The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Kings — Section 327

hand are smitten and removed. Slowly but sttrely the word advances to its accom- plishment. Are there no shadows of judgment on thy path? Have no words come true that make thy heart tremble because of those other words which God's lips have also epoken?-J. U. EXPOSITION. CHAPTER XIV. 21-31. is said to be made jealous, because idola- try was unfaithfulness to Him. The wor- TnE REIGN oF REnonoAH.-Ver. 21.-And ship of Be.al and Ashtoreth, it must be Rehoboam, the eon of Solomon, reigned 1n remembered, involved unutterable immo- Judah. Rehoboam was forty [or twenty. ralities, hence the special fitness of the See on eh. xii. l] a.nd one years old word, which is only used of idolatry of one when he began to reign, a.nd he reigned kind or other] with their sins which they [this reign is related o.t grco.ter length in 2 had committed [Heb. sinned] above all that Cl.iron. xi, xii.] seventeen years [cf. eh. their fathers had done. xv. 1] 1n Jerusalem, the city which the Ver. 23.-For they also [i.e., they as well Lord did choose [cf. eh. xi. 36; Pea. lxxviii. as the ten tribes] built them high places 68; Neh. i. 9] out of all the tribes of (i.e., houses of high places. See on eh. iii. Israel [cf. 2 Chron. vi. 6; 2 Kings x.xi. 7] 2 and xiii. 32] and images [Heb. pillars to put his name there. The historian re- or statues (ni:l";i~; LXX., o-T7J\ai;). These minds us that Jerusalem was by God's ap- pointment the religious centre of the land ; were, no doubt, originally memorial pillars that Bethel aud Dan were no sailctuaries of or stones, erected to co=emorate some His choosing; and that, however much the Divine manifestation, and with no thought realm of Rehoboam was restricted, he still of idolatry (see Gen. xxxi. 13; xxxv. 14, reigned in the capital of God's choice. It 20; xxviii. 18). But the Cana.anites erected is possible the words have some reference pillaxs, which were (llso statues or i.m(lges, to to the next verse, and imply that, though it their god, Baal. Hence we read of the wo.s the holy oity, yet even there they fell " image " (il-11.~) of Ba.al (2 Kings iii. 2 ; away from God (Biibr). And his mother's x. 26, 27 ; cf. xviii. 4; xxiii. 14) ; and hence name was Na.a.mah [or, according to the al!io we find such images frequently men- LXX., Naano.n, See on oh. xii. 24] , a.n tioned side by side with the so-ealled [Heb. the, i.e., the well-known] Ammonitess. "groves," i.e., the "Asherahs" (ver. 15 ; [The name of the mother is given with Exod. xx.xiv, 13 ; Deut. vii. 5 ; xii. 3 ; xvi. every king of Judah, principally because 21, &c.) Both the Mazze bah and the .Asherah, of the position of influence she occupied consequently, was an upright pillar or post, in the kingdom. See on eh. ii. 13, and ver. but the former was of stone, the latter of 81 below.] wood ; the former dedicated to Bo.al, the Ver. 22.-And Judah did evil 1n the sight god of nature, of generation; the l(ltter to of the Lord [not, however, before the fourth Ashtoreth, the goddess of nature and pro- year of Rehoboam's reign. For the first ductive power. The gradun.l transition of three years the nation remained steadfast in the memorial pillar into the Ba.a.I statue is the faith, and the kingdom was greatly hinted at in Levit. =vi. 1. It is observ(lble strengthened and consolid(lted. The defec- that these idolatrous o.nd i=oral rites seem tion commenced when Rehoboa.m beg(ln to to have found a home in Judah before they feel himself secure (2 Cbron. xii. 1). It is to were introduced into Isro.el] a.nd groves be observed, however, thnt the historio.n S(IYB [Ashemlis, idols; see on ver.15. This verse "Judah" (not Rehoboam) "did evil," &c. proves conclusively that the tro.nsl(ltion It is prob(lble that a considerable section of "grove" is II mistaken one] on every high the people approved of the idolatrous prac- hill, and under every green tree. [The tices introduced in the preceding reign, and phrase is from the Pentateuch, Deut. xii. 2 ; that Rehoboam was unable to repress them. • cf. Jer. ii. 20; iii. 6; Hosea iv.13. "Probably It wo.s bis misfortune to have to reap the the evil example of Maach(lh, his favourite bitter fruits of Solomon's unfoithfulne,s], wife (2 Cbron. xi. 20-22), whose idol(ltrous and they provoked him to Jealousy [Heb. tastes were displayed under Asa (2 Chron. made him jealous. S(lme word, Exod. xv. 16), was not without B pernicious eJJect xx. 5; xxxiv. 14; Num. v. 14. 'l.'he words on Rehoboa.m" (Wordsworth).] of the coven(lnt proclaimed the Lord a Ver. 24.-And there were also Sodomites 11 jealous God," This is of oourse anthro- ~':!~, a collective noun = C1~J~,J (eh. xv. pomorphic language. The nation was re- 12) = consocrated persons or devotees, be- ge.rded as the bride of Jehovah, and God cause they were set apart to the service of  882 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. [011, XIV. 9.1-81,