The
glory of the kingdom of Israel was in its height and perfection in Solomon;
it was long in coming to it, but it soon declined, and began to sink and
wither in the very next reign, as we find in this chapter, where we have the
kingdom divided, and thereby weakened and made little in comparison with
what it had been. Here is, I. Rehoboam's accession to the throne and
Jeroboam's return out of
Egypt, ver. 1, 2. II. The people's petition to
Rehoboam for the redress of grievances, and the rough answer he gave, by the
advice of his young counsellors, to that petition, ver. 3-15. III. The
revolt of the ten tribes thereupon, and their setting up Jeroboam, ver.
16-20. IV. Rehoboam's attempt to reduce them and the prohibition God gave to
that attempt, ver. 21-24. V. Jeroboam's establishment of his government upon
idolatry, ver. 25-33. Thus did Judah become weak, being deserted by their
brethren, and Israel, by deserting the house of the Lord.
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The
Folly of Rehoboam.
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B.
C. 975.
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1 And Rehoboam went to Shechem: for all
Israel were come to Shechem to make him king. 2 And it came to
pass, when Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who was yet in Egypt, heard of it,
(for he was fled from the presence of king Solomon, and Jeroboam dwelt in
Egypt;) 3 That they sent and called him. And Jeroboam and all
the congregation of Israel came, and spake unto Rehoboam, saying,
4 Thy father made our yoke grievous: now therefore make thou the grievous
service of thy father, and his heavy yoke which he put upon us, lighter, and
we will serve thee. 5 And he said unto them, Depart yet for
three days, then come again to me. And the people departed. 6
And king Rehoboam consulted with the old men, that stood before Solomon his
father while he yet lived, and said, How do ye advise that I may answer this
people? 7 And they spake unto him, saying, If thou wilt be a
servant unto this people this day, and wilt serve them, and answer them, and
speak good words to them, then they will be thy servants for ever.
8 But he forsook the counsel of the old men, which they had given him, and
consulted with the young men that were grown up with him, and which
stood before him: 9 And he said unto them, What counsel give ye
that we may answer this people, who have spoken to me, saying, Make the yoke
which thy father did put upon us lighter? 10 And the young men
that were grown up with him spake unto him, saying, Thus shalt thou speak
unto this people that spake unto thee, saying, Thy father made our yoke
heavy, but make thou it lighter unto us; thus shalt thou say unto
them, My little finger shall be thicker than my father's loins.
11 And now whereas my father did lade you with a heavy yoke, I will add to
your yoke: my father hath chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you
with scorpions. 12 So Jeroboam and all the people came to
Rehoboam the third day, as the king had appointed, saying, Come to me again
the third day. 13 And the king answered the people roughly, and
forsook the old men's counsel that they gave him; 14 And spake
to them after the counsel of the young men, saying, My father made your yoke
heavy, and I will add to your yoke: my father also chastised you with
whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions. 15 Wherefore the
king hearkened not unto the people; for the cause was from the LORD,
that he might perform his saying, which the LORD
spake by Ahijah the Shilonite unto Jeroboam the son of Nebat.
Solomon had 1000 wives and concubines, yet we read but of one son he had to
bear up his name, and he a fool. It is said (Hos. iv. 10), They shall
commit whoredom, and shall not increase. Sin is a bad way of building up
a family. Rehoboam was the son of the wisest of men, yet did not inherit his
father's wisdom, and then it stood him in little stead to inherit his
father's throne. Neither wisdom nor grace runs in the blood. Solomon came to
the crown very young, yet he was then a wise man. Rehoboam came to the crown
at forty years old, when men will be wise if ever they will, yet he was then
foolish. Wisdom does not go by age, nor is it the multitude of years nor the
advantage of education that reaches it. Solomon's court was a mart of wisdom
and the rendezvous of learned men, and Rehoboam was the darling of the
court; and yet all was not sufficient to make him a wise man. The race is
not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong. No dispute is made of
Rehoboam's succession; upon the death of his father, he was immediately
proclaimed. But,
I. The people desired a treaty with him at Shechem, and he condescended to
meet them there. 1. Their pretence was to make him king, but the design was
to unmake him. They would give him a public inauguration in another place
than the city of David, that he might not seem to be king of Judah only.
They had ten parts in him, and would have him among themselves for once,
that they might recognize his title. 2. The place was ominous: at Shechem,
where Abimelech set up himself (Judg. ix.); yet it had been famous for the
convention of the states there, Josh. xxiv. 1. Rehoboam, we may suppose,
knew of the threatening, that the kingdom should be rent from him, and hoped
by going to Shechem, and treating there with the ten tribes, to prevent it:
yet it proved the most impolitic thing he could do, and hastened the
rupture.
II. The representatives of the tribes addressed him, praying to be eased of
the taxes they were burdened with. The meeting being appointed, they sent
for Jeroboam out of Egypt to come and be their speaker. This they needed not
to have done: he knew what God had designed him for, and would have come
though he had not been sent for, for now was his time to expect the
possession of the promised crown. In their address, 1. They complain of the
last reign: Thy father made our yoke grievous, v. 4. They
complain not of his father's idolatry and revolt from God; that which was
the greatest grievance of all was none to them, so careless and indifferent
were they in the matters of religion, as if God or Moloch were all one, so
they might but live at ease and pay no taxes. Yet the complaint was
groundless and unjust. Never did people live more at ease than they did, nor
in great plenty. Did they pay taxes? It was to advance the strength and
magnificence of their kingdom. If Solomon's buildings cost them money, they
cost them no blood, as war would do. Were many servile hands employed about
them? They were not the hands of the Israelites. Were the taxes a burden?
How could that be, when Solomon imported bullion in such plenty that silver
was, in a manner, as common as the stones? So that they did but render to
Solomon the things that were Solomon's. Nay, suppose there was some hardship
put upon them, were they not told before that this would be the manner of
the king and yet they would have one? The best government cannot secure
itself from reproach and censure, no, not Solomon's. Factious spirits will
never want something to complain of. I know nothing in Solomon's
administration that could make the people's yoke grievous, unless perhaps
the women whom in his latter days he doted on were connived at in oppressing
them. 2. They demand relief from him, and on this condition will continue in
their allegiance to the house of David. They asked not to be wholly free
from paying taxes, but to have the burden made lighter; this was all their
care, to save their money, whether their religion was supported and the
government protected or no. All seek their own.
III. Rehoboam consulted with those about him concerning the answer he should
give to this address. It was prudent to take advice, especially having so
weak a head of his own; yet, upon this occasion, it was impolitic to take
time himself to consider, for thereby he gave time to the disaffected people
to ripen things for a revolt, and his deliberating in so plain a case would
be improved as an indication of the little concern he had for the people's
ease. They saw what they must expect, and prepared accordingly. Now, 1. The
grave experienced men of his council advised him by all means to give the
petitioners a kind answer, to give them good words, to promise them fair,
and this day, this critical day, to serve them, that is, to tell them that
he was their servant, and that he would redress all their grievances and
make it his business to please them and make them easy. "Deny thyself
(say they) so far as to do this for this once, and they will be thy
servants for ever. When the present heat is allayed with a soft answer,
and the assembly dismissed, their cooler thoughts will reconcile and fix
them to Solomon's family still." Note, The way to rule is to serve, to
do good, and stoop to do it, to become all things to all men and so win
their hearts. Those who are in power really sit highest, and easiest, and
safest, when they take this method. 2. The young men of his council were hot
and haughty, and they advised him to return a severe and threatening answer
to the people's demands. It was an instance of Rehoboam's weakness, (1.)
That he did not prefer aged counsellors, but had a better opinion of the
young men that had grown up with him and with whom he was familiar, v.
8. Days should speak. It was a folly for him to think that, because they had
been his agreeable companions in the sports and pleasures of his youth, they
were therefore fit to have the management of the affairs of his kingdom.
Great wits have not always the most wisdom; nor are those to be relied on as
our best friends that know how to make us merry, for that will not make us
happy. It is of great consequence to young people, that are setting out in
the world, whom they associate with, accommodate themselves to, and depend
upon for advice. If they reckon those that feed their pride, gratify their
vanity, and further them in their pleasures, their best friends, they are
already marked for ruin. (2.) That he did not prefer moderate counsels, but
was pleased with those that put him upon harsh and rigorous methods, and
advised him to double the taxes, whether there was occasion for so doing or
no, and to tell them in plain terms that he would do so, v. 10, 11.
These young counsellors thought the old men expressed themselves but dully, v.
7. They affect to be witty in their advice, and value themselves on that.
The old men did not undertake to put words into Rehoboam's mouth, only
counselled him to speak good words; but the young men will furnish him with
very quaint and pretty phrases, with pointed and pert similitudes: My
little finger shall be thicker than my father's loins, &c. That is
not always the best sense that is best worded.
IV. He answered the people according to the counsel of the young men, v.
14, 15. He affected to be haughty and imperious, and fancied he could carry
all before him with a high hand, and therefore would rather run the risk of
losing them than deny himself so far as to give them good words. Note, Many
ruin themselves by consulting their humour more than their interest. See,
1. How Rehoboam was infatuated in his counsels. He could not have acted more
foolishly and impoliticly. (1.) He owned their reflections upon his father's
government to be true: My father made your yoke heavy; and therein he
was unjust to his father's memory, which he might easily have vindicated
from the imputation. (2.) He fancied himself better able to manage them, and
impose upon them, than his father was, not considering that he was vastly
inferior to him in capacity. Could he think to support the blemishes of his
father's reign who could never pretend to come near the glories of it? (3.)
He threatened not only to squeeze them by taxes, but to chastise them by
cruel laws and severe executions of them, which should be not as whips only,
but as scorpions, whips with rowels in them, that will fetch blood at every
lash. In short, he would use them as brute beasts, load them and beat them
at his pleasure: not caring whether they loved him or no, he would make them
fear him. (4.) He gave this provocation to a people that by long ease and
prosperity were made wealthy, and strong, and proud, and would not be
trampled upon (as a poor cowed dispirited people may), to a people that were
now disposed to revolt, and had one ready to head them. Never, surely, was
man so blinded by pride and affectation of arbitrary power, than which
nothing is more fatal.
2. How God's counsels were hereby fulfilled. It was from the Lord, v.
15. He left Rehoboam to his own folly, and hid from his eyes the things
which belonged to his peace, that the kingdom might be rent from him.
Note, God serves his own wise and righteous purposes by the imprudences and
iniquities of men, and snares sinners in the work of their own hands. Those
that lose the kingdom of heaven throw it away, as Rehoboam did his, by their
own wilfulness and folly.
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Revolt
of the Ten Tribes.
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B.
C. 975.
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16 So when all Israel saw that the king
hearkened not unto them, the people answered the king, saying, What portion
have we in David? neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse: to
your tents, O Israel: now see to thine own house, David. So Israel departed
unto their tents. 17 But as for the children of Israel
which dwelt in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them.
18 Then king Rehoboam sent Adoram, who was over the tribute; and all
Israel stoned him with stones, that he died. Therefore king Rehoboam made
speed to get him up to his chariot, to flee to Jerusalem. 19 So
Israel rebelled against the house of David unto this day. 20 And
it came to pass, when all Israel heard that Jeroboam was come again, that
they sent and called him unto the congregation, and made him king over all
Israel: there was none that followed the house of David, but the tribe of
Judah only. 21 And when Rehoboam was come to Jerusalem, he
assembled all the house of Judah, with the tribe of Benjamin, a hundred and
fourscore thousand chosen men, which were warriors, to fight against the
house of Israel, to bring the kingdom again to Rehoboam the son of
Solomon. 22 But the word of God came unto Shemaiah the man of
God, saying, 23 Speak unto Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, king of
Judah, and unto all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the remnant of
the people, saying, 24 Thus saith the LORD,
Ye shall not go up, nor fight against your brethren the children of Israel:
return every man to his house; for this thing is from me. They hearkened
therefore to the word of the LORD,
and returned to depart, according to the word of the LORD.
We have here the rending of the kingdom of the ten tribes from the house of
David, to effect which,
I. The people were hold and resolute in their revolt. They highly resented
the provocation that Rehoboam had given them, were incensed at his menaces,
concluded that that government would in the progress of it be intolerably
grievous which in the beginning of it was so very haughty, and therefore
immediately came to this resolve, one and all: What portion have we in
David? v. 16. They speak here very unbecomingly of David, that
great benefactor of their nation, calling him the son of Jesse, no
greater a man than his neighbours. How soon are good men, and their good
services to the public, forgotten! The rashness of their resolution was also
much to be blamed. In time, and with prudent management, they might have
settled the original contract with Rehoboam to mutual satisfaction. Had they
enquired who gave Rehoboam this advice, and taken a course to remove those
evil counsellors from about him, the rupture might have been prevented:
otherwise their jealousy for their liberty and property well became that
free people. Israel is not a servant, is not a homeborn slave; why should
he be spoiled? Jer. ii. 14. They are willing to be ruled, but not to be
ridden. Protection draws allegiance, but destruction cannot. No marvel that Israel
falls away from the house of David (v. 19) if the house of David
fall away from the great ends of their advancement, which was to be ministers
of God to them for good. But thus to rebel against the seed of David,
whom God had advanced to the kingdom (entailing it on his seed), and to set
up another king in opposition to that family, was a great sin; see 2 Chron.
xiii. 5-8. To this God refers, Hos. viii. 4. They have set up kings, but
not by me. And it is here mentioned to the praise of the tribe of Judah
that they followed the house of David (v. 17, 20), and, for
aught that appears, they found Rehoboam better than his word, nor did he
rule with the rigour which at first he threatened.
II. Rehoboam was imprudent in the further management of this affair, and
more and more infatuated. Having foolishly thrown himself into a quick-sand,
he sunk the further in with plunging to get out. 1. He was very unadvised in
sending Adoram, who was over the tribute, to treat with them, v.
18. The tribute was the thing, and, for the sake of that, Adoram was the
person, they most complained of. The very sight of him, whose name was
odious among them, exasperated them, and made them outrageous. He was one to
whom they could not so much as give a patient hearing, but stoned him to
death in a popular tumult. Rehoboam was now as unhappy in the choice of
his ambassador as before of his counsellors. 2. Some think he was also
unadvised in quitting his ground, and making so much haste to Jerusalem, for
thereby he deserted his friends and gave advantage to his enemies, who had
gone to their tents indeed (v. 16) in disgust, but did not offer to
make Jeroboam king till Rehoboam had gone, v. 20. See how soon this
foolish prince went from one extreme to the other. He hectored and talked
big when he thought all was his own, but sneaked and looked very mean when
he saw himself in danger. It is common for those that are most haughty in
their prosperity to be most abject in adversity.
III. God forbade his attempt to recover by the sword what he had lost. What
was done was of God, who would not suffer that it should be undone again (as
it would be if Rehoboam got the better and reduced the ten tribes), nor that
more should be done to the prejudice of the house of David, as would be if
Jeroboam got the better and conquered the two tribes. The thing must rest as
it is, and therefore God forbids the battle. 1. It was brave in Rehoboam to
design the reducing of the revolters by force. His courage came to him when
he had come to Jerusalem, v. 21. There he thought himself among his
firm friends, who generously adhered to him and appeared for him. Judah and
Benjamin (who feared the Lord and the king, and meddled not with those that
were given to change) presently raised an army of 180,000 men, for the
recovery of their king's right to the ten tribes, and were resolved to stand
by him (as we say) with their lives and fortunes, having either not such
cause, or rather not such a disposition, to complain, as the rest had. 2. It
as more brave in Rehoboam to desist when God, by a prophet, ordered him to
lay down his arms. He would not lose a kingdom tamely, for then he would
have been unworthy the title of a prince; and yet he would not contend for
it in opposition to God, for then he would have been unworthy the title of
an Israelite. To proceed in this war would be not only to fight against
their brethren (v. 24), whom they ought to love, but to fight
against their God, to whom they ought to submit: This thing is from me.
These two considerations should reconcile us to our losses and troubles,
that God is the author of them and our brethren are the instruments of them;
let us not therefore meditate revenge. Rehoboam and his people hearkened
to the word of the Lord, disbanded the army, and acquiesced. Though, in
human probability, they had a fair prospect of success (for their army was
numerous and resolute, Jeroboam's party weak and unsettled), though it would
turn to their reproach among their neighbours to lose so much of their
strength and never have one push for it, to make a flourish and do nothing,
yet, (1.) They regarded the command of God though sent by a poor prophet.
When we know God's mind we must submit to it, how much soever it crosses our
own mind. (2.) They consulted their own interest, concluding that though
they had all the advantages, even that of right, on their side, yet they
could not prosper if they fought in disobedience to God; and it was better
to sit still than to rise up and fall. In the next reign God allowed them to
fight, and gave them victory (2 Chron. xiii.), but not now.
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Jeroboam's
Idolatry.
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B.
C. 975.
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25 Then Jeroboam built Shechem in mount
Ephraim, and dwelt therein; and went out from thence, and built Penuel.
26 And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the house
of David: 27 If this people go up to do sacrifice in the house
of the LORD
at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their
lord, even unto Rehoboam king of Judah, and they shall kill me, and
go again to Rehoboam king of Judah. 28 Whereupon the king took
counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too
much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought
thee up out of the land of Egypt. 29 And he set the one in
Beth-el, and the other put he in Dan. 30 And this thing became a
sin: for the people went to worship before the one, even unto
Dan. 31 And he made a house of high places, and made priests of
the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi. 32
And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of
the month, like unto the feast that is in Judah, and he offered upon
the altar. So did he in Beth-el, sacrificing unto the calves that he had
made: and he placed in Beth-el the priests of the high places which he had
made. 33 So he offered upon the altar which he had made in
Beth-el the fifteenth day of the eighth month, even in the month
which he had devised of his own heart; and ordained a feast unto the
children of Israel: and he offered upon the altar, and burnt incense.
We have here the beginning of the reign of Jeroboam. He built Shechem first
and then Penuel--beautified and fortified them, and probably had a palace in
each of them for himself (v. 25), the former in Ephraim, the latter
in Gad, on the other side Jordan. This might be proper; but he formed
another project for the establishing of his kingdom which was fatal to the
interests of religion in it.
I. That which he designed was by some effectual means to secure those to
himself who had now chosen him for their king, and to prevent their return
to the house of David, v. 26, 27. It seems, 1. He was jealous of the
people, afraid that, some time or other, they would kill him and go again to
Rehoboam. Many that have been advanced in one tumult have been hurled down
in another. Jeroboam could not put any confidence in the affections of his
people, though now they seemed extremely fond of him; for what is got by
wrong and usurpation cannot be enjoyed nor kept with any security or
satisfaction. 2. He was distrustful of the promise of God, could not take
his word that, if he would keep close to his duty, God would build him a
sure house (ch. xi. 38); but he would contrive ways and means,
and sinful ones too, for his own safety. A practical disbelief of God's
all-sufficiency is at the bottom of all our treacherous departures from him.
II. The way he took to do this was by keeping the people from going up to
Jerusalem to worship. That was the place God had chosen, to put his name
there. Solomon's temple was there, which God had, in the sight of all
Israel, and in the memory of many now living, taken solemn possession of in
a cloud of glory. At the altar there the priest of the Lord attended, there
all Israel were to keep the feasts, and thither they were to bring their
sacrifices. Now,
1. Jeroboam apprehended that, if the people continued to do this, they would
in time return to the house of David, allured by the magnificence both of
the court and of the temple. If they cleave to their old religion, they will
go back to their old king. We may suppose, if he had treated with Rehoboam
for the safe conduct of himself and his people to and from Jerusalem at the
times appointed for their solemn feasts, it would not have been denied him;
therefore he fears not their being driven back by force, but their going
back voluntarily to Rehoboam.
2. He therefore dissuaded them from going up to Jerusalem, pretending to
consult their ease: "It is too much for you to go so far to
worship God, v. 28. It is a heavy yoke, and it is time to shake it
off; you have gone long enough to Jerusalem" (so some read it);
"the temple, now that you are used to it, does not appear so glorious
and sacred as it did at first" (sensible glories wither by degrees in
men's estimation); "you have greed yourselves from other burdens, free
yourselves from this: why should we now be tied to one place any more than
in Samuel's time?"
3. He provided for the assistance of their devotion at home. Upon
consultation with some of his politicians, he came to this resolve, to set
up two golden calves, as tokens or signs of the divine presence, and
persuade the people that they might as well stay at home and offer sacrifice
to those as go to Jerusalem to worship before the ark: and some are so
charitable as to think they were made to represent the mercy-seat and the
cherubim over the ark; but more probably he adopted the idolatry of the
Egyptians, in whose land he had sojourned for some time and who worshipped
their god Apis under the similitude of a bull or calf. (1.) He would not be
at the charge of building a golden temple, as Solomon had done; two golden
calves are the most that he can afford. (2.) He intended, no doubt, by these
to represent, or rather make present, not any false god, as Moloch or
Chemosh, but the true God only, the God of Israel, the God that brought them
up out of the land of Egypt, as he declares, v. 28. So that it was no
violation of the first commandment, but the second. And he chose thus to
engage the people's devotion because he knew there were many among them so
in love with images that for the sake of the calves they would willingly
quit God's temple, where all images were forbidden. (3.) He set up two, by
degrees to break people off from the belief of the unity of the godhead,
which would pave the way to the polytheism of the Pagans. He set up these
two at Dan and Beth-el (one the utmost border of his country northward), the
other southward, as if they were the guardians and protectors of the
kingdom. Beth-el lay close to Judah. He set up one there, to tempt those of
Rehoboam's subjects over to him who were inclined to image-worship, in lieu
of those of his subjects that would continue to go to Jerusalem. He set up
the other at Dan, for the convenience of those that lay most remote, and
because Micah's images had been set up there, and great veneration paid to
them for many ages, Judg. xviii. 30, 31. Beth-el signifies the
house of God, which gave some colour to the superstition; but the
prophet called it Beth-aven, the house of vanity, or iniquity.
4. The people complied with him herein, and were fond enough of the novelty:
They went to worship before the one, even unto Dan (v. 30), to
that at Dan first because it was first set up, or even to that at
Dan, though it lay such a great way off. Those that thought it much to go to
Jerusalem, to worship God according to his institution, made no difficulty
of going twice as far, to Dan, to worship him according to their own
inventions. Or they are said to go to one of the calves at Dan because
Abijah, king of Judah, within twenty years, recovered Beth-el (2 Chron.
xiii. 19), and it is likely removed the golden calf, or forbade the use of
it, and then they had only that at Dan to go to. This became a sin;
and a great sin it was, against the express letter of the second
commandment. God had sometimes dispensed with the law concerning worshipping
in one place, but never allowed the worship of him by images. Hereby they
justified their fathers in making the calf at Horeb, though God had so fully
shown his displeasure against them for it and threatened to visit for it in
the day of visitation (Exod. xxxii. 34), so that it was as great a contempt
of God's wrath as it was of his law; and thus they added sin to sin. Bishop
Patrick quotes a saying of the Jews, That till Jeroboam's time the
Israelites sucked but one calf, but from that time they sucked two.
5. Having set up the gods, he fitted up accommodations for them; and wherein
he varied from the divine appointment we are here told, which intimates that
in other things he imitated what was done in Judah (v. 32) as well as
he could. See how one error multiplied into many. (1.) He made a house of
high-places, or of altars, one temple at Dan, we may suppose, and another at
Beth-el (v. 31), and in each many altars, probably complaining of it
as an inconvenience that in the temple at
Jerusalem
there was but one. The multiplying of altars passed with some for a piece of
devotion, but God, by the prophet, puts another construction upon it, Hos.
viii. 11. Ephraim has made many altars to sin. (2.) He made priests
of the lowest of the people; and the lowest of the people were good enough
to be priests to his calves, and too good. He made priests from the
extremest parts of the people, that is, some out of every corner of the
country, whom he ordered to reside among their neighbours, to instruct them
in his appointments and reconcile them to them. Thus were they dispersed as
the Levites, but were not of the sons of Levi. But the priests of the
high-laces, or altars, he ordered to reside in Beth-el, as the priests at
Jerusalem
(v. 32), to attend the public service. (3.) The feast of tabernacles,
which God had appointed on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, he
adjourned to the fifteenth day of the eighth month (v. 32), the
month which he devised of his own heart, to show his power in
ecclesiastical matters, v. 33. The passover and pentecost he observed
in their proper season, or did not observe them at all, or with little
solemnity in comparison with this. (4.) He himself assuming a power to make
priests, no marvel if he undertook to do the priests' work with his own
hands: He offered upon the altar. This is twice mentioned (v.
32, 33), as also that he burnt incense. This was connived at in him because
it was of a piece with the rest of his irregularities; but in king Uzziah it
was immediately punished with the plague of leprosy. He did it himself, to
make himself look great among the people and to get the reputation of a
devout man, also to grace the solemnity of his new festival, with which, it
is likely, at this time he joined the feast of the dedication of his altar.
And thus, [1.] Jeroboam sinned himself, yet perhaps excused himself to the
world and his own conscience with this, that he did not do so ill as Solomon
did, who worshipped other gods. [2.] He made Israel to sin, drew them
off from the worship of God and entailed idolatry upon their seed. And
hereby they were punished for deserting the thrones of the house of
David. The learned Mr. Whiston, in his chronology, for the adjusting of
the annals of the two kingdoms of Judah and Israel, supposes that Jeroboam
changed the calculation of the year and made it to contain but eleven
months, and that by those years the reigns of the kings of Israel are
measured till Jehu's revolution and no longer, so that during this interval
eleven years of the annals of Judah answer to twelve in those of Israel.
