6 And it cometh to pass, at Ahijah's hearing the sound of her feet `as' she came in to the opening, that he saith, `Come in, wife of Jeroboam, why is this -- thou art making thyself strange? and I am sent unto thee `with' a sharp thing:
Jehovah made void the counsel of nations, He disallowed the thoughts of the peoples.
and there is not a created thing not manifest before Him, but all things `are' naked and open to His eyes -- with whom is our reckoning.
And Peter said unto her, `How was it agreed by you, to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? lo, the feet of those who did bury thy husband `are' at the door, and they shall carry thee forth;' and she fell down presently at his feet, and expired, and the young men having come in, found her dead, and having carried forth, they buried `her' by her husband;
And Peter said, `Ananias, wherefore did the Adversary fill thy heart, for thee to lie to the Holy Spirit, and to keep back of the price of the place? while it remained, did it not remain thine? and having been sold, in thy authority was it not? why `is' it that thou didst put in thy heart this thing? thou didst not lie to men, but to God;' and Ananias hearing these words, having fallen down, did expire, and great fear came upon all who heard these things,
And, having watched `him', they sent forth liers in wait, feigning themselves to be righteous, that they might take hold of his word, to deliver him up to the rule and to the authority of the governor, and they questioned him, saying, `Teacher, we have known that thou dost say and teach rightly, and dost not accept a person, but in truth the way of God dost teach; Is it lawful to us to give tribute to Caesar or not?' And he, having perceived their craftiness, said unto them, `Why me do ye tempt?
Then hath Daniel answered and said before the king, `Thy gifts be to thyself, and thy fee to another give; nevertheless, the writing I do read to the king, and the interpretation I cause him to know; thou, O king, God Most High, a kingdom, and greatness, and glory, and honour, gave to Nebuchadnezzar thy father: and because of the greatness that He gave to him, all peoples, nations, and languages were trembling and fearing before him: whom he willed he was slaying, and whom he willed he was keeping alive, and whom he willed he was raising up, and whom he willed he was making low; and when his heart was high, and his spirit was strong to act proudly, he hath been caused to come down from the throne of his kingdom, and his glory they have caused to pass away from him, and from the sons of men he is driven, and his heart with the beasts hath been like, and with the wild asses `is' his dwelling; the herb like oxen they cause him to eat, and by the dew of the heavens is his body wet, till that he hath known that God Most High is ruler in the kingdom of men, and whom He willeth He raiseth up over it. `And thou, his son, Belshazzar, hast not humbled thy heart, though all this thou hast known; and against the Lord of the heavens thou hast lifted up thyself; and the vessels of His house they have brought in before thee, and thou, and thy great men, thy wives, and thy concubines, are drinking wine with them, and gods of silver, and of gold, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone, that are not seeing, nor hearing, nor knowing, thou hast praised: and the God in whose hand `is' thy breath, and all thy ways, Him thou hast not honoured. `Then from before Him sent is the extremity of the hand, and the writing is noted down; and this `is' the writing that is noted down: Numbered, Numbered, Weighed, and Divided. This `is' the interpretation of the thing: Numbered -- God hath numbered thy kingdom, and hath finished it. Weighed -- Thou art weighed in the balances, and hast been found lacking. Divided -- Divided is thy kingdom, and it hath been given to the Medes and Persians.'
`Then Daniel, whose name `is' Belteshazzar, hath been astonished about one hour, and his thoughts do trouble him; the king hath answered and said, O Belteshazzar, let not the dream and its interpretation trouble thee. Belteshazzar hath answered and said, My lord, the dream -- to those hating thee, and its interpretation -- to thine enemies! The tree that thou hast seen, that hath become great and strong, and its height doth reach to the heavens, and its vision to all the land, and its leaves `are' fair, and its budding great, and food for all `is' in it, under it dwell doth the beast of the field, and on its boughs sit do the birds of the heavens. `Thou it `is', O king, for thou hast become great and mighty, and thy greatness hath become great, and hath reached to the heavens, and thy dominion to the end of the earth; and that which the king hath seen -- a sifter, even a holy one, coming down from the heavens, and he hath said, Cut down the tree, and destroy it; but the stump of its roots leave in the earth, even with a band of iron and brass, in the tender grass of the field, and with the dew of the heavens it is wet, and with the beast of the field `is' his portion, till that seven times pass over him. `This `is' the interpretation, O king, and the decree of the Most High it `is' that hath come against my lord the king: and they are driving thee away from men, and with the beast of the field is thy dwelling, and the herb as oxen they do cause thee to eat, and by the dew of the heavens they are wetting thee, and seven times do pass over thee, till that thou knowest that the Most High is ruler in the kingdom of men, and to whom He willeth He giveth it.
for every one of the house of Israel, and of the sojourners who doth sojourn in Israel, who is separated from after Me, and doth cause his idols to go up unto his heart, and the stumbling-block of his iniquity setteth over-against his face, and hath come in unto the prophet to inquire of him concerning Me, I, Jehovah, have answered him for Myself; and I have set My face against that man, and made him for a sign, and for similes, and I have cut him off from the midst of My people, and ye have known that I `am' Jehovah.
`Son of man, these men have caused their idols to go up on their heart, and the stumbling-block of their iniquity they have put over-against their faces; am I inquired of at all by them? `Therefore, speak with them, and thou hast said unto them: Thus said the Lord Jehovah: Every one of the house of Israel who causeth his idols to go up unto his heart, and the stumbling-block of his iniquity setteth over-against his face, and hath gone in unto the prophet -- I Jehovah have given an answer to him for this, for the abundance of his idols, in order to catch the house of Israel by their heart, in that they have become estranged from off me by their idols -- all of them.
And the sons `are' brazen-faced and hard-hearted to whom I am sending thee, and thou hast said unto them: Thus said the Lord Jehovah: and they -- whether they hear, or whether they forbear, for a rebellious house they `are' -- have known that a prophet hath been in their midst.
`Inquire, we pray thee, for us at Jehovah, for Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon hath fought against us; perhaps Jehovah doth deal with us according to all His wonders, and doth cause him to go up from off us.' And Jeremiah saith unto them, `Thus do ye say unto Zedekiah, Thus said Jehovah, God of Israel: Lo, I am turning round the weapons of battle That `are' in your hand, With which ye do fight the king of Babylon, And the Chaldeans, who are laying siege against you, At the outside of the wall, And I have gathered them into the midst of this city, And I -- I have fought against you, With a stretched-out hand, and with a strong arm, And in anger, and in fury, and in great wrath, And I have smitten the inhabitants of this city, Both man and beast, By a great pestilence do they die. And after this -- an affirmation of Jehovah, I give Zedekiah king of Judah, And his servants, and the people, And those left in this city, From the pestilence, from the sword, and from the famine, Into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, And into the hand of their enemies, And into the hand of those seeking their life, And he hath smitten them by the mouth of the sword, He hath no pity on them, Nor doth he spare, nor hath he mercy.
And Samuel saith unto Saul, `Desist, and I declare to thee that which Jehovah hath spoken unto me to-night;' and he saith to him, `Speak.'
Capturing the wise in their subtilty, And the counsel of wrestling ones was hastened,
`Rise, go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, who `is' in Samaria, -- lo, in the vineyard of Naboth, whither he hath gone down to possess it, and thou hast spoken unto him, saying, Thus said Jehovah, Hast thou murdered, and also possessed? and thou hast spoken unto him, saying, Thus said Jehovah, In the place where the dogs licked the blood of Naboth, do the dogs lick thy blood, even thine.' And Ahab saith unto Elijah, `Hast thou found me, O mine enemy?' and he saith, `I have found -- because of thy selling thyself to do the evil thing in the eyes of Jehovah; lo, I am bringing in unto thee evil, and have taken away thy posterity, and cut off to Ahab those sitting on the wall, and restrained, and left, in Israel, and given up thy house like the house of Jeroboam son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha son of Ahijah, for the provocation with which thou hast provoked `Me', and dost cause Israel to sin. `And also of Jezebel hath Jehovah spoken, saying, The dogs do eat Jezebel in the bulwark of Jezreel; him who dieth of Ahab in a city do the dogs eat, and him who dieth in a field do fowl of the heavens eat;
and he saith unto him, `Thus said Jehovah, Because thou hast sent away the man I devoted, out of `thy' hand, even thy life hath been for his life, and thy people for his people;'
`Therefore, lo, I am bringing in evil unto the house of Jeroboam, and have cut off to Jeroboam those sitting on the wall -- shut up and left -- in Israel, and have put away the posterity of the house of Jeroboam, as one putteth away the dung till its consumption; him who dieth of Jeroboam in a city do the dogs eat, and him who dieth in a field do fowl of the heavens eat, for Jehovah hath spoken.
And Jehovah said unto Ahijah, `Lo, the wife of Jeroboam is coming to seek a word from thee concerning her son, for he is sick; thus and thus thou dost speak unto her, and it cometh to pass at her coming in, that she is making herself strange.'
and Jeroboam saith to his wife, `Rise, I pray thee, and change thyself, and they know not that thou `art' wife of Jeroboam, and thou hast gone to Shiloh; lo, there `is' Ahijah the prophet; he spake unto me of `being' king over this people;
And it cometh to pass -- they are sitting at the table -- and a word of Jehovah is unto the prophet who brought him back, and he calleth unto the man of God who came from Judah, saying, `Thus said Jehovah, Because that thou hast provoked the mouth of Jehovah, and hast not kept the command that Jehovah thy God charged thee, and turnest back and dost eat bread and drink water in the place of which He said unto thee, Thou dost not eat bread nor drink water -- thy carcase cometh not in unto the burying-place of thy fathers.'
Because thou hast not hearkened to the voice of Jehovah, nor didst the fierceness of His anger on Amalek -- therefore this thing hath Jehovah done to thee this day;
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Keil & Delitzsch Commentary » Commentary on 1 Kings 14
Commentary on 1 Kings 14 Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
Reign of Jeroboam. - Vv. 1-18. Ahijah's prophecy against Jeroboam and the kingdom of Israel . - As Jeroboam did not desist from his idolatry notwithstanding the threatened punishment, the Lord visited him with the illness of his son, and directed the prophet Ahijah, to whom his wife had gone to ask counsel concerning the result of the illness, to predict to him not only the cutting off of his house and the death of his sick son, but also the thrusting away of Israel out of the land of its fathers beyond the Euphrates, and in confirmation of this threat caused the sick son to die when the returning mother crossed the threshold of her house again.
1 Kings 14:1-3
When his son fell sick, Jeroboam said to his wife: Disguise thyself, that thou mayest not be known as the wife of Jeroboam, and go to Shiloh to the prophet Ahijah, who told me that I should be king over this people; he will tell thee how it will fare with the boy. השׁתּנּה , from שׁנה , to alter one's self, i.e., to disguise one's self. She was to go to Shiloh disguised, so as not to be recognised, to deceive the old prophet, because otherwise Jeroboam did not promise himself any favourable answer, as he had contemptuously neglected Ahijah's admonition (1 Kings 11:38-39). But he turned to this prophet because he had spoken concerning him למלך , to be king, i.e., that he would become king, over this people. למלך stands for מלך להיות , with which the infinitive esse can be omitted (vid., Ewald , § 336, b .). As this prophecy, which was so favourable to Jeroboam, had come to pass (1 Kings 11:29-30), he hoped that he might also obtain from Ahijah a divine revelation concerning the result of his son's illness, provided that he did not know who it was who came to seek counsel concerning her sick son. To complete the deception, she was to take with her as a present for the prophet (cf., 1 Samuel 9:8) “ten loaves and crumbs” and a jar with honey, i.e., a trifling gift such as a simple citizen's wife might take. According to the early versions and the context, a kind of plain cake, κολλυρίδα (lxx), crustulam (Vulg.). It is different in Joshua 9:5.
1 Kings 14:4-5
Ahijah could no longer see, because his eyes were blinded with age. עיניו קמוּ as in 1 Samuel 4:15, an expression applied to the black cataract, amaurosis . It was therefore all the less possible for him to recognise in a natural manner the woman who was coming to him. But before her arrival the Lord had not only revealed to him her coming and her object, but had also told him what he was to say to her if she should disguise herself when she came. וכזה כּזה ; see at Judges 18:4, וגו כבאהּ ויהי , “let it be if she comes and disguises herself;” i.e., if when she comes she should disguise herself.
1 Kings 14:6
When Ahijah heard the sound of her feet entering the door (the participle בּאה , according to the number and gender, refers to the אשּׁה implied in רגליה , vid., Ewald, §317, c .), he addressed her by her name, charged her with her disguise of herself, and told her that he was entrusted with a hard saying to her. קשׁה (cf., 1 Kings 12:13) is equivalent to קשׁה חזוּת ; for the construction, compare Ewald, §284, c .
1 Kings 14:7-11
The saying was as follows: “Therefore, because thou hast exalted thyself from the people, and I have made thee prince over my people Israel (cf., 1 Kings 11:31), ... but thou hast not been as my servant David, who kept my commandments...(cf., 1 Kings 11:34), and hast done worse than all who were before thee ( judices nimirum et duces Israelis - Cler.), and hast gone and hast made thyself other gods (contrary to the express command in Exodus 20:2-3), ... and hast cast me behind thy back: therefore I bring misfortune upon the house of Jeroboam,” etc. The expression, to cast God behind the back, which only occurs here and in Ezekiel 23:35, denotes the most scornful contempt of God, the strict opposite of “keeping God before the eyes and in the heart.” בּקיר משׁתּין , every male person; see at 1 Samuel 25:22. A synonymous expression is ועזוּב עצוּר , the fettered (i.e., probably the married) and the free (or single); see at Deuteronomy 32:36. “In Israel,” i.e., in the kingdom of the ten tribes. The threat is strengthened by the clause in 1 Kings 14:10, “and I will sweep out after the house of Jeroboam, as one sweepeth out dung, even to the end,” which expresses shameful and utter extermination; and this threat is still further strengthened in 1 Kings 14:11 by the threat added from Deuteronomy 28:26, that of those cut off not one is to come to the grave, but their bodies are to be devoured by the dogs and birds of prey, - the worst disgrace that could befall the dead. Instead of wild beasts (Deuteronomy 28:26) the dogs are mentioned here, because in the East they wander out in the streets without owners, and are so wild and ravenous that they even devour corpses (vid., Harmar, Beobachtungen , i. p. 198). לירבעם with ל of relationship, equivalent to of those related to Jeroboam. It is the same in 1 Kings 14:13.
1 Kings 14:12-13
After this announcement of the judgment upon the house of Jeroboam, Ahijah gave the wife information concerning her sick son. He would die as soon as she entered the city, and of all the male members of the house of Jeroboam he only would receive the honour of a proper burial, because in him there was some good thing towards Jehovah found. Ewald ( § 247, b .) regards the form בּבאה as standing for בּבאהּ , and refers the suffix to the following word העיר (vid., Ewald, §309, c .). But as this use of the suffix would be very harsh, the question arises whether בּאה is not to be regarded as a feminine form of the infinitive, after the analogy of דּעה in Exodus 2:4 and לדה in 2 Kings 19:3, etc. From the fulfilment of this declaration in 1 Kings 14:17, 1 Kings 14:18 Jeroboam was to learn that the threatened destruction of his royal house would also be just as certainly fulfilled. The sick son appears to have been the heir-presumptive to the throne. This may be inferred partly from the lamentation of all Israel at his death (1 Kings 14:18), and partly from what follows here in the next verse. אליהוה means in his relation to Jehovah.
1 Kings 14:14
“Jehovah will raise Himself up a king over Israel, who will cut off the house of Jeroboam this day; but what (sc., do I say)? even now,” sc., has He raised him up. This appears to be the simplest explanation of the last words of the verse, of which very various interpretations have been given. יד is placed before היּום , to give it the stronger emphasis, as in Exodus 32:1 (compare Joshua 9:12-13, and Ewald, §293, b .; and for עתּה גּם compare Delitzsch on Job , i. p. 290, transl.).
1 Kings 14:15-18
But in order that not only Jeroboam, but also the people who had joined in his idolatry, might perceive the severity of the divine judgment, Ahijah also announced to the nation its banishment into exile beyond the Euphrates. “Jehovah will smite Israel, as the reed shakes in the water,” is an abbreviated phrase for: Jehovah will smite Israel in such a manner that it will sway to and fro like a reed in the water moved by a strong wind, which has not a sufficiently firm hold to resist the violence of the storm. “And will thrust them out of the good land,” etc., as Moses threatened the transgressors of the law (Deuteronomy 29:27), “and scatter them beyond the river (Euphrates),” i.e., banish them among the heathen, from whom God brought out and chose their forefather (Joshua 24:3), “because they have made themselves Ashera-idols, to provoke Jehovah.” אשׁרים is used for idols generally, among which the golden calves are reckoned. ויתּן , that He may deliver up Israel, on account of the idolatrous forms of worship introduced by Jeroboam. For the fulfilment see 2 Kings 15:29; 2 Kings 17:23, and 2 Kings 18:11. - In 1 Kings 14:17, 1 Kings 14:18 the exact fulfilment of Ahijah's announcement concerning the death of Jeroboam's sick son is described. According to 1 Kings 14:17, Jeroboam was then residing at Thirza , whereas he had at first resided at Shechem (1 Kings 12:25). Thirza is probably the present Talluza , on the north of Shechem (see at Joshua 12:24).
1 Kings 14:19-20
End of Jeroboam's reign . Of the wars, which were described in the annals of the kings, the war with Abijam of Judah is the only one of which we have any account (2 Chronicles 13:2.). See also the Comm. on 1 Kings 14:30. He was followed on the throne by his son Nadab.
Reign of Rehoboam in Judah (compare 2 Chron 11:5-12:16). - 1 Kings 14:21. Rehoboam, who ascended the throne at the age of forty-one, was born a year before the accession of Solomon (see at 1 Kings 2:24). In the description of Jerusalem as the city chosen by the Lord (cf., 1 Kings 11:36) there is implied not so much an indirect condemnation of the falling away of the ten tribes, as the striking contrast to the idolatry of Rehoboam referred to in 1 Kings 14:23. The name of his mother is mentioned (here and in 1 Kings 14:31), not because she seduced the king to idolatry (Ephr. Syr.), but generally on account of the great influence which the queen-mother appears to have had both upon the king personally and upon his government, as we may infer from the fact that the mother's name is given in the case of every king of Judah (vid., 1 Kings 15:2, 1 Kings 15:13; 1 Kings 22:42, etc.).
1 Kings 14:22-24
The general characteristics of Rehoboam's reign are supplied and more minutely defined in the account in the Chronicles. According to 2 Chron 11:5-12:1, he appears to have been brought to reflection by the announcement of the prophet, that the falling away of the ten tribes had come from the Lord as a punishment for Solomon's idolatry (1 Kings 12:23-24; 2 Chronicles 11:2-4); and in the first years of his reign to have followed the law of God with earnestness, and to have been occupied in the establishment of his government partly by the fortification of different cities (2 Chronicles 11:5-12), and partly by setting in order his domestic affairs, placing his numerous sons, who were born of his many wives and concubines, in the fortified cities of the land, and thus providing for them, and naming Abijam as his successor (2 Chronicles 11:18-22); while his kingdom was still further strengthened by the priests, Levites, and pious Israelites who emigrated to Judah and Jerusalem from the ten tribes (2 Chronicles 11:13-17). But this good beginning only lasted three years (2 Chronicles 11:17). When he thought that he had sufficiently fortified his kingdom, he forsook the law of the Lord, and all Israel (i.e., all the covenant nation) with him (2 Chronicles 12:1). “Judah did that which was displeasing in the sight of the Lord; they provoked Him to jealousy more than all that their fathers (sc., under the Judges) had done with their sins.” קנּא , to provoke to jealousy (Numbers 5:14), is to be explained, when it refers to God, from the fact that the relation in which God stood to His people was regarded under the figure of a marriage, in which Jehovah appears as the husband of the nation, who is angry at the unfaithfulness of his wife, i.e., at the idolatry of the nation. Compare the remarks on קנּא אל in the Comm. on Exodus 20:5.
1 Kings 14:23
They also (the Judaeans as well as the Israelites) built themselves bamoth , altars of high places (see at 1 Kings 3:3), monuments and Ashera-idols. מצּבות are not actual images of gods, but stones set up as memorials (Genesis 31:13; Genesis 35:20; Exodus 24:4), more especially stone monuments set up in commemoration of a divine revelation (Genesis 28:18, Genesis 28:22; Genesis 35:14). Like the bamoth , in connection with which they generally occur, they were originally dedicated to Jehovah; but even under the law they were forbidden, partly as places of divine worship of human invention which easily degenerated into idolatry, but chiefly because the Canaanites had erected such monuments to Baal by the side of his altars (Exodus 23:24; Exodus 34:13; Deuteronomy 7:5, etc.), whereby the worship of Jehovah was unconsciously identified with the worship of Baal, even when the mazzeboth were not at first erected to the Canaanitish Baal. As the מצּבות of the Canaanites were dedicated to Baal, so were the אשׁרים to Astarte, the female nature-deity of those tribes. אשׁרה , however, does not mean a grove (see the Comm. on Deuteronomy 16:21), but an idol of the Canaanitish nature-goddess, generally most likely a lofty wooden pillar, though sometimes perhaps a straight trunk of a tree, the branches and crown of which were lopped off, and which was planted upon heights and in other places by the side of the altars of Baal. The name אשׁרה was transferred from the idol to the goddess of nature (1 Kings 15:13; 1 Kings 18:19; 2 Kings 21:7, etc.), and was used of the image or column of the Phoenician Astarte (1 Kings 16:33; 2 Kings 13:6; 2 Kings 17:16, etc.), just as אשׁרות in Judges 3:7 alternates with עשׁתּרות in Judges 2:13. These idols the Israelites (? Judaeans - Tr.) appear to have also associated with the worship of Jehovah; for the external worship of Jehovah was still maintained in the temple, and was performed by Rehoboam himself with princely pomp (1 Kings 14:28). “On every high hill,” etc.; see at Deuteronomy 12:2.
1 Kings 14:24
“There were also prostitutes in the land.” קדּשׁ is used collectively as a generic name, including both male and female hierodylae, and is exchanged for the plural in 1 Kings 15:12. The male קדשׁים had emasculated themselves in religious frenzy in honour of the Canaanitish goddess of nature, and were called Galli by the Romans. They were Canaanites, who had found their way into the land of Judah when idolatry gained the upper hand (as indicated by וגם ). “They appear here as strangers among the Israelites, and are those notorious Cinaedi more especially of the imperial age of Rome who travelled about in all directions, begging for the Syrian goddess, and even in the time of Augustine went about asking for alms in the streets of Carthage as a remnant of the Phoenician worship ( de civ. Dei , vii. 26).” - Movers, p. 679. On the female קדשׁות see the Comm. on Genesis 38:21 and Deuteronomy 23:18.
This sinking into heathen abominations was soon followed by the punishment, that Judah was given up to the power of the heathen.
1 Kings 14:25-27
King Shishak of Egypt invaded the land with a powerful army, conquered all the fortified cities, penetrated to Jerusalem, and would probably have put an end to the kingdom of Judah, if God had not had compassion upon him, and saved him from destruction, in consequence of the humiliation of the king and of the chiefs of the nation, caused by the admonition of the prophet Shemaiah, so that after the conquest of Jerusalem Shishak contented himself with withdrawing, taking with him the treasures of the temple and of the royal palace. Compare the fuller account of this expedition in 2 Chronicles 12:2-9. Shishak ( שׁישׁק ) was the first king of the twenty-second (or Bubastitic) dynasty, called Sesonchis in Jul. Afric., Sesonchosis in Eusebius, and upon the monuments on which Champollion first deciphered his name, Sheshonk or Sheshenk . Shishak has celebrated his expedition against Judah by a bas-relief on the outer wall of the pillar-hall erected by him in the first palace at Karnak, in which more than 130 figures are led in cords by Ammon and the goddess Muth with their hands bound upon their backs. The lower portion of the figures of this long row of prisoners is covered by escutcheons, the border of which being provided with battlements, shows that the prisoners are symbols of conquered cities. About a hundred of these escutcheons are still legible, and in the names upon them a large number of the names of cities in the kingdom of Judah have been deciphered with tolerable certainty.
(Note: Compare Max Duncker, Gesch. des Alterthums , Bd. i. p. 909, ed. 3, and for the different copies of this bas-relief in the more recent works upon Egypt, Reutschi in Herzog ' s Cycl . (art. Rehoboam ). The latest attempts at deciphering are those by Brugsch, Geogr. Inschriften in den ägypt . Denkmältern , ii. p. 56ff., and O. Blau, Sisaqs Zug gegen Juda aus dem Denkmale bei Karnak erläutert , in the Deutsch. morgenl. Ztschr . xv. p. 233ff. Champollion ' s interpretation of one of these escutcheons, in his Précis du système hierogl . p. 204, viz., Juda hammalek , “ the king of Judah, ” has been rejected by Lepsius and Brugsch as philologically inadmissible. Brugsch writes the name thus: Judh malk or Joud-hamalok , and identifies Judh with Jehudijeh , which Robinson ( Pal . iii. p. 45) supposes to be the ancient Jehud ( Joshua 19:45). This Jehud in the tribe of Dan, Blau (p. 238) therefore also finds in the name; and it will not mislead any one that this city is reckoned as belonging to the tribe of Dan, since in the very same chapter (Joshua 19:42) Ajalon is assigned to Dan, though it was nevertheless a fortress of Rehoboam (2 Chronicles 11:10). But Blau has not given any explanation of the addition malk or malok , whereas Gust. Roesch takes it to be מלך , and supposes it to mean “ Jehud of the king, namely, of Rehoboam or of Judah, on account of its being situated in Dan, which belonged to the northern kingdom. ” But this is certainly incorrect. For where could the Egyptians have obtained this exact knowledge of the relation in which the tribes of the nation of Israel stood to one another?)
Shishak was probably bent chiefly upon the conquest and plundering of the cities. But from Jerusalem, beside other treasures of the temple and palace, he also carried off the golden shields that had been made by Solomon (1 Kings 10:16), in the place of which Rehoboam had copper ones made for his body-guard. The guard, רצים , runners, are still further described as המּלך בּית פּתח בּית ה השּׁמרים , “who kept the door of the king's house,” i.e., supplied the sentinels for the gate of the royal palace.
1 Kings 14:28
Whenever the king went into the house of Jehovah, the runners carried these shields; from which we may see that the king was accustomed to go to the temple with solemn pomp. These shields were not kept in the state-house of the forest of Lebanon (1 Kings 10:17) as the golden shields were, but in the guard-chamber ( תּא ; see at Ezekiel 40:7) of the runners.
1 Kings 14:29-30
Further particulars are given in 2 Chron 11 and 12 concerning the rest of the acts of Rehoboam. “There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam the whole time (of their reign).” As nothing is said about any open war between them, and the prophet Shemaiah prohibited the attack which Rehoboam was about to make upon the tribes who had fallen away (1 Kings 11:23.), מלחמה can only denote the hostile feelings and attitude of the two rulers towards one another.
1 Kings 14:31
Death and burial of Rehoboam : as in the case of Solomon (1 Kings 11:43). The name of the queen-mother has already been given in 1 Kings 14:21, and the repetition of it here may be explained on the supposition that in the original sources employed by the author of our books it stood in this position. The son and successor of Rehoboam upon the throne is called Abijam ( אביּם ) in the account before us; whereas in the Chronicles he is always called Abijah ( אביּה , 2 Chronicles 12:16; 2 Chronicles 13:1, etc., or אביּהוּ , 2 Chronicles 13:21). אביּם , i.e., father of the sea, is unquestionably the older form of the name, which was reduced to אביּה , and then identified with the formation from אבי and יה = יהוּ (from יהוה ).