Jeroboam renewed his request, which was then granted.
REHOBOAM
1022
REIIOBOTII
It is probable that during this year the discontent of the northern tribes was making itself more and more manifest, and that this led to Rehoboam's visit and in- tended inauguration. The comparative chronology of ns determines them both as beginning in ibis year.
< In Rehoboam's return to Jerusalem he assembled an
army of lKH. men from the two faithful tribes of Ju-
dah and Benjamin (the latter transferred from the Bide of Joseph i" thai of Judah in consequence of the posi- tion of David's capital within its borders), in the hope of reconquering Israel. The expedition, however, was forbidden by the prophet Shemaiah, who assured them thai the separation of the kingdoms was in accordance wiih (bid's will ( 1 Kings xii. 24). Still, during Reho- boam's lifetime peaceful relations between Israel and Judah were never restored (2 Chron. xii. 15; 1 Kings xiv,30). Rehoboam now occupied himself in strength- ening the territories which remained to him by build- ing a number of fortresses of which the names are given in •_' ( 'broii. xi. 6 10, forming a girdle of "fenced cities" round Jerusalem. The pure worship of (bid was main- tained in Judah. and the Levites and many pious Israel- ites from the North, vexed at the calf-idolatry intro- duced bj Jeroboam at Dan and Bethel, in imitation of the Egyptian worship ofMnevis, came and settled in the -out hern kingdom and added to its power. But Rehoboam did not check the introduction of heathen abominations into his capital. The lascivious worship of A-litoreth was allowed to exist by the side of the true religion (an inheritance of evil doubtless left by Solomon), "images" (of Baal and his fellow-divinities) were set up, and the worsl immoralities were tolerated (1 Kings xiv. 22 24 ). These evils were punished and put down by the terrible calamity of an Egyptian inva- sion. Shortly before this time a change in the ruling
Portrait of Rehoboam. (From the Bgyptit
bouse bad occurred in Egypt The twenty-first dynasty of Tanites, whose last king. Pi-bam or Psusennes, had been a dose ally of Solomon (iii, 1; vii. 8; i\. 16; x, 28, 29), was succeeded by the twenty-second of Bubas- tites, whose firs! sovereign, Sbishah (Sheshonk, Seeon- chis, i'lii'Tiu-i/i |,was himself connected, as we have seen, with Jeroboam. Thai be was incited by him to attack Judah is very probable. At all event-, in the fifth year of Rehoboam's reign the country was invaded by a host of Egyptians and other African nations, numbering 1200 chariots. 60,000 cavalry, and a vast miscellaneous mul- titude of infantry (B.C. 969). The line of fortresses which protected Jerusalem to the wesl and south was forced, Jerusalem itself was taken, and Rehoboam had to purchase an ignominious peace by delivering up all the treasures with which Solomon bad adorned 'be Temple and palace, including bis golden shields, 200 of the larger and 300 of the smaller size (x, 16, 17), which were carried before him when be visited the Tem| le in slate. We are told that after the Egyptians bad re- tired, his vain and foolish successor comforted himself by substituting shields of brass, which were solemnly borne before him in procession by the body-guard, as if nothing had been changed since his father's time I Ewald, Geschichtt des Volkes Israel, iii. 348, -bil). Shishak's success is commemorated by sculptures discovered by Cbampollion on the outside of the great temple at Kar-