1 Kings 12:1

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

¹Then Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had gone there to make him king.²When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard about this, he was still in Egypt where he had fled from King Solomon and had been living ever since. ³So they sent for Jeroboam, and he and the whole assembly of Israel came to Rehoboam and said, ⁴"Your father put a heavy yoke on us. But now you should lighten the burden of your father's service and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you." ⁵Rehoboam answered, "Go away for three days and then return to me." So the people departed. ⁶Then King Rehoboam consulted with the elders who had served his father Solomon during his lifetime. "How do you advise me to respond to these people?" he asked. ⁷They replied, "If you will be a servant to these people and serve them this day, and if you will respond by speaking kind words to them, they will be your servants forever." ⁸But Rehoboam rejected the advice of the elders; instead, he consulted the young men who had grown up with him and served him. ⁹He asked them, "What message do you advise that we send back to these people who have spoken to me, saying, 'Lighten the yoke your father put on us'?" ¹⁰The young men who had grown up with him replied, "This is how you should answer these people who said to you, 'Your father made our yoke heavy, but you should make it lighter.' This is what you should tell them: 'My little finger is thicker than my father's waist!

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

Rehoboam: 1 Kings 11:43, 2 Chronicles 10:1-19

Shechem: Genesis 12:6, Sichem, Genesis 33:18, Genesis 33:19, Joshua 20:7, Joshua 24:1, Joshua 24:32, Judges 9:1, Psalms 60:6, Acts 7:16, Sychem

Reciprocal: Joshua 17:7 - Shechem Joshua 21:21 - Shechem Judges 9:6 - plain 1 Kings 12:25 - Shechem 2 Kings 21:24 - made Josiah Proverbs 11:14 - General Jeremiah 41:5 - Shechem Matthew 1:7 - Roboam Matthew 2:20 - for

Cross-References

Genesis 12:2
I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.

Genesis 12:3
I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you; and all the families of the earth will be blessed through you."

Genesis 12:6
Abram traveled through the land to the site of the Oak of Moreh at Shechem. And at that time the Canaanites were in the land.

Genesis 12:10
Now there was a famine in the land. So Abram went down to Egypt to live there for a while because the famine was severe.

Genesis 12:11
As he was about to enter Egypt, he said to his wife Sarai, "Look, I know that you are a beautiful woman,

Genesis 15:7
The LORD also told him, "I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans to give you this land to possess."

Nehemiah 9:7
You are the LORD, the God who chose Abram, who brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and gave him the name Abraham.

Isaiah 41:9
I brought you from the ends of the earth and called you from its farthest corners. I said, "You are My servant." I have chosen and not rejected you.

Isaiah 51:2
Look to Abraham your father, and to Sarah who bore you. When I called him, he was but one; then I blessed him and multiplied him.

Ezekiel 33:24
"Son of man, those living in the ruins in the land of Israel are saying, 'Abraham was only one man, yet he possessed the land. But we are many; surely the land has been given to us as a possession.'

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And Rehoboam went to Shechem,.... After the death and internment of his father:

for all Israel were come to Shechem to make him king: as was pretended, though in reality it was to seek occasion against him, and make Jeroboam king; it is very probable they knew of the prophecy of Ahijah, and therefore would not go to Jerusalem, but to Shechem, a city in the tribe of Ephraim, of which Jeroboam was, and where he had sowed the seeds of sedition when ruler there; and this place they chose, partly because they could more freely speak what they had in their minds, and partly for the safety of Jeroboam they had sent for on this occasion; so that Rehoboam went thither not of choice, but of necessity. The Jews c observe that this place was very ominous; here Dinah was ravished, Joseph was sold, Abimelech exercised tyranny, and here now the kingdom was divided.

c T. Bab. Sanhedrin, fol. 102. 1.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The first step taken by the new king was a most judicious one. If anything could have removed the disaffection of the Ephraimites, and caused them to submit to the ascendancy of Judah, it would have been the honor done to their capital by its selection as the scene of the coronation. Shechem (now Nablous) lay on the flank of Mount Gerizim, directly opposite to Mount Ebal, in a position second to none in all Palestine. Though Abimelech had destroyed the place Judges 9:45, it had probably soon risen again, and was once more a chief city, or perhaps “the” chief city, of Ephraim. Its central position made it a convenient place for the general assembly of the tribes, as it had been in the days of Joshua Joshua 8:30-35; Joshua 24:1-28; and this would furnish an additional reason for its selection.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

CHAPTER XII

The people go to Shechem to make Rehoboam king, and send for

Jeroboam out of Egypt, who with the heads of the tribes,

requests relief from the heavy burdens laid on them by Solomon,

14.

He requires three days to consider their petition, 5.

He rejects the counsel of the elders, who served his father,

and follows that of young men, and returns the people a

provoking answer, 6-15.

The people therefore renounce the family of David, stone to

death Adoram, who came to receive their tribute, and make

Jeroboam king; none cleaving to Rehoboam but the tribes of

Judah and Benjamin, 16-20.

Rehoboam comes to Jerusalem, and assembles all the fighting men

of Judah and Benjamin, and finds the number to be one hundred

and eighty thousand; and with these he purposes to reduce the

men of Israel to his allegiance, but is forbidden by the

Prophet Shemaiah, 21-24.

Jeroboam builds Shechem in Mount Ephraim and Penuel, 25.

And lest the people should be drawn away from their allegiance

to him by going up to Jerusalem to worship, he makes two golden

calves, and sets them up, one in Dan, the other in Beth-el, and

the people worship them, 26-30.

He makes priests of the lowest of the people, and establishes

the fifteenth day of the eighth month as a feast to his new

gods; makes offerings, and burns incense, 31-33.

NOTES ON CHAP. XII

Verse 1 Kings 12:1. Rehoboam went to Shechem — Rehoboam was probably the only son of Solomon; for although he had a thousand wives, he had not the blessing of a numerous offspring; and although he was the wisest of men himself, his son was a poor, unprincipled fool. Had Solomon kept himself within reasonable bounds in matrimonial affairs, he would probably have had more children; and such as would have had common sense enough to discern the delicacy of their situation, and rule according to reason and religion.