The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Kings — Section 332

HOMILms BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vere. 21-24.-The Sin of J1,dah. Having discoursed of Jeroboam and the kingdom of Israel, the sacred historian now returns to Rehoboam and the sister kingdom of Judah. To have found a better state of things here would have been refreshing, but in this we are disappointed. How fearful was the moral state of ~be whole world in those days I _I. JUDAH HAD FA_LLEN INTO THE GROSSEST IDOLATRY. 1. He had multiplied ]ugh places. . (l) High places were_ not ne~essarily _for idolatry. They were proper t.o the worship of the true_ God m patriarchal times. (2) Even after God had chosen J e:iisalem ~o put Hi~ name thei:e, the patriarchal use of high places was upon _special occasions sa1;1ctioned by Hm~ (see eh. xviii. 38). (3) In Judah there was little need for these,_ smce the extremity of the kingdom was not very remote fr~m Jerusalem. The ~stance to Beersheba would be about forty British statute miles. (4) But . tb~ h_igh places _of J ?dab were mainly designed for idolatry. Hence their association m the text with" images and groves" and rites of Sodomites and other Canaanitish abominations. 2. He had built many temples. (1) The term (rll:l:it.:l) --~ere transll!'ted "images" is elsewhere commonly rendered pill(l//'B (see Gen. xxvm. 18; XXXI. 51; xxxv. 20; Exod. xxiv. 4; Isa. xix. 19). It is far from endent that this word is ever used for any image or :figured thing. In places where it is construed '' images," pil~s would give as good sense (see Exod. =iii. 24; 2 Kings x. 26, 27). Marginal readings bear this out (see Deut. vii. 5; xn. 22). (2) It is probable these pillars were distributed in ranks, as those of the Druids at Stonehenge and Abiry, to serve as temples in which the powers of the material heavens were worshipped. 3. He had enshrined idols in these. (1) The Asheri.m (u•i~) are here evidently misrendered " groves ; " for how could groves be planted "under every green tree " ? (See Homily on vers. 15, 16, supra.) (2) They were idols apparently in :figure like goats. For Jeroboam" ordained him priests for the hlgh places and for the devils (c•,v~ goats), and for the calves which he had made'' (2 Chron. xi 15). Here we have no mention of .Asherim; of goats, however, we have mention. But when Josiah destroyed tbese things, there is mention of the .Asherah, but no mention of the goat (compare 2 Kings xxiii. 15). The Asherah destroyed by Josiah appears, then, to be the goat which Jeroboam had set up. (3) These Asheri.m, or Asheroth-for they appear to have been male and female idols-were supposed to convey blessings to their worshippers, and hence their name (from it!'~ to proceed, to bless). 4. His idolatry was attended with shocking rites. (1) They were the very abomine.tions for which tho land had spewed out the Canaanites as with abhorrence (see Levit. xviii. 28 ; xx. 22, and contexts). (2) Conspicuous amongst these were the Sodomites, whose orgies were intimately connected with the Asheri.m, and to encourage which the women wove hangings (see 2 Kings xxiii. 7). How fruitful in inventions is the wickedness of the heart I (Eccles. vii. 29.) II. FoB HIB DEGENERACY HE WAS WITHOUT EXCUSE, 1. He had Jerusalemfo'I' his capital. (1) This was the city chosen of God out of all the tribes of Israel to put His name there. The temple of Jehovah was there, and the Shekinah of Jehovah was in it. (2) Every appliance for acceptable worship was there at hand. The altars were there; the priesthood was there; the appointed assemblies, festival and ferial, were there. (3) They sinned, therefore, "before the face of the Lord,' as in His very presence. Even more so than Israel, who could not now claim Jerusalem for his capital, though he was still bound to go there to worship. Let us remember that God is ever near us ; this thought will restrain our truancy. 2. He had a son of D(l//)id for his king. (1) The mother of Rehoboa.m, indeed, was an A.mmonitess. This is emphatically (twice) mentioned. She was one of those strange women who had turned the heart of Solomon from the right way. The abomination of her country was Milcom or Molech, whose rites were most ferocious and demoralizing. (2) But against these influences were noble traditions on the other side. Hie father, in the beginning of hie reign, was illustrious in OH, XIV, 21-81.l THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. 887