14 and speaketh unto them according to the counsel of the lads, saying, `My father made your yoke heavy, and I -- I add unto it; my father chastised you with whips, and I -- with scorpions.'
And the lads who have grown up with him, speak with him, saying, `Thus dost thou say to the people who have spoken unto thee, saying, Thy father made our yoke heavy, and thou, make light `somewhat' of our yoke; thus dost thou say unto them, My little finger is thicker than the loins of my father; and now, my father laid on you a heavy yoke, and I -- I add unto your yoke; my father chastised you with whips, and I -- with scorpions.'
And he doth the evil thing in the eyes of Jehovah, like the house of Ahab, for they have been his counsellors, after the death of his father, for destruction to him. Also, in their counsel he hath walked, and goeth with Jehoram son of Ahab king of Israel to battle against Hazael king of Aram, in Ramoth-Gilead, and they of Ramah smite Joram;
The beginning of contention `is' a letting out of waters, And before it is meddled with leave the strife.
And who knoweth whether he is wise or foolish? yet he doth rule over all my labour that I have laboured at, and that I have done wisely under the sun! this also `is' vanity.
Wo to thee, O land, when thy king `is' a youth, And thy princes do eat in the morning.
Taken counsel have all the presidents of the kingdom, the prefects, and the satraps, the counsellors, and the governors, to establish a royal statute, and to strengthen an interdict, that any who seeketh a petition from any god and man until thirty days, save of thee, O king, is cast into a den of lions.
Worthy.Bible » Commentaries » Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible » Commentary on 2 Chronicles 10
Commentary on 2 Chronicles 10 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 10
2Ch 10:1-15. Rehoboam Refusing the Old Men's Good Counsel.
1. Rehoboam went to Shechem—(See on 1Ki 12:1). This chapter is, with a few verbal alterations, the same as in 1Ki 12:1-19.
3. And they sent—rather, "for they had sent," &c. This is stated as the reason of Jeroboam's return from Egypt.
7. If thou be kind to this people, and please them, and speak good words to them—In the Book of Kings [1Ki 12:7], the words are, "If thou wilt be a servant unto this people, and wilt serve them." The meaning in both is the same, namely, If thou wilt make some reasonable concessions, redress their grievances, and restore their abridged liberties, thou wilt secure their strong and lasting attachment to thy person and government.
15-17. the king hearkened not unto the people, for the cause was of God—Rehoboam, in following an evil counsel, and the Hebrew people, in making a revolutionary movement, each acted as free agents, obeying their own will and passions. But God, who permitted the revolt of the northern tribes, intended it as a punishment of the house of David for Solomon's apostasy. That event demonstrates the immediate superintendence of His providence over the revolutions of kingdoms; and thus it affords an instance, similar to many other striking instances that are found in Scripture, of divine predictions, uttered long before, being accomplished by the operation of human passions, and in the natural course of events.