1 Kings 12:21

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

when Rehoboam: 2 Chronicles 11:1-3

an hundred: 1 Chronicles 21:5, 2 Chronicles 14:8, 2 Chronicles 14:11, 2 Chronicles 17:14-19, Proverbs 21:30, Proverbs 21:31

Reciprocal: Deuteronomy 33:12 - The beloved 2 Kings 10:3 - fight for

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And when Rehoboam was come to Jerusalem, e.] From Shechem, which was forty miles n from Jerusalem:

he assembled all the house of Judah, with the tribe of Benjamin, an 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 which not only shows courage reassumed by Rehoboam, now safely home, but the hearty attachment of Judah and Benjamin to him, who raised presently so numerous an army in his favour; and had it not been that the Lord was against their going to battle with Israel, in all probability they might have gained their point, Jeroboam being scarcely settled in his kingdom, and having no forces raised.

n Reland. Palestin. Illustrat. tom. 2. p. 1007.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The adhesion of Benjamin to Judah at this time comes upon us as a surprise. By blood Benjamin was far more closely connected with Ephraim than with Judah. All the traditions of Benjamin were antagonistic to Judah, and hitherto the weak tribe had been accustomed to lean constantly on its strong northern neighhour. But it would seem that, in the half-century which had elapsed since the revolt of Sheba, the son of Bichri 2 Samuel 20:1, the feelings of the Benjamites had undergone a complete change. This is best accounted for by the establishment of the religious and political capital at Jerusalem, on the border line of the two tribes Joshua 15:8; Joshua 18:16, from where it resulted that the new metropolis stood partly within the territory of either, and was in a certain sense common to both. One of the gates of Jerusalem was “the high gate of Benjamin” Jeremiah 20:2; and probably Benjamites formed a considerable part of the population. The whole tribe also, we may well believe, was sincerely attached to the temple worship, in which they could participate far more freely and more constantly than the members of remoter tribes, and to which the habits of forty years had now accustomed them.

On the number of the Israelites, see Exodus 12:37, notes; and 2 Samuel 24:9, notes. The number mentioned here is moderate, compared with the numbers given both previously and subsequently 2 Chronicles 13:3; 2 Chronicles 17:14-18.