1 Kings 12:20

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

¹⁶When all Israel saw that the king had refused to listen to them, they answered the king: "What portion do we have in David, and what inheritance in the son of Jesse? To your tents, O Israel! Look now to your own house, O David!" So the Israelites went home, ¹⁷but Rehoboam still reigned over the Israelites living in the cities of Judah. ¹⁸Then King Rehoboam sent out Adoram, who was in charge of the labor force, but all Israel stoned him to death. And King Rehoboam mounted his chariot in haste and escaped to Jerusalem. ¹⁹So to this day Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David. ²⁰When all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they summoned him to the assembly and made him king over all Israel. Only the tribe of Judah followed the house of David.²¹And when Rehoboam arrived in Jerusalem, he mobilized the whole house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin-180,000 choice warriors-to fight against the house of Israel and restore the kingdom to Rehoboam son of Solomon. ²²But the word of God came to Shemaiah the man of God: ²³"Tell Rehoboam son of Solomon king of Judah, all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and the rest of the people ²⁴that this is what the LORD says: 'You are not to go up and fight against your brothers, the Israelites. Each of you must return home, for this word is from Me.'" So they listened to the word of the LORD and turned back according to the word of the LORD.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

and made him: 1 Samuel 10:24, Hosea 8:4

none that followed: 1 Kings 12:17, 1 Kings 11:13, 1 Kings 11:32, Hosea 11:12

Reciprocal: Judges 9:1 - communed Judges 9:6 - plain 2 Samuel 19:20 - Joseph 1 Kings 4:1 - over all Israel 1 Kings 11:11 - I will surely 1 Kings 11:26 - Jeroboam 1 Kings 11:35 - will give 2 Kings 10:3 - Look even 2 Kings 17:18 - the tribe 2 Kings 17:21 - they made 2 Kings 21:24 - made Josiah 2 Chronicles 10:19 - Israel 2 Chronicles 13:6 - rebelled Proverbs 12:24 - hand Proverbs 26:21 - General Ezekiel 23:4 - the elder Hosea 13:10 - thy judges

Cross-References

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

Genesis 12:14
So when Abram entered Egypt, the Egyptians saw that the woman was very beautiful.

Genesis 12:15
When Pharaoh's officials saw Sarai, they commended her to him, and she was taken into the palace of Pharaoh.

Exodus 18:27
Then Moses sent his father-in-law on his way, and Jethro returned to his own land.

Proverbs 21:1
The king's heart is a waterway in the hand of the LORD; He directs it where He pleases.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And it came to pass, when all Israel heard that Jeroboam was come again,.... Out of Egypt; the chief men knew of it before, for he had headed them in their approach and address to Rehoboam; but the people in common had not, and especially those of the various tribes besides that of Ephraim:

that they sent and called him unto the congregation, and made him king over all Israel; they sent for him from his tent or house, which probably was in Shechem, and gave him an invitation to come to their assembly, met together to deliberate about a king; when they unanimously chose him to be king over Israel, that is, over the ten tribes, and inaugurated him into his office:

there was none that followed the house of David but the tribe of Judah only; in which Benjamin was included, as appears from the following verse; that being joined to it, and mixed with it, and both having a part in Jerusalem, and so ever after the kingdom was denominated the kingdom of Judah.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The first act of the Israelites, on learning what had occurred at Shechem, was to bring together the great “congregation” of the people (compare Judges 20:1), in order that, regularly and in solemn form, the crown might be declared vacant, and a king elected in the room of the monarch whose authority had been thrown off. The congregation selected Jeroboam. The rank, the talent, and the known energy of the late exile, his natural hostility to the house of Solomon, his Ephraimitic descent, his acquaintance with the art of fortification, and the friendly relations subsisting between him and the great Egyptian king, pointed him out as the most suitable man for the vacant post. If, according to the Septuagint, Shishak had not only protected him against Solomon, but also given him an Egyptian princess, sister to his own queen, in marriage, his position must have been such that no other Israelite could have borne comparison with him. Again, the prophecy of Ahijah would have been remembered by the more religious part of the nation, and would have secured to Jeroboam their adhesion; so that every motive, whether of policy or of religion, would have united to recommend the son of Nebat to the suffrages of his countrymen.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 1 Kings 12:20. Made him king over all Israel — What is called Israel here, was ten-twelfths of the whole nation; and had they a right to call another person to the throne? They had not, - they had neither legal nor constitutional right. Jeroboam was not of the blood royal; he had no affinity to the kingdom. Nothing could justify this act, but the just judgment of God. God thus punished a disobedient and gainsaying people; and especially Solomon's family, whose sins against the Lord were of no ordinary magnitude.