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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - 1 Kings 14:21 - 14:31
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The Rule of Rehoboam
v. 21. And Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty and one years old when he began to reign, having thus been born one year before Solomon's accession to the throne, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the Lord did choose out of all the tribes of Israel to put His name there, a fact which is here noted on account of the idolatry which was practiced afterward on the heights of Judah. And his mother's name was Naamah, an Ammonitess, the individual queen-mothers having a great influence at that time on account of the harem system, which usually brought the children more closely to the mother.
v. 22. And Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord, and they provoked Him to jealousy with their sins which they had committed, above all that their fathers had done. Cf 2Ch_11:5; 2Ch_12:1. This decay set in just as soon as Rehoboain had established his kingdom and fortified its boundaries.
v. 23. For they also built them high places, altars for the purpose of idolatrous worship on prominent hills, and images, memorial stones usually consecrated to the heathen idol Baal, and groves, the wooden monuments of Astarte, the female nature divinity, on every high hill, and under every green tree, thick, shady trees usually being selected for that purpose, Hos_4:13.
v. 24. And there were also Sodomites in the land, men or boys from the surrounding nations who permitted themselves to be prostituted in honor of the gods; and they did according to all the abominations of the nations which the Lord cast out before the children of Israel, the original Canaanitish inhabitants of the land.
v. 25. And it came to pass in the fifth year of King Rehoboam that Shishak, king of Egypt, probably at the suggestion of Jeroboam, came up against Jerusalem;
v. 26. and he took away the treasures of the house of the Lord and the treasures of the king's house, the great quantities of precious metals stored there; he even took away all; and he took away all the shields of gold which Solomon had made, 1Ki_10:17.
v. 27. And King Rehoboam made in their stead brazen shields, and committed them unto the hands of the chief of the guard, the king's runners, which kept the door of the king's house, the watch at the palace gate.
v. 28. And it was so, when the king went into the house of the Lord, that the guard bare them, accompanying the king in solemn procession, and brought them back into the guard-chamber, evidently a room in the house of the forest of Lebanon, 1Ki_10:17. One commentator suggests that the highly polished copper shields, access to which was denied the common people, were intended to deceive them concerning the true state of affairs.
v. 29. Now, the rest of the acts of Rehoboam, and all that he did, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the kings of Judah?
v. 30. And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all their days, a state of war existed as long as they both lived, which resulted in at least one pitched battle under Abijah.
v. 31. And Rehoboam slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David, with due honors. And his mother's name was Naamah, an Ammonitess, the statement being repeated probably on account of the fact that site introduced the idol worship of Moloch in Jerusalem. And Abijam, his son, reigned in his stead. Men who deliberately reject the Lord and His blessings need not be surprised if they find themselves punished by God in various ways.