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- Herausgeber: Arcadia Press
- Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019
Rawlinson was born at Chadlington, Oxfordshire, and was the younger brother of the famous Assyriologist, Sir Henry Rawlinson. Having taken his degree at the University of Oxford (from Trinity College) in 1838, he was elected to a fellowship at Exeter College, Oxford, in 1840, of which from 1842 to 1846 he was fellow and tutor. He was ordained in 1841, was Bampton lecturer in 1859, and was Camden Professor of Ancient History from 1861 to 1889.
In his early days at Oxford, Rawlinson played cricket for the University, appearing in five matches between 1836 and 1839 which have since been considered to have been first-class.
In 1872 he was appointed canon of Canterbury, and after 1888 he was rector of All Hallows, Lombard Street. In 1873, he was appointed proctor in Convocation for the Chapter of Canterbury. He married Louisa, daughter of Sir RA Chermside, in 1846.
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George Rawlinson
THE KINGSOF ISRAEL AND JUDAH
Copyright © George Rawlinson
The Kings of Israel and Judah
(1889)
Arcadia Press 2019
www.arcadiapress.eu
Storewww.arcadiaebookstore.eu
TABLE OF CONTENTS
THE KINGSOF ISRAEL AND JUDAH
PREFACE
The Books of Kings and Chronicles form the main source for the History of the Kings of Israel and Judah. They require, however, to be supplemented, especially for the later kings, by a careful study of the Prophetical Scriptures, particularly of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Amos, Micah, Habakkuk and Zephaniah. Local colouring, the life and manners of the time, and the feelings of those contemporary with the events described, are derivable almost wholly from this latter source, which furnishes them often in tolerable abundance. The “Antiquities” of Josephus supply less material than might have been expected, and the character of all additional material derived from this quarter requires to be weighed in the scales of a careful and sober criticism. Considerable light is thrown on the history of some of the kings by contemporary notices contained in the monuments of Egypt and Assyria. It has been the endeavour of the writer, so far as the limits of space allowed, to make full use of all these various sources of information. His labours have been much lightened by the excellent work done by many of his predecessors in the field of Sacred History, as especially by the writers of the articles on the several kings in Dr. Smith’s “Dictionary of the Bible,” Kitto’s “Biblical Cyclopaedia,” Winer’s “Realworterbuch,” and Ersch and Gruber’s “Cyclopadie.” He is indebted also largely to the graphic and brilliant narrative of his lamented friend. Dean Stanley, whose “Lectures on the Jewish Church,” though on some points they “give an uncertain sound,” contain the best account of the Divided Monarchy which at present exists in the English language. Ewald’s “History of the People of Israel” has been also consulted throughout, but more sparingly used, the writer’s absolute rejection of the miraculous rendering him an untrustworthy commentator on a period of history wherein, according to the original authorities, the miraculous played a prominent part.
G. R.
OXFORD,
CHAPTER I
REHOBOAM
The Court of Solomon, whereat Rehoboam was brought up, has been described in a former volume of this series. A place where such wealth, such luxury, and such unrestrained polygamy were rife, was not a school apt for the formation of a strong or self-reliant character. When it is said that Rehoboam grew through boyhood to manhood in the atmosphere of an Eastern harem, enough is said to account for all that followed. In a harem princes, waited on by obsequious eunuchs, and petted by their mother and her female slaves, pass their time in softness and idleness, without any training worth the name, without the spur of emulation; flattered, fawned upon, courted; encouraged to regard themselves as beings of a superior kind, who can scarcely do wrong, who are to be indulged in every desire, and every fancy, and are never to be checked or thwarted. A judicious father shortens as much as possible the duration of this time of trial, early sending his sons out to the wars, or giving them civil employment, or at any rate removing them from the gynaeceum, and placing them under the direction and guidance of carefully chosen tutors and instructors. But Solomon, from the time that he fell away, is not likely to have been a judicious father, or to have greatly troubled himself concerning the training of his children. There were no wars to which he could send them, and he seems not to have employed them in civil government. Rehoboam, so far as appears, grew to manhood as a mere hanger-on upon the Court, the centre of a group of young men brought up with him (1 Kings xii. 8), and eager to flatter his foibles. The enforced idleness of an heir apparent, in all countries, and especially in the East, constitutes a severe trial to all but the best balanced natures, and too often leads to those evil and dissipated courses which are the great peril of youth at every period of the world’s history. We are not perhaps entitled to conclude absolutely, from the many passages of the Proverbs where the evil doings of young men are rebuked, that Solomon is actually glancing at the conduct of Rehoboam, or using the expression “My son” in any other than a general sense; but still the frequency and urgency of the remonstrances naturally raise the suspicion that — in part at least — a personal motive underlies them. As a personal element appears distinctly in what the wise king says (Prov. iv. 3, 4) of his own education and instruction, so it may well be that the keen reproofs and reproaches addressed to the “foolish son” are barbed by a personal sentiment of regret and disapproval.
It does not appear that Rehoboam during his youth had any special guide or instructor. No one is indicated as standing to him in the relation in which Nathan had, apparently, stood to his father. The prophet Shemaiah, who was the mentor of his later life, received no mission to “speak to him” until he was king. The chief share in his early education, if it may be allowed the name, must have been taken by his mother, Naamah. Now Naamah was an Ammonitess (1 Kings xiv. 31). She was one of those many foreign women, “princesses” (ibid, xi. 3), whom Solomon took to wife very early in his reign, and who ultimately “turned away his heart,” so that he became an actual worshipper of false gods. It was for her, principally, that he built the High Place to Molech, or Milcom, on the hill that is over against Jerusalem, directly in front of the Temple, that is, on the northern crest of Olivet. According to the Septuagint translators, she was the daughter of Hanun, the king of Ammon, with whom David had the war provoked by the ill-treatment of his ambassadors (2 Sam. x. 1-14). Her influence over her son can scarcely have been for good. Brought up an idolatress, we cannot blame her that she remained one till her marriage and the transference of her residence to Jerusalem; but her determined adherence to the bloody rites of Molech after full acquaintance with the religion of Jehovah, indicates a moral blindness and a hardness of heart, which would make her a most undesirable instructress of youth. We can scarcely doubt but that she took her son with her when she attended the worship of Molech in the sanctuary built by Solomon for her use on the Mount Olivet, and introduced him to a knowledge of the bloody, and probably licentious, rites of the Ammonite religion. The strong leaning towards the worst forms of idolatry which Rehoboam showed soon after mounting the throne is not surprising in one subjected to the influence of such a mother at the most impressible period of human existence.
It is not recorded that Rehoboam had any brothers; but we can scarcely suppose that he was without them. Solomon’s wives numbered, at the least, seventy; and it would be preposterous to imagine that they were all sonless. Among the “young men that grew up with him” (1 Kings xii. 10) were doubtless several who stood towards him in the near relationship, if not of full brother, at any rate of half-brother. These persons would naturally be among his earliest and most intimate companions. Brought up under the influence of their several mothers, as he of his, they would lean to their mother’s cults, and practically impress upon him the syncretism, which was Solomon’s idea of religion in his later life. Rehoboam can scarcely have looked on Jehovah as more than a local god, entitled to the respect of the Israelites, and to a continuous worship in the splendid temple which Solomon had built in his honour. But his own personal leanings would seem to have been towards the foreign rites which his father had established upon Israelite soil, and which possessed for the Israelite mind a curious fascination. We do not know, however, that, as prince, he had any great opportunity of showing his predilections, or that he shared at all in the direction of affairs under his father. The impression left by the Scriptural narrative is, that, down to his father’s death, he lived a mere courtier’s life, a life without serious aims or stirring circumstances.
But a time came when there suddenly devolved upon him a great and most serious responsibility. Solomon died at an age which could not have greatly exceeded sixty, and Rehoboam, at the age of forty-one, found himself recognized as the natural heir to the crown, and successor to his father’s kingdom in its entirety. At first no voice was raised to dispute his title, no arm was lifted to oppose him. The news indeed of Solomon’s death had brought back from Egypt a discontented and ambitious refugee, who had a certain number of adherents, and who may have entertained hopes of pushing himself into notice, if trouble or difficulty should arise in connection with the transfer of sovereignty. Jeroboam, who had fled to the Court of Shishak, or Sheshonk, king of Egypt, on a mere charge of cherishing treasonable intentions, naturally returned to his own land, as Moses had done (Exod. iv. 19, 20), when the king who sought his life was dead, and attended the gathering which was to give popular sanction to a succession universally regarded as natural and proper. The gathering was held at Shechem, the chief city of Ephraim, whether by Rehoboam’s appointment, or by a spontaneous movement on the part of the tribes, is uncertain. It is perhaps most probable that Rehoboam designated Shechem as the place for his inauguration in a conciliatory spirit, hoping thereby to gratify the Ephraimites, and secure their support and favour. But his concession was by some interpreted as weakness. The oppressive rule of Solomon during the later years of his reign, the heavy taxes which he imposed upon his subjects for the support of his Court (1 Kings iv. 7-23), and the forced labour which he exacted from them, had given rise to general discontent, and “the government of the Wise King had become as odious to the Israelites as that of the race of Tarquin, in spite of all their splendid works”— and indeed partly on account of them — “was afterwards to the inhabitants of Rome.” We may be sure that the crafty and unscrupulous Jeroboam fomented the popular ill-will; and it was probably in consequence of his machinations, that, on the meeting of the Tribes, their complaints were formulated, and delegates named — Jeroboam being among the number (1 Kings xii. 3) — to carry them to the king, and plead for a redress of grievances. “Thy father,” said their spokesman, probably Jeroboam himself, “made our yoke grievous; now therefore make thou the grievous service of thy father, and his heavy yoke that he put upon us, lighter, and we will serve thee.” The abolition of forced labour, and a reduction of taxation would, so far as appears, have contented them; they had no thought of revolt; they probably expected that their very moderate demands (as they considered them) would be cheerfully granted, and that the young king would be glad to purchase the popularity which most princes desire on their coronation day by the making of a few promises, which need not perhaps be altogether irrevocable.
The young king perceived, or those who were about him suggested to him, that the matter was one which required deliberation. Prerogative was in question, and prerogative is naturally dear to kings, nor have there ever been wanting, at any time or in any country, sticklers for prerogative among the hangers-on of a Court, more loth to yield one jot or tittle of it than the kings themselves. Persons of this class no doubt pointed out to Rehoboam that it was no light matter than was in question, but really the very character of the monarchy Solomon had won for himself the privilege which the Great Monarchs of the East have always enjoyed, and which was at the time possessed and exercised by the kings both of Egypt and of Assyria, the privilege of exacting from their subjects as much forced labour as they pleased — was his successor to surrender the right the moment it was objected to? If he did, might not further demands be made? Might not the royal power be gradually cramped and limited, until it became a mere shadow, and ceased to secure to the nation the benefits with a view to which it had been set up? At any rate, the subject was one for grave debate; and it was probably felt to be a quite reasonable reply, when Rehoboam returned answer to his discontented subjects that he would communicate to them his decision on the third day (1 Kings xii. 5).
Rehoboam is said to have first asked the counsel of the old men, the “grey-beards” who had acted for many years as his father’s counsellors, and who might be expected to have derived from their contact with the “wisest of men,” and from their long experience of affairs, something of that calm spirit of true worldly wisdom, which had characterized a large part of Solomon’s rule. Their advice was that he should adopt a mild and conciliatory tone, that he should “speak good words,” yield, at any rate, to some extent, or seem to yield, and thus please the malcontents, who, they ventured to say, would be peaceable and tractable subjects thenceforth, if they seemed to themselves to have got their way under the existing circumstances (ibid. ver. 7). The advice was probably not palatable. At any rate it was not taken. Rehoboam turned to the younger men, the men of his own standing — bold spirits, who had none of the timidity of age, and who might well seem to him more competent interpreters of the temper of their own day than persons who belonged to a generation that was just dying off. The young men were imbued with all the contempt for popular demands, and all the pride and insolence of a narrow and exclusive aristocracy. Their counsel was that Rehoboam should not yield an inch. A fool was rightly “answered according to his folly.”
“Thus shalt thou speak unto them,” they said: “My little finger shall be thicker than my father’s loins. Whereas my father did lade you with a heavy yoke, I will add to your yoke; my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with cat-o’-ninetails.”
It was rash and foolish counsel; but the king followed it. He “forsook the old men’s counsel that they had given him, and spake to the people after the counsel of the young men” — “roughly,” rudely, cruelly (vers. 13, 14). Not only, they were told, should there be no alleviation of their burdens, but the weight of them should be aggravated. Rehoboam’s “little finger should be thicker than his father’s loins.” It was a proud, fierce, foolish answer; and the consequences were such as any man of moderate prudence might have anticipated. Disappointed and disgusted, the multitude burst out into the cry —
“What portion have we in David?
Neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse:
To your tents, O Israel —
Now see to thine own house, David!”
The tribal spirit was strong among the Hebrews. The supremacy of Judah had never been otherwise than grudgingly accepted. Reuben, Ephraim, Manasseh, perpetually kicked against Judaean sovereignty. Thus there was always a latent discontent, which any breeze might any day blow into a flame. At this time Rehoboam’s silly threats were the spark which fired the train, and produced a sudden explosion. On hearing them all the tribes excepting three burst out into open revolt. Judah remained firm in its allegiance to the house of David; Benjamin, satisfied with the distinction accorded it by the emplacement of the capital within its borders, threw in its lot with Judah; Levi, thoroughly content with its grand position at the head of the religion of the kingdom, gave its sympathies to the Davidic cause, and ultimately gravitated to the southern kingdom. But Reuben, which claimed the right of the first-born; Ephraim, which had given to the nation Joshua, the conqueror, Deborah the Prophetess, and Samuel, the last and the greatest of the judges; Manasseh, which shared largely in the glories of its brother tribe, Ephraim (Gen. xlviii. 19; Deut. xxxiii. 17); Zebulun, which “sucked of the abundance of the seas” (Deut. xxxiii. 19); Gad, which “dwelt as a lion” (ibid. ver. 20); Dan, the “lion’s whelp” (ibid. ver. 22); Issachar, the “strong ass couching down between two burthens” (Gen. xlix. 14); Naphtali, the “hind let loose” (ibid. ver. 21); and Asher, the dweller in the far north, threw off the Davidic yoke, declared themselves independent of Judah, and proclaimed their intention of placing themselves under a new king. Still failing to appreciate the situation, and imagining that compromise was even yet possible, Rehoboam resolved on one more effort to prevent the disruption, and sent an envoy — no doubt with an offer of some sort of compromise — to his revolted subjects; but, with the wrongheadedness which characterized all his proceedings at this period of his life, he selected for envoy one of the persons most obnoxious to the malcontents — no other than his father’s chief director of the forced labours which were so unpopular — Adoram or Adoniram (1 Kings xii. 18; 2 Chron. x. 18). The rebels seem to have considered that this was adding insult to injury; and, without waiting to hear the terms which Adoniram had to offer, they threw him down and stoned him to death. Deeply shocked, and alarmed for his own safety, Rehoboam mounted his chariot, and quitting Shechem fled hastily to Jerusalem.
The Tribes proceeded to elect a king, and to constitute themselves a separate state. The condition of things was re-established which had prevailed after the death of Saul, when David reigned over Judah in Hebron, and Ishbosheth over Israel in Mahanaim. But Rehoboam was not inclined to submit tamely to this defection. From Jerusalem he sent out his mandate throughout all Judah and Benjamin, summoning to his standard the men of war of both tribes, and succeeded in gathering together an army of 180,000 men, with whom he proposed to effect the subjugation of the rebel kingdom (1 Kings xii. 21). An internecine war would have broken out; but at the decisive moment, Shemaiah, the great prophet and historiographer of the day (2 Chron. xii. 15), received a commission to interpose, and in the name of God commanded Rehoboam to lay aside his purpose, disband his troops, and remain at peace with his Israelite brethren. “The thing,” he said, “was from God.” God had rent the kingdom of Solomon into two parts to punish Solomon’s idolatries (1 Kings xi. 33), and it was vain for man to attempt to oppose His will. The disruption, decreed in the Divine counsels, must take effect, and it was true wisdom, as well as true piety, to acquiesce in it, and seek to make the best of the new situation established by the new circumstances.
The situation was critical. The northern kingdom, even if left to itself and not made the object of an organized attack, would necessarily be a hostile kingdom, and would require careful watching, and the perpetual maintenance of an attitude of defence. But this was not the worst. It would be supported by a southern kingdom of very much greater power, which might at any moment exchange a passive support for active intervention, and which it would be difficult, if not impossible, to resist. Egypt, which had protected Jeroboam from the hostility of Solomon (1 Kings xi. 40), would be likely to lend him effectual aid if invited to do so, and under the energetic rule of an ambitious prince, who had founded a dynasty, might even aspire to resume, on her own account, the rule of Asiatic conqueror which she had laid aside for so many centuries. Awake to these perils, Rehoboam, after his return to Jerusalem, lost no time in strengthening the defences of his kingdom, more especially in the quarters which were most open to invasion from Egypt. He “built cities for defence in Judah” (2 Chron. xi. 5), “fortifying the strongholds, and putting captains in them, with store of victual, and of oil and wine” (ibid. ver. 1 1). Bethlehem, Etam, Tekoa, Beth-zur, and Hebron, upon the south Shocoh, Adullam, Azekah, Gath, Lachish, and Mareshah towards the south-west, Zorahand Aijalon on the west, were “made exceeding strong” (ibid. ver. 12); ample provisions and a goodly supply of spears and shields were laid up in them, and all that was possible was done to check the progress of an invader from Egypt, should one appear.
Three years of peace followed. The only notable occurrence during this tranquil interval was the gradual exodus of the Levites from the northern kingdom, where they were subject to indignities, and their concentration within the territorial limits of Judah and Benjamin, where they were respected and honoured. This exodus was followed by that of many pious Israelites, who disliked Jeroboam’s religious innovations, and were attached to the worship of Jehovah, as established by David and Solomon. The northern kingdom was thus continually weakened and the southern one strengthened (2 Chron. xi. 13-17), to the great dissatisfaction of Jeroboam, who proceeded to cast about in his mind for a remedy, and ere long came to the conclusion that his best course would be to invoke the aid of his Egyptian ally against his troublesome neighbour.
Meanwhile the religious corruption introduced by Solomon was spreading itself widely among the people of the southern kingdom, unchecked by the king. “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. For they built them high places, and images, and groves, on every high hill, and under every green tree. And there were also Sodomites in the land: and they did according to all the abominations of the nations which the Lord cast out before the children of Israel” (1 Kings xiv. 22-24). Rehoboam himself, as the author of Chronicles tells us (2 Chron. xii. 1), “forsook the law of the Lord,” set an ill example to his subjects, and then “all Israel forsook Jehovah with him.” The seductive rites of Phoenicia, the bloody rites of Moab and Ammon were preferred to the simple solemn ceremonies of the Jerusalem Temple; altars blazed on every high hill; emblems of Baal and Astarte were set up; frantic orgies absorbed and depraved the religious sentiment of the people; the national shrine was comparatively deserted; Judah “went a-whoring” after the gods of the nations, and practised abominations which it is impossible to describe, or more than hint at. By the fifth year of Rehoboam’s reign, the apostasy had reached its height, and provoked God to inflict on His people— even on the beloved tribe of Judah — a terrible punishment.
In the web of mundane events woven by the hand of God, the threads of worldly policy which men spin are taken into account, made use of, and given their appropriate place. The needs of Jeroboam, the ambition of Sheshonk to cover his own name with glory, and strengthen his dynasty by conciliating to it the affections of the military class, were made to fall in with God’s purposes, and help to work them out, in due season, when the fitting hour was come. From the date of Solomon’s death Sheshonk had been biding his time, waiting for a summons from Jeroboam, who would best know when he could most effectually strike. In the fifth year of Rehoboam’s reign, just when the apostasy of Judah was complete, the summons came, and Sheshonk hastened to obey it. Levying an army of twelve hundred chariots, sixty (perhaps six) thousand horsemen, and footmen “‘without number “(2 Chron. xii. 3) — Lubim, Sukkiim, and Cushites — he marched into Judaea “in three columns” (Brugsch), and attacked the cities which Rehoboam had fortified with so much care. A poor resistance was made. Afraid to encounter his assailant in the open field, Rehoboam shut himself up within the walls of his capital, and left the provincial towns to defend themselves as they best could. Probably the greater number surrendered at discretion. A few were besieged and taken, as Shoco, Adoraim, and Aijalon. Meanwhile the trembling king, awaiting his foe at Jerusalem, was upbraided by the prophet Shemaiah for the sins which had brought the visitation upon him, and warned that God had determined to deliver him into the hands of Sheshonk. In this strait he “humbled himself” (ibid. ver. 6), acknowledged that he was justly punished, and deprecated the extreme anger of Jehovah. The “princes of Judah” joined in his submission. Hereupon Shemaiah was instructed to tell him that his self-humiliation was accepted, and that on account of it, God would “grant him some deliverance” (ibid. ver. 7). Sheshonk should not take him prisoner, but he must submit and become Sheshonk’s servant, that he might learn the difference between “serving the Lord” and serving a heathen suzerain. The result was in accordance with this intimation. Sheshonk encamped before Jerusalem, but instead of forming the siege, consented to accept a ransom. Rehoboam gave him all the treasures of his palace, and all the treasures of the Temple, including the shields of gold which Solomon had made for his body-guard (1 Kings x. 16, 17; 2 Chron. xii. 9); and Sheshonk, content with this booty, and with a submission which can scarcely have been more than nominal, marched his army away to further conquests.
The remainder of Sheshonk’s campaign belongs rather to the history of Israel than to that of Judah, and will be considered when we treat of the reign of Jeroboam. Rehoboam’s reign, after the retirement of Sheshonk, was uneventful. He continued to occupy the throne for twelve more years, and during this time was engaged in frequent, if not in continual, hostilities with Jeroboam (1 Kings xiv. 30; 2 Chron. xii. 15), but no important results followed, and it can only be said that the two kingdoms maintained their relative positions. In military strength they were not ill-matched, since, if Israel could bring more men into the field, the narrower limits of Judah made her able to concentrate her troops more rapidly, while the personal qualities of the men of Judah and Benjamin placed them in the front rank of Hebrew warriors. Thus, notwithstanding the invasion of Sheshonk, and the loss of strength which it must have occasioned, the southern kingdom held its ground firmly, though it can scarcely have continued to maintain any hold over the alien states upon its borders, such as Philistia and Edom, which David had subjugated, but which, probably from the date of Sheshonk’s invasion, recovered their independence.
The domestic relations of Rehoboam were modelled on those of his father, but without reaching the same excess of Oriental luxury and self-indulgence. The number of his wives was eighteen, of his concubines either sixty or thirty. Three of his wives were his near relations, Abihail, the daughter of Eliab, David’s elder brother; Mahalath, his first cousin, the daughter of Jerimoth, Solomon’s brother; and Maachah, another cousin, the daughter or grand-daughter of Absalom. Abihail and Maachah bore him, each of them, four sons, while his other wives raised the number of his sons to twenty-eight, and his daughters are said to have been sixty (2 Chron. xi. 21). His favourite wife was Absalom’s granddaughter, Maachah, whose son, Abijah, succeeded him on the throne; she was probably of royal birth on both sides, descended from her namesake, Maachah (2 Sam. iii. 3), daughter of Talmai, king of Geshur.
Rehoboam, remembering the dreariness of his own idle youth, was careful to give his sons active employment. As they grew to manhood, he dispersed them among the various provincial towns, assigning to each a charge, and at the same time an establishment. The writer of Chronicles considers that, in so doing, he acted wisely (2 Chron. xi. 23). The system which he adopted was certainly calculated to prevent, or minimise, jealousies among the princes, and to benefit their characters by giving them duties to perform, instead of making them idle hangers-on upon a Court.
Maachah survived her husband, and was Queen-mother during the next two reigns. Her influence over the kingdom was altogether for evil, and we may, perhaps, ascribe much of the wrong conduct of Rehoboam to the sway which she exercised over him. Her leanings were altogether towards idolatry. Rehoboam’s character was weak and irresolute. He seems to have had warm affections, and to have been capable of making good resolutions under good advice (2 Chron. xi. 4; xii. 6); but he had no stability of purpose, and his last counsellor generally determined his actions. We are told, that “he did evil, because he fixed not his heart to seek the Lord” (ibid. xii. 14). There was no fixity about him; it might have been said of him with justice, as it was said of Reuben (Gen. xlix. 4), “unstable as water, thou shalt not excel.” Now a suppliant at the feet of Jehovah, anon an encourager of the people in the worst forms of idolatry (1 Kings xiv. 22-24; 2 Chron. xii. 1), now submitting himself to Shemaiah’s influence, presently letting Maachah rule his conduct and his policy, he failed to set either himself or his people in any good way, and is in a great measure answerable for the halting and hesitating line pursued by the kingdom of Judah through the four centuries of its existence, a line fluctuating between good and evil, between religion and irreligion, gradually deteriorating, and at length terminating in a practical apostasy (2 Chron. xxxvi. 14.-16).
CHAPTER II
JEROBOAM
Jeroboam, the son of Nebat and Zeruah, who outlived her husband, was “an Ephrathite (or Ephraimite) of Zereda” (1 Kings xi. 26), and was born a subject of King Solomon. His native place, Zereda, lay probably in the valley of the Jordan, and is reasonably identified with Zeredathah, the town or village where Solomon established the foundries for the great works in bronze, which Hiram undertook to cast for the Temple. Nebat, Jeroboam’s father, seems to have died while Jeroboam was still a child, and he was brought up by his mother, “a widow woman,” of whom nothing more is told us. He belonged to the middle ranks of society, and, having reached the full vigour of his youth, was among the men of Ephraim impressed by Solomon to aid in constructing the fortifications by which he was seeking to render Jerusalem an impregnable fortress. It has been surmised that he was “among the lower overseers of the labourers;” but the Scripture narrative gives no indication of this; and it is most natural to regard him as merely one of the many “young Ephraimites employed on the works.” It was as such that, on one occasion, when Solomon was inspecting the progress of the fortification of Millo, which was situated between the Temple hill and the modern Zion, he specially attracted the attention of the monarch, who, noting his vigour and activity, promoted him to the position of head-overseer over the services due to the crown from the house of Joseph. This was a vast rise in the social scale, and gave him a position equal to that of almost any other subject. Whether there is any truth in the statement, that he began at once to affect an almost regal state, maintained a retinue of three hundred chariots, and secretly aspired to the sovereignty, is uncertain. The Septuagint “Additions” to the story of Jeroboam do not stand the test of a searching criticism, and if they have been accepted by some writers, as Ewald and Dean Stanley, it is rather because they are picturesque and striking, than because they are entitled to be regarded as of any historical value. We know nothing of Jeroboam’s life between his promotion by Solomon and his flight into Egypt, except that, apparently without any scheming of his own, he was the subject of a prophetical announcement, which provoked the anger of Solomon, and led him to seek the life of his too distinguished servant and subject (1 Kings xi. 40).
Ahijah the Shilonite was a prophet of repute under Solomon, who had succeeded to the position previously held by Nathan, and was Court Historiographer during Solomon’s later years (2 Chron. ix. 29). Shiloh, his native town, was one of the principal cities of Ephraim; and he may have been personally acquainted with his brother Ephraimite, whom Solomon had so greatly distinguished. At any rate, as a member of the Court, he would be familiar with Jeroboam’s habits and person. Having, therefore, received from God a commission to invest the young Ephraimite with a prospective sovereignty over ten of the twelve tribes, he took an opportunity of waylaying him on one of his numerous departures from Jerusalem in a place where they two would be alone. Here he made his meaning clear, and impressed it indelibly on the mind of his companion, by accompanying his words with an “acted parable,” according to a practice not uncommon among sages and teachers in the East. Jeroboam, proud of his high office, had recently clad himself in a new cloak or robe. Ahijah caught hold of this, and stripping it off him tore it into twelve fragments, one for each tribe, and retaining two, gave him the other ten, accompanying his gift with these words: “Take thou ten pieces; for thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, Behold, I will rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and will give ten tribes to thee: but he shall have one tribe for My servant David’s sake, and for Jerusalem’s sake, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel: because that they have forsaken Me, and have worshipped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Milcom the god of the children of Ammon, and have not walked in My ways, to do that which is right in Mine eyes, and to keep My statutes and My judgments: as did David his father. Howbeit I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand, but I will make him prince all the days of his life for David My servant’s sake, whom I chose because he kept My commandments and My statutes: but I will take the kingdom out of his son’s hand, and will give it unto thee — even ten tribes. And unto his son will I give one tribe, that David My servant may have a light always before Me in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen to put My name there. And I will take thee, and thou shalt reign according to all that thy soul desireth, and shalt be king over Israel. And it shall be, if thou wilt hearken unto all that I command thee, and wilt walk in My ways, and do that which is right in My sight, to keep My statutes and My commandments, as David My servant did: that I will be with thee, and build thee a sure house, as I built for David, and will give Israel unto thee. And I will for this afflict the seed of David, but not for ever” (1 Kings xi. 31-39.)
It had been before this time prophesied to Solomon, though by what prophet we cannot say, that at his death his kingdom would be rent in twain, and the greater portion given to one of his “servants,” one tribe only being reserved for his son (1 Kings xi. 11-13). But he had hitherto not known to whom the prophecy pointed, or which of his servants was to be especially feared. Now, however — for it was not long before the transaction between Jeroboam and Ahijah got wind, either from Jeroboam not keeping the secret or from the meeting having been observed — he found that the fated enemy of his house was the man whom he had so greatly favoured, whom he had raised from a lowly station, and set among the princes of the people. Instantly his anger was inflamed. What? Jeroboam the traitor who would rob his son! He had, then, warmed a serpent in his bosom: he had given the high position which could alone render successful treason possible to the very man who was about to use that high position to humiliate and despoil the best beloved of all his offspring. We need not wonder that, with the unpitying sternness of an Oriental despot, he at once formed the determination of taking his enemy’s life (ibid. ver. 40). It is not clear, however, that Jeroboam had been guilty of any overt act of rebellion or treason. One modern writer indeed, tells us that he “openly rose against Solomon’s rule,” took arms, and with a band of adherents began a “contest which was not a very easy one” to put down. But no Biblical writer, not even the author of the Septuagint “Additions,” lends any support to this view. Jeroboam, it is probable, had done nothing more than talk of his fine prospects among his friends and followers. But in the East this is quite enough to draw down upon a subject’s head the vengeance of his sovereign, and Solomon would not be shocking his people’s sense of justice in seeking under the circumstances to kill Jeroboam. That he did so is plainly stated. He did not “banish Jeroboam to Egypt,” as has been alleged; but formed a determination to put him to death — a determination which, coming to Jeroboam’s knowledge, induced him to fly the country, and become a refugee in the foreign land which was best able to afford him protection.
