1 Kings 12:24

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

Ye shall not go up: Numbers 14:42, 2 Chronicles 11:4, 2 Chronicles 25:7, 2 Chronicles 25:8, 2 Chronicles 28:9-13

for this thing: 1 Kings 12:15, 1 Kings 11:29-38, Hosea 8:4

They hearkened: 2 Chronicles 25:10, 2 Chronicles 28:13-15

Reciprocal: 1 Kings 14:7 - Forasmuch 1 Kings 14:30 - General 1 Kings 22:36 - Every man 2 Chronicles 10:15 - the cause Acts 5:39 - if

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Thus saith the Lord,.... A common preface the prophets used when they spoke in the name of the Lord:

ye shall not go up, nor fight against your brethren the children of Israel; and that because they were their brethren; though that is not the only reason, another follows:

return every man to his house, for this thing is from me; it was according to the will of God, as Josephus rightly says o; it was by his ordination and appointment, though Jeroboam and the people sinned in the way and manner in which they brought it about; and therefore to fight against Israel, in order to regain the kingdom, would be fighting against God, and so to no purpose:

they hearkened therefore to the word of the Lord, and returned to depart according to the word of the Lord; they knew Shemaiah was a prophet of the Lord, and they believed the message he brought came from him, and therefore hearkened and were obedient to it; and with the consent of Rehoboam were disbanded, and returned to their habitations, being satisfied with, and submissive to, the will of God, both king and people.

o Ut supra. (Antiqu. l. 8. c. 8. sect. 3.)

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 24. For this thing is from me. — That is, the separation of the ten tribes from the house of David.

They - returned to depart — This was great deference, both in Rehoboam and his officers, to relinquish, at the demand of the prophet, a war which they thought they had good grounds to undertake. The remnant of the people heard the Divine command gratefully, for the mass of mankind are averse from war. No nations would ever rise up against each other, were they not instigated to it or compelled by the rulers.