---
title: "Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible -  1 Kings 12"
description: "CHAPTER 12   :-. REFUSING THE
OLD MEN"
image: "/images/missing.jpg"
url: "https://realbiblebelievers.com/commentaries/commentary-critical-and-explanatory-on-the-whole-bible/1-kings/12"
---

CHAPTER 12

. REFUSING THE
OLD MEN'S
COUNSEL.

**1. Rehoboam went to Shechem**—He
was the oldest, and perhaps the only son of Solomon, and had been,
doubtless, designated by his father heir to the throne, as Solomon
had been by David. The incident here related took place after the
funeral obsequies of the late king and the period for public mourning
had past. When all Israel came to make him king, it was not to
exercise their old right of election (), for, after God's promise of the perpetual sovereignty
to David's posterity, their duty was submission to the authority of
the rightful heir; but their object was, when making him king, to
renew the conditions and stipulations to which their constitutional
kings were subject ([1 Samuel 10:25](../../../kjv/1-samuel/10/25)).
To the omission of such rehearsing which, under the peculiar
circumstances in which Solomon was made king, they were disposed to
ascribe the absolutism of his government.
**Shechem**—This ancient,
venerable, and central town was the place of convocation; and it is
evident, if not from the appointment of that place, at least from the
tenor of their language, and the concerted presence of Jeroboam [[1 Samuel 10:25](../../../kjv/1-samuel/10/25)], that the people were determined on revolt.

**4. Thy father made our yoke
grievous**—The splendor of Solomon's court and the magnitude of
his undertakings being such, that neither the tribute of dependent
states, nor the presents of foreign princes, nor the profits of his
commercial enterprises, were adequate to carry them on, he had been
obliged, for obtaining the necessary revenue, to begin a system of
heavy taxation. The people looked only to the burdens, not to the
benefits they derived from Solomon's peaceful and prosperous
reign—and the evils from which they demanded deliverance were civil
oppressions, not idolatry, to which they appear to have been
indifferent or approving.

**5-8. he said . . . Depart yet for
three days**—It was prudent to take the people's demand into calm
and deliberate consideration. Whether, had the advice of the sage and
experienced counsellors been followed, any good result would have
followed, it is impossible to say. It would at least have removed all
pretext for the separation. [See on .] But he preferred the counsel of his young companions (not
in age, for they were all about forty-one, but inexperienced), who
recommended prompt and decisive measures to quell the malcontents.

**11. whips . . . scorpions**—The
latter [instruments], as contrasted with the former, are supposed to
mean thongs thickly set with sharp iron points, used in the
castigation of slaves.

**15-18. the king hearkened not unto
the people, for the cause was from the Lord**—That was the
overruling cause. Rehoboam's weakness ([Ecclesiastes 2:18](../../../kjv/ecclesiastes/2/18);
[Ecclesiastes 2:19](../../../kjv/ecclesiastes/2/19)) and inexperience in
public affairs has given rise to the probable conjecture, that, like
many other princes in the East, he had been kept secluded in the
harem till the period of his accession ([Ecclesiastes 2:19](../../../kjv/ecclesiastes/2/19)), his father being either afraid of his aspiring to the
sovereignty, like the two sons of David, or, which is more probable,
afraid of prematurely exposing his imbecility. The king's haughty and
violent answer to a people already filled with a spirit of discontent
and exasperation, indicated so great an incapacity to appreciate the
gravity of the crisis, so utter a want of common sense, as to create
a belief that he was struck with judicial blindness. It was received
with mingled scorn and derision. The revolt was accomplished, and yet
so quietly, that Rehoboam remained in Shechem, fancying himself the
sovereign of a united kingdom, until his chief tax gatherer, who had
been most imprudently sent to treat with the people, had been stoned
to death. This opened his eyes, and he fled for security to
Jerusalem.
[Ecclesiastes 2:19](../../../kjv/ecclesiastes/2/19). JEROBOAM
MADE KING
OVER THEM.

**20-24. when all Israel heard that
Jeroboam was come again**—This verse closes the parenthetical
narrative begun at [1 Kings 12:2](../../../kjv/1-kings/12/2);
[1 Kings 12:21-24](../../../kjv/1-kings/12/21-24) resume the
history from [1 Kings 12:1](../../../kjv/1-kings/12/1). Rehoboam
determined to assert his authority by leading a large force into the
disaffected provinces. But the revolt of the ten tribes was completed
when the prophet Shemaiah ordered, in the Lord's name, an abandonment
of any hostile measures against the revolutionists. The army,
overawed by the divine prohibition, dispersed, and the king was
obliged to submit.

**25. Jeroboam built Shechem**—destroyed
by Abimelech ([Judges 9:1-49](../../../kjv/judges/9/1-49)).
It was rebuilt, and perhaps fortified, by Jeroboam, as a royal
residence.
**built Penuel**—a ruined
city with a tower ([Judges 8:9](../../../kjv/judges/8/9)), east
of Jordan, on the north bank of the Jabbok. It was an object of
importance to restore this fortress (as it lay on the caravan road
from Gilead to Damascus and Palmyra) and to secure his frontier on
that quarter.

**26-32. Jeroboam said in his heart,
Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David**—Having
received the kingdom from God, he should have relied on the divine
protection. But he did not. With a view to withdraw the people from
the temple and destroy the sacred associations connected with
Jerusalem, he made serious and unwarranted innovations on the
religious observances of the country, on pretext of saving the people
the trouble and expense of a distant journey. First, he erected two
golden calves—the young bulls, Apis and Mnevis, as symbols (in the
Egyptian fashion) of the true God, and the nearest, according to his
fancy, to the figures of the cherubim. The one was placed at Dan, in
the northern part of his kingdom; the other at Beth-el, the southern
extremity, in sight of Jerusalem, and in which place he probably
thought God was as likely to manifest Himself as at Jerusalem
([Genesis 32:1-32](../../../kjv/genesis/32/1-32); [2 Kings 2:2](../../../kjv/2-kings/2/2)).
The latter place was the most frequented—for the words ([2 Kings 2:2](../../../kjv/2-kings/2/2)) should be rendered, "the people even to Dan went to
worship before the one" ([Jeremiah 48:13](../../../kjv/jeremiah/48/13);
[Amos 4:4](../../../kjv/amos/4/4); [Amos 4:5](../../../kjv/amos/4/5);
[Amos 5:5](../../../kjv/amos/5/5); [Hosea 5:8](../../../kjv/hosea/5/8);
[Hosea 10:8](../../../kjv/hosea/10/8)). The innovation was a
sin because it was setting up the worship of God by symbols and
images and departing from the place where He had chosen to put His
name. Secondly, he changed the feast of tabernacles from the
fifteenth of the seventh to the fifteenth of the eighth month. The
ostensible reason might be, that the ingathering or harvest was later
in the northern parts of the kingdom; but the real reason was to
eradicate the old association with this, the most welcome and joyous
festival of the year.

**31. made priests of the lowest of
the people**—literally, "out of all the people," the
Levites refusing to act. He himself assumed to himself the functions
of the high priest, at least, at the great festival, probably from
seeing the king of Egypt conjoin the royal and sacred offices, and
deeming the office of the high priest too great to be vested in a
subject.

**26-32. Jeroboam said in his heart,
Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David**—Having
received the kingdom from God, he should have relied on the divine
protection. But he did not. With a view to withdraw the people from
the temple and destroy the sacred associations connected with
Jerusalem, he made serious and unwarranted innovations on the
religious observances of the country, on pretext of saving the people
the trouble and expense of a distant journey. First, he erected two
golden calves—the young bulls, Apis and Mnevis, as symbols (in the
Egyptian fashion) of the true God, and the nearest, according to his
fancy, to the figures of the cherubim. The one was placed at Dan, in
the northern part of his kingdom; the other at Beth-el, the southern
extremity, in sight of Jerusalem, and in which place he probably
thought God was as likely to manifest Himself as at Jerusalem
([Genesis 32:1-32](../../../kjv/genesis/32/1-32); [2 Kings 2:2](../../../kjv/2-kings/2/2)).
The latter place was the most frequented—for the words ([2 Kings 2:2](../../../kjv/2-kings/2/2)) should be rendered, "the people even to Dan went to
worship before the one" ([Jeremiah 48:13](../../../kjv/jeremiah/48/13);
[Amos 4:4](../../../kjv/amos/4/4); [Amos 4:5](../../../kjv/amos/4/5);
[Amos 5:5](../../../kjv/amos/5/5); [Hosea 5:8](../../../kjv/hosea/5/8);
[Hosea 10:8](../../../kjv/hosea/10/8)). The innovation was a
sin because it was setting up the worship of God by symbols and
images and departing from the place where He had chosen to put His
name. Secondly, he changed the feast of tabernacles from the
fifteenth of the seventh to the fifteenth of the eighth month. The
ostensible reason might be, that the ingathering or harvest was later
in the northern parts of the kingdom; but the real reason was to
eradicate the old association with this, the most welcome and joyous
festival of the year.

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