1 Kings 12-13, 17-22
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Kingdom of Israel: Cultural Insight
<p>After the reign of Solomon, the kingdom of Israel split into two kingdoms, with Judah in the south and Israel in the north. The first king of the Northern Kingdom of Israel was Jeroboam I, who had been an officer in the administration of Solomon (see 1 Kings 11:28). Ahijah, a prophet, met Jeroboam and tore his clothing off him, ripping it into twelve pieces. He gave Jeroboam the twelve pieces with the promise that he would have a kingdom with ten tribes, leaving out Judah for David’s sake (1 Kings 11:31). The kingdom of Israel was, therefore, associated with the ten tribes. According to the biblical record, the tribes revolted against the strict rule of Solomon and Rehoboam and the favorable policies they had toward the tribe of Judah (1 Kings 12:1–18).</p> <p>Although the Kingdom of Israel did not worship in ways the biblical authors approved of (see, for example, 1 Kings 12:26–33), the national god of the Kingdom of Israel was Jehovah. Israel continued to share linguistic, cultural, and religious connections with its neighbors to the south. Israel was politically and economically more powerful than Judah and at times seemed to dominate the region. While Judah had a single relatively stable dynasty under the house of David, Israel had numerous dynastic changes and succession wars. The dominant tribes in the Kingdom of Israel were the Josephite tribes, which is why the kingdom is sometimes poetically referred to as Ephraim, as in Isaiah 7:2. The ministries of the prophets Elijah and Elisha were in the Kingdom of Israel. Although most of the literary prophets in the Bible came from the Southern Kingdom of Judah, Hosea was from Israel, and Amos traveled from Judah to prophesy in Israel.</p> <p>When the Kingdom of Israel first split from Judah, Jeroboam I built his capital at the famous ancestral site of Shechem. During the reign of King Omri (one of the most powerful of the kings of Israel), the capital was moved to Samaria (see 1 Kings 16:24). In the same way that Jerusalem is poetically associated with the Kingdom of Judah, Samaria is poetically associated with the Kingdom of Israel (see Ezekiel 16:46). In 721 BC, the Neo-Assyrian army destroyed Samaria and carried Israel into captivity. This is the source of what we now call the lost ten tribes. It is possible that the Samaritans, familiar to us from the New Testament, descended from Israelites left in the land of Israel after the Neo-Assyrian destruction.</p> <p> </p> <p><em><strong>Related Verses:</strong></em><br />1 Kings 11:31–40 <br />1 Kings 12:1–33 <br />1 Kings 14:14–16 <br />1 Kings 15:16–19, 30 <br />1 Kings 16:21–24 <br />1 Kings 18:17–18 <br />1 Kings 20:21 <br />2 Kings 17:6–23<br />Isaiah 7:1–9 <br />Isaiah 9:7–9 <br />Isaiah 10:10 <br />Isaiah 11:13 <br />Jeremiah 13:11 <br />Jeremiah 23:6, 13 <br />Jeremiah 30:4 <br />Lamentations 2:5 <br />Ezekiel 16:44–63 <br />Ezekiel 37:19 <br />Amos 1:1 <br />Amos 2:6 <br />Amos 3:12 <br />Amos 7:9–11 <br />Micah 1:1, 5 <br />Zechariah 11:14</p> <p> </p> <p><em><strong>Author:</strong></em> Avram R. Shannon<br /><em><strong>General Editor:</strong></em> Taylor Halverson<br /><em><strong>Associate Editor:</strong></em> Morgan Tanner<br /><em><strong>Senior Editor:</strong></em> Sarah Whitney Johnson<br /><em><strong>Assistant Editor:</strong></em> Verlanne Johnson</p>
Old Testament Minute: 1 Kings by BMC
1 Kings 12:6-11 - Rehoboam's Counselors
<p>Rehoboam consulted with those about him concerning the answer he should give to this address. . . .</p> <ol type="1"> <li>The grave experienced men of his council advised him by all means to give the petitioners a kind answer, to give them good words, to promise them fair, and this day, this critical day, to serve them, that is, to tell them that he was their servant, and that he would redress all their grievances and make it his business to please them and make them easy. Deny thyself (say they) so far as to do this for this once, and they will be thy servants for ever. . . . Note, The way to rule is to serve, to do good, and stoop to do it, to become all things to all men and so win their hearts. Those who are in power really sit highest, and easiest, and safest, when they take this method.</li> <li>The young men of his council were hot and haughty, and they advised him to return a severe and threatening answer to the people's demands. It was an instance of Rehoboam's weakness, <ol type="i"> <li>That he did not prefer aged counsellors, but had a better opinion of the young men that had grown up with him and with whom he was familiar, v. 8. Days should speak. It was a folly for him to think that, because they had been his agreeable companions in the sports and pleasures of his youth, they were therefore fit to have the management of the affairs of his kingdom. Great wits have not always the most wisdom; nor are those to be relied on as our best friends that know how to make us merry, for that will not make us happy. It is of great consequence to young people, that are setting out in the world, whom they associate with, accommodate themselves to, and depend upon for advice. If they reckon those that feed their pride, gratify their vanity, and further them in their pleasures, their best friends, they are already marked for ruin.</li> <li>That he did not prefer moderate counsels, but was pleased with those that put him upon harsh and rigorous methods, and advised him to double the taxes, whether there was occasion for so doing or no, and to tell them in plain terms that he would do so, v. 10, 11.</li> </ol> </li> </ol> <p> </p> <p>Matthew Henry, <em>Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume II (Joshua to Esther)</em> (Grand Rapids, MI: Christian Classics Ethereal Library, 2018), 1106-7.</p>
Commentary on the Whole Bible by Matthew Henry
1 Kings 12:11 - Scorpions
<p>[Rehoboam] threatened not only to squeeze [the people] by taxes, but to chastise them by cruel laws and severe executions of them, which should be not as whips only, but as scorpions, whips with rowels in them, that will fetch blood at every lash. In short, he would use them as brute beasts, load them and beat them at his pleasure: not caring whether they loved him or no, he would make them fear him.</p> <p> </p> <p>Matthew Henry, <em>Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume II (Joshua to Esther)</em> (Grand Rapids, MI: Christian Classics Ethereal Library, 2018), 1107.</p>
Commentary on the Whole Bible by Matthew Henry
