1 Kings 14:17
Ver. 17. And Jeroboam's wife arose, and departed, &e.] Upon this speech of the prophet's to her:
and came to Tirzah; where Jeroboam now had his court, and where their son now was; it was a royal city in the time of the Canaanites, and is commonly placed in the tribe of Manasseh, and was a very pleasant one, as its name signifies, to which there is an allusion, So 6:4,See Gill on "Jos 12:24",and when she came to the threshold of the door, the child died: just as she was about to step over the threshold of the royal palace, which seems to have been at the entering of the city of Tirzah, 1Ki 14:12. 1 Kings 14:18Ver. 18. And they buried him,.... In an honourable manner, suitable to his rank and pedigree:and all Israel mourned for him, according to the word of the Lord, which he spake by the hand of his servant Ahijah the prophet, 1Ki 14:13. 1 Kings 14:19Ver. 19. And the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, how he warred,.... As he did with Rehoboam, 1Ki 14:30, and with Abijam his son, who was an more than a match for him, see 2Ch 13:1and how he reigned; over the people of Israel, whether wisely, and justly, and in clemency, or not:behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel; not in that canonical book of Scripture, so called, for in that there is very little account of the reign of Jeroboam; but in the annals and diaries of the kings of Israel, written by persons appointed for that purpose, and out of which it is generally thought that inspired writers, by divine direction, took what was thought proper to be transmitted to future times. So with the Romans, from their very beginning to the times of Mutius, all the events of every year were committed to writing by the order of the Pontifex Maximus, and lay open to be read by the people in common; and these, as Tully {l} says, were what are called annals.{l} De Oratore, l. 2. c. 34. 1 Kings 14:20Ver. 20. And the days which Jeroboam reigned were twenty two years,.... So that he outlived Rehoboam five years, and lived to the second year of the reign of his grandson Asa:and he slept with his fathers; or died as they did:and Nadab his son reigned in his stead; who perhaps was younger than Abijah, whose sickness and death are before related. 1 Kings 14:21Ver. 21. And Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah,.... Over the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, when Jeroboam reigned over the other ten:Rehoboam [was] forty one years old when he began to reign; being born one year before his father Solomon began to reign, and so it might have been expected he would have begun his reign more wisely than he did:and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem; not half so long as his father and grandfather, being neither so wise nor so good a prince as either of them:the city which the Lord did choose out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there; to have a temple built for him, and his worship carried on in it; which was an aggravation of the sin of Rehoboam, that he should reign in such a place, and yet be guilty of the crimes he was; the three first years he reigned well, but afterwards forsook the law of the Lord, 2Ch 11:17and his mother's name was Naamah an Ammonitess; and which is observed again, 1Ki 14:31, she being the instrument of drawing him into idolatry, which it is very probable she practised in the days of Solomon, 1Ki 11:5. 1 Kings 14:22Ver. 22. And Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord,.... At the end of three years, from the beginning of the reign of Rehoboam:and they provoked him to jealousy, with their sins which they had committed, above all that their fathers had done; that is, with their idolatries; for they were the sins which moved the Lord to jealousy, and provoked the eyes of his glory; in which they had outdone not the ten tribes, but their fathers, in the times of Moses, Joshua, and the judges, and of their kings before their separation, Saul, David, and Solomon. 1 Kings 14:23Ver. 23. For they also built them high places,.... Which, though allowed of, or at least connived at, before the temple was built, and when the tabernacle was unfixed, yet afterwards unlawful; and the tribe of Judah could have no excuse for them, who had the temple in their tribe:and images; contrary to the express command of God, Ex 20:4,and groves on every high hill, and under every green tree; that is, set up idols, and temples for idols, amidst groves of trees, and under all green trees; as was the custom of the Heathens, who sacrificed on the heights of hills and tops of mountains, as was particularly the custom of the Persians, as both Herodotus {m} and Xenophon {n} relate; and with the Getae, a people in Thrace, was a mountain they reckoned sacred {o}.{m} Clio, sive, l. 1. c. 131. {n} Cyropaedia, l. 8. c. 45. {o} Strabo Geograph. l. 7. p. 206. 1 Kings 14:24Ver. 24. And there were also Sodomites in the land, &e.] Such as were addicted to unnatural lusts between men and men, which the men of Sodom were guilty of, from whence they had their name: Jarchi interprets the word adultery and some versions render it whoremongers; and filthy actions of this nature, both by men and women, usually attended idolatrous practices among the heathens; in their temples and groves such wickednesses were privately perpetrated:[and] they did according to all the abominations of the nations which the Lord cast out before the children of Israel; the Canaanites, of whose uncleannesses, incests, and bestialities, see Le 18:1. 1 Kings 14:25Ver. 25. And it came to pass in the fifth year of King Rehoboam,.... Two years after he and his people fell into the above wicked practices:that Shishak, king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem; of whom see1Ki 11:40, this was suffered as a chastisement from the Lord for their abominations. 1 Kings 14:26Ver. 26. And he took away the treasures of the house of the Lord,.... Which perhaps Jeroboam had informed him of, and for the sake of which he came, as well as to make a diversion in favour of Jeroboam, who had contracted an intimacy with him when in Egypt; and who might have no regard for Rehoboam, who was not a son of Pharaoh's daughter, and so no relation to him: these were the treasures which David had left to his son Solomon, and had dedicated for the temple, even gold, silver, and vessels, which he put among the treasures of the house of the Lord, and perhaps added to them, 1Ki 7:51, and the treasures of the king's house; the riches, gold, silver, and jewels, whatever of worth and value he had in his chests and cabinets:he even took away all: that he could find and come at; for that there were some left is plain from 1Ki 15:18,and he took away all the shields of gold which Solomon had made; and which were put in the house of the forest of Lebanon, 1Ki 10:16. 1 Kings 14:27Ver. 27. And King Rehoboam made in their stead brazen shields,.... For the king of Egypt had so stripped him of his gold, that he was not able to replace golden ones:and committed them into the hands of the chief of the guard; or "runners" {p}, that went before the king, or attended him as his bodyguard when he went abroad:which kept the door of the king's house; which kept guard night and day in their turns.{p} Myurh "cursorum", Pagninus, Montanus, &c. 1 Kings 14:28Ver. 28. And it was so, when the king went into the house of the Lord,.... The temple; for though he had fallen into idolatry, he had not wholly forsaken the worship of God in the temple, and perhaps by the late humbling providence he might be stirred up to attend there more frequently:that the guard bare them: before him, partly for pomp and grandeur, and partly to keep in awe such as were inclined to mutiny and sedition:and brought them back into the guard chamber; when the king returned, the place where the guard lodged and slept by turns. 1 Kings 14:29Ver. 29. Now the rest of the acts of Rehoboam and all that he did,.... In the course of his reign, that was memorable:are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? who had annalists or historiographers to write for them, as the kings of Israel had, 1Ki 14:19, in the writing of which, especially with respect to genealogies, Shemaiah the prophet, and Iddo the seer, were concerned, 2Ch 12:15. 1 Kings 14:30Ver. 30. And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all their days. For though Rehoboam did not enter into an offensive war, and attack the children of Israel, being dissuaded from it by Shemaiah the prophet in the name of the Lord, yet he might maintain a defensive war; and though there were no pitched battles between them as afterwards, in his son's time, yet there might be skirmishes and bickerings on the borders of their countries. 1 Kings 14:31Ver. 31. And Rehoboam slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David,.... Where David and Solomon were buried, 1Ki 2:10 and his mother's name was Naamah, an Ammonitess; which is repeated, that it might be observed as what was the leading step to his idolatry, and the means of his continuing in it:and Abijam his son reigned in his stead; of whom there is a further account in the following chapter.
John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible.