Family of Solomon -- age of Rehoboam -- his character -- religious history of israel and judah -- the

assembly at Shechem -- Jeroboam's return from egypt -- Rehoboam's answer to the deputies in Shechem

-- revolt of the ten tribes -- the reigns of Rehoboam and of jeroboam -- invasion of judah by Shishak --

church and state in israel -- Rehoboam's attempt to recover rule over the ten tribes -- his family history --

religious decline in israel, and its consequences.

1 KINGS 12; 14:21-23; 2 CHRONICLES 10-12

STRANGE as it may seem, despite the multifarious marriages of the king, his alliances with neighboring

nations, and his immense wealth, "the house of Solomon" was far from strong at the time of his decease. It

may have been that Solomon left other sons besides Rehoboam, though it is strange that we find no notice

of them, nor, indeed, of any child, except a casual remark about two of Solomon's daughters (1 Kings 4:11,

15). If other children survived him, their position must have been far less influential than that of the sons of

David, nor does Rehoboam's succession appear to have been ever contested by any member of the family.

Rehoboam, or rather Rechavam ("he who enlargeth the people"), must have been very young at his

accession. This we gather from the expression by which they "who had grown up with him" are described,

and from the manner in which his son and successor, Abijah, characterized the commencement of his reign

(2 Chronicles 13:7). There seems, therefore, considerable probability attaching to the suggestion, that the

notice of his age at his accession - forty-one (1 Kings 14:21; 2 Chro nicles 12:13) - is the mistake of a copyist,

who in transcribing the figures misread the two letters ak - twenty-one - for am -forty-one. This supposition

is strengthened by the fact that Rehoboam was not the son of the Egyptian princess, who seems to have

been Solomon's first wife, but of Naamah, an Ammonitess;175 and we know that it was only after his religious

decline (1 Kings 11:1) that Solomon entered upon alliances with "strange women," among whom

Ammonitesses are specially mentioned.176

Of the character of Rehoboam we know sufficient to form an accurate estimate. David had taken care to

commit the upbringing of his son and successor to the prophet Nathan; and, so far as we can judge, the

early surroundings of Solomon were such as not only to keep him from intimacy with light or evil associates,

but to train him in earnest piety. But when Rehoboam was born, King Solomon had already entered upon the

fatal path which led to the ruin of his race; and the prince was brought up, like any other Eastern in similar

circumstances, with the young nobles of a court which had learned foreign modes of thinkin g and foreign

manners. The relation between the aristocracy and the people, between the king and his subjects, had

changed from the primitive and God-sanctioned to that of ordinary Eastern despotism; and the notions

which Rehoboam and his young friends entertained, appeared only too clearly in the first act of the king's

reign. In general, we gather that Rehoboam was vain, weak, and impulsive; ready to give up under the

influence of fear what he had desired and attempted when he deemed himself secure. Firm religious

principles he had not, and his inclinations led him not only towards idolatry, but to a form of it peculiarly

dissolute in its character (1 Kings 14:23, 24; 2 Chronicles 11:f17; 12:1). During the first three years of his

reign he remained, indeed, faithful to the religion of his fathers, either through the influence of the Levites

who had gathered around him from all Israel - though even in this case his motives might be rather political

than conscientious - or else under the impression of the outward consequences of his first great mistake.

But this mood soon passed away, and when the state-reasons for his early adherence to the worship of

Jehovah had ceased to be cogent, or he felt himself secure on his throne, he yielded, as we have seen, to his

real inclinations in the matter.

Here, at the outset of the separate history of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel, it may be well to take a

general view of the relation of these two divisions of the Jewish people to Jehovah, their King. That the sin

of Israel was much deeper, and their apostasy from God much sooner and more fully developed than in the

case of Judah, appears from the circumstance, that the Divine judgment in the banishment of the people