The Pulpit Commentary — 2 Chronicles — Section 127

ruinous mistake it was for him to declare that he would go even further than Solomon himself hnd gone in this direction I 'l'o take a course which conflicts with men·s naturnl righte, or which kindles their just indignation, or which wounds their keen ;;uscoptibilities, is to invite dishonour to our door; it is to robe our own ehouldcrs with the mantle of shame. 4. When we credit ourself with a character which we have not gained; when we assume that we are in spirit and in principle what in truth we are not, that we have moral qualities which we really do not possess ;-in this case, the dishonour that awaits us may come either in this world or the next. (1) We may be found unable to resist the temptations which we encounter, and our lamentable failure may expose us to the rebuke and the condemnation of man (see Acts v. 1-11; xiii. 13; xv. 38; 2 Tim. iv. 10). (2) We may find ourselves rejected and expelled on the great day of judgment (Matt. vi. 21-23; xxv. 44, 45). II. 'l'HE AVOIDANCE OF IGNOMINY. If we would not be put to shame by our fellow- men or by the Divine Judge, we must do these things: 1. Study until we know our- selves; examine our hearts until we know what is in them-what is the spirit we are of, what are the principles at the root of our behaviour. 2. Be content with the posi- tion and the work which our heavenly Father has assigned us (see Ps. lxxxiv. 10; cxxxi. 1). 3. Make continual and earnest supplication that God will reveal ns to onr- selves (Ps. xix. 12; cxxxix. 23, 24). Then, instead of an ignominious retreat, our path will be that of the just, shining more and more; we shall advance from honour to honour; God himself will crown us with his Divine commendation.-0. Ver. 1.-The coronation of a king. I. THE PERSON OF THE MONARCH. Rehoboam, the man "who enlarges the people," a name upon which his subsequent history was a. satire. 1. The child of a heathen mother. '!'his was Naamab, the Ammonitess (eh. xii. 13; 1 Kings xiv. 31), a daughter of the last Ammonite king, Ha.nun, the son of Nabash (1 Chron. xi.x. 1, etc.). Rehoboam probably suffered in character and constitution from his taint of heathen blood. 2. The son of a distinguished father. J uclged at the worst, Solomon was a great king, no less renowned for administrative faculty than for wisdom and wealth. 'l'he first two, it is clear, do not pass from sire to son by the law of betedity. A man may bequeath money to his son, but be is helpless in the matter of intellectual wealth. A king may hand on crown and throne to his descendant, bnt be cannot communicate capacity to rule. 3. The heir of an extensive empire. The sovereignty of the undivided kingdom and of all the tributary princes fell into bis hands on his father's decease. IL 'l'HE S0ENE OF THE CORONATION. Shechem. 1. A spot of rare beauty. Eighteen hours distant from Jerusalem, and situated at the foot of Mount Gerizim, in the mountain range of Ephraim (Judg. ix. 7)-tbe modern Nablous, near the site of the ancient Shecbem, "is the most beautiful, perhaps it might be said the only very beautiful spot in Central Palestine" (Stanley, 'Sinai and Palestine,' pp. 233, 234). 2. A scene of inspiring memories. Patriarchs had pitched tents and erected altars there (Gen. xii. 6, 7; xxxiii. 18-20). Thither Joshua had convened the princes and elders, the heacls and represents.tives of the people, when the sxmquest of Canaan had been completed, and made a covenant with them, setting them a statute and ordinance- so practically constituting Shecbem the first capital of the land (Josh. xxiv. l, 25). There Josepb's bones were consigned to a sepulchre in the parcel of ground which Jacob had bought of Hamor for a hundred pieces of silver (Josh. xxiv. 32). There, on the two mountains which overlooked the valley, Gerizim and Ehal, had been placed the blessing and the curse as commanded by Jehovah (Deut. xi. 29, 30; Josh. viii. 31, 33). There also the first attempt, though unsuccessful, at king-making bad been made <Judg. ix. 1). 8. A locality unauthorized for coronations. Stanley speaks of it as havma been the custom, even after the erection of Jerusalem into the capital, to inaugurate new reigns at Shechem, citing as a modern parallel "the long continuance of Rheims the ancient metropolitan city of France, as the scene of the French corona- tions" (' s'inai and Palestine,' p. 239); but, as Rehoboam's is the only coronation that took place at Shechem (in addition to the above-mentioned crowning of Abimelech), one example, or even two, can hardly be said to constitute a cus_tom. 'l'he proper place for carrying out such a second coronation as the northern tnbes contemplated was Jerusalem, the metropolis of the entire kingdom, just as when they had acknow-  l'.l8 THE SECOND BOOK OF THE CHRONICLES. [on. x. 1-19.