Bible Commentaries
1 Kings 14

Verses 1-31

The Sins of Jeroboam and Rehoboam and their Punishment

2. Shiloh] The modern Seilûn, N. of Bethel and E. of the road leading from Bethel to Shechem (Judges 21:19).

3. Take with thee] The gift proffered by the queen was a small one to suit her disguise: contrast 2 Kings 5:5. Cruse] a flask or bottle (and so in 1 Kings 17:12).

9. Above all that were before thee] Solomon’s idolatry was perhaps worse than Jeroboam’s in being the worship of false gods, but it was at any rate not deliberately propagated among the people at large.

10. Shut up and left] A comprehensive phrase to describe all classes, but its precise signification is uncertain. It has been taken to mean (a) restrained by, and free from, ceremonial impurity (which prevented persons suffering from it from entering the Temple, cp. Jeremiah 36:5); (b) imprisoned and free (cp. Jeremiah 33:1); (c) married and single; (d) under, and over, age. Will.. remnant] For the fulfilment of the prediction see 1 Kings 15:29.

13. He only.. grave] Abijah, for his goodness, was taken away from the evil to come (cp. Isaiah 57:1), though it is possible that the reward of his piety is meant to be not a timely death, but an honourable burial.

14. But what? even now] i.e. is not the predicted event happening even now?

15. The river] i.e. the Euphrates. Groves] RV ’Asherim’ (pi. of Asherah), and so in 1 Kings 14:23 and elsewhere. These were poles used as religious emblems (cp. Isaiah 17:8), and were probably intended to imitate trees, which, from being endowed with life and growth, were in early ages thought to be the abodes of divine powers, and so were regarded as appropriate seats of worship: cp. 1 Kings 14:23. Though perhaps most commonly associated with Ashtoreth, the goddess of fertility and productiveness, they were not the exclusive symbols of any particular deity; and the Israelites were inclined to adopt them even in connexion with the worship of their own God, as may be gathered from the prohibition against planting ’an Asherah of any kind of tree beside the altar of the Lord’(Deuteronomy 16:21 RV), and the fact that though Jehu restored in Israel the worship of the Lord, yet in the reign of his son Jehoahaz ’there remained the Asherah in Samaria’ (2 Kings 13:6 RV).

17. Tirzah] afterwards the capital, until Samaria was built by Omri (see 1 Kings 15:33; 1 Kings 16:8, 1 Kings 16:15, 1 Kings 16:23). It was NW. of Shechem, Overlooking the Jordan valley.

19. The rest of the acts of Jeroboam] see 2 Chronicles 13:3-20, which describes a severe defeat which he sustained at the hands of Abijah of Judah. The book of the chronicles] probably annals based on the state documents kept by the official recorder. A similar reference occurs in connexion with most of the following reigns.

21. Forty and one years old] It is implied in 2 Chronicles 12:8; 2 Chronicles 13:3 that Rehoboam was young when he came to the throne; and one MS of the LXX here substitutes ’sixteen years old.’ His mother’s name] the name of the mother of each succeeding king (see 1 Kings 15:10; 1 Kings 22:42; 2 Kings 8:25, etc.) is expressly mentioned because of the position which the queen dowager occupied: see on 1 Kings 2:19.

23. Images] RV ’pillars’: for their significance see on 1 Kings 7:15.

24. Sodomites] Persons who dedicated themselves to the impure rites which were observed in honour of certain deities in the neighbourhood of their temples.

25. Shishak] see on 1 Kings 11:40. A list of towns taken by Shishak has been preserved in an inscription by the conqueror himself at Karnak in Egypt. Among them were Keilah, Socoh, Aijalon, Beth-horon. Gibeon and Makkedah in Judah, and Taanach, Shunem, and Mahanaim in N. Israel. The mention of Israelite as well as Judasan towns seems to imply that Shishak attacked both of the Hebrew sovereigns, unless the towns in Israel were in revolt against Jeroboam, and the Egyptians were helping him to reduce them.

31. Abijam] called Abijah in LXX and in 2 Chronicles 12:16. The latter is probably the correct form of the name.