The Pulpit Commentary — 1 Kings — Section 335

would be quite in accordance with Jewish the third prince of that line who had per- usages and habits of thought that the no.me mitted idolatrous worship, so that that which had been ohe.nged into Michaiah dyne.sty had richly deserved to forfeit its when the grandmother became e. proselyte, position. The stability of the family of should be ohe.nged back into Maachah when David on the throne for nearly 400 years, this princess apl)ste.tized] , the daughter a.mid all the changes and chances of that [ra.ther, gmnd-daughter. n~ includes eJl period, and whilsi in Israel there were female descendants, as C~ (see ver. 10) eJl "nine changes of dynasty within 250 years" ancestresses] of Abishalom. We can he.rdly ia, e.s Rawlinson reme.rks, very " difficult to doubt that Abse.lom, the son of David, is a.cconnt for on mere grounds of human mee.nt here. We have (1) the express state- reason '1: ment of 2 Chron. xi. 21, "Rehoboe.m loved Ver. 5. - Because [i~~. here causative for Me.achah, the daughter of .d.bsalom," &o. (2) •~ U/~. Comp. quod] Da.vtd did that which The fa.et that two of Rehoboam's other wives was right in the eyes of the i.ord, and were of the family of David, which shows turned not a.side from anything that he that it was po.rt of his policy to marry the commanded him all the da.ys of his ll!e, daughters of that house. (3) The mother save only 1n the matter of Uriah the of Absa.lom was named Me.achah (2 Sam. Hittite. [2 Sam. ii. 4. But this last clause iii. 3). (4) The name is so unco=on-in is not found in the LXX., and such a state- fa.et, it is ll1ra( Aey-that another person ment was more likely to be inserted by can hardly be intended. Moreover, the transcribers, having first appeared in the ve.rie.tion in spelling is extremely slight. It me.rgin as e. gloss, than to be omitted, had has been held, however, that a different it ever formed part of the text. And in person is designated by the name,principe.lly support of this view it may be e.lleged that because Absalom had but one daughter (1) the matter of Uriah was by no means whose name was Tame.r (2 Sam. xiv. 27), David's only sin, and (2) it is not the whereas Abijah's mother is said to have manner of our writer thus to qualify his been the daughter of Urie! of Gibeah (2 words. See next verse.] Chron. xiii. 2). But this difficulty admits of e.n easy solution. Tame.r was doubtless Ver. 6.-And there was war between me.rried to Urie!, and Maachah we.a the Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the da.ys of fruit of this marriage. And with this ex- his life. [Practica.lly identicoJ with eh. xiv. planation agrees the account of Josephus 30, where see note. Thenins thinks the (Ant. viii. 10, 1). insertion of the words were due to the cll.!e- lessness of some copyist, and Bahr admits Ver. 3.-And he walked 1n all the B1ns ol that our present text is possibly not the his father, which he had done before him original one. For Rehoboam, some MSS., [sins, i.e., from the theoore.tio ste.ndpoint. with the Syriao and Arabic, read .d. bijah, See eh. xiv. 22, 25. It does not appear but this is clearly e.n emendation, which in that either Abije.h or Rehoboam we.a a turn begets another repetition (ver. 7), and vicious man, and from his pious language there is really no need either to a.lter or on Mount Zamaraim (2 Chron. xiii. 10-12) suspect the text. Such repetitions are we should certainly have thought that Abijah quite in accordance with Ea.stern usage, was a god-fearing prince. But ver. 13 proves and Rehoboam here stands for the house that he had sanctioned idolatry, and this of Rehoboam, or the cause and kingdom we.a no doubt his principal sin, as the next which Rehoboam represented. The objed words_explain]: and his heart was not per- of mentioning his name ca.n ho.rdly be " to fect with the Lord and his God, as the heart remind the reader that Abija.m inherited of Davld his father [the words used of this we.r from his father" (Ro.wlinson), for Solomon, eh. ii. 4]. it was only on Rehoboam's deo.th thn.t the Ver. 4.-Nevertheless [I:;;, but, sed,sondern, slumbering hostility blazed out into actual Gesen. 393] for Dav1d's sake did the Lord war. The.t there was warfare between Abi- his God give him a lamp [Better than je.m and Jeroboam we know not only frow margin, candle. The word is " always used ver. 7, but from 2 Chron. xiii. 3-20 also. figuratively of progeny." See note on eh. ii. Ver. 7.-Now the rest of the acts of 26; and of 2 Sam. xxi. 17; Job xviii. 6, 6; Abljam and all that he did, are they not Paa, oxxxii. 17] 1n Jerus&lem, to set up written ill the book of the chroD.lcles [see his son after him, and to establish Jeru- note on eh. xiv. 29. The marginal refer- salem [But for David's piety, that is to say, ence to 2 Chron. xiii. misleads the easual his family would ha.ve been dethroned, if reader] of the k1DgB of Judah T And there not destroyed, e.s was that of Jeroboam was war [not only hostility, but open we.r (1 Kings xiv. 10), of Be.asha (oh. xvi. 2), (Vulgate, praelium), hence the repetition] of Ahab (2 Kings 1. 11), &o, Abijah was , betweeu Ab!Jam &114 Jeroboam. 840 THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS. [CB. XV, 1-24.