Kings #12 - #14 of Israel. Anyone who wanted to become a priest he consecrated for the high places. Some scholars dispute this assertion as propaganda designed to discredit the Northern Kingdom. But for the sake of my servant David and the city of Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, he will have one tribe' (1 Kings 11:29-32). At his urgent entreaty, his "hand was restored him again" (1 King' 13:1-6). [6], Conventional biblical chronology dates the start of Rehoboam's reign to the mid-10th century BC. Amaziah was the. Because of this, I am going to bring disaster on the house of Jeroboam. As the author of 1 Kings compiled the various documents available to them into a cohesive narrative, they examined Israels history from a contemporary lens. They bore him 28 sons and 60 daughters. The account of Jeroboam's reign as contained in the Book of Kings reflects the religiously and politically pro-Jerusalem views of later times. Jeroboam was the new king of the ten northern tribes that had split from the two southern tribes. Jeroboam worried that if the northern Israelites continued making sacrifices at the temple in Jerusalem, they would turn against him (1 Kings 12:26-27). God intended to use King Jeroboam to save his people and lead them back to himself. His arm became paralyzed, and he could not move it. Jehoahaz 2 Kings 13:1-9. However, modern scholars believe the author of 1 Kings put words in Ahijahs mouth. Then Jeroboam built Shechem in mount Ephraim, and dwelt therein; and went out from thence, and built Penuel. Although the ostensible reason was the heavy burden laid upon Israel because of Solomon's great outlay for buildings and for the luxury of all kinds, the other reasons include the historical opposition between the north and the south. Biblical figure; first monarch of the post-split Kingdom of Israel, An alternative interpretation of the English text claims, Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible on 1 Kings 13, New English Translation of the Septuagint, List of Jewish leaders in the Land of Israel, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jeroboam&oldid=1153790569, Short description is different from Wikidata, Instances of Lang-el using second unnamed parameter, Articles incorporating a citation from the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia with Wikisource reference, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 4.0, This page was last edited on 8 May 2023, at 10:09. Jeroboam was for the rabbinical writers a typical evil-doer. For the wine bottle size, see, the split of the united Kingdom of Israel, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Rehoboam&oldid=1162423836, This page was last edited on 29 June 2023, at 02:27. These services at Dan and Beth-el, at Gilgal and Beer-sheba, were of a nature to arouse the indignation of the prophets, and the foreign cults,[11] both numerous and degrading, contributed still further to arousing of the prophetic spirit. Mentioned in Exodus 32 and I Kings 12 in the Old Testament, worship of the golden calf is seen as a supreme act of apostasy, the rejection of a faith once confessed. On one of those occasions, a prophet of the tribe of Judah saw Jeroboam burning incense in the altar and prophesied that one day a king by the name of Josiah would destroy that altar. It was in the 15th year that Amaziah was king of Judah. The recent uncovering of a sizable ancient shrine at Tel Dan may yet yield insights into the practice at this sanctuary. One of the most difficult issues in identifying Shishak with Shoshenq I is the biblical statement that "King Shishak of Egypt attacked Jerusalem. What Does King Jeroboam's Bible Story Teach Us? - Christianity 1 Kings 12:25 chapter context similar meaning copy save. "The Population of Palestine in Iron Age II". I tore the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it to you, but you have provoked me to anger and thrust me behind your back. Before the sentence could be carried out, Jeroboam fled to Egypt, where the Pharaoh Shishak gave him political asylum. In order to keep the people of the northern kingdom from returning to worship at Jerusalem, Jeroboam had two calves of gold made. His arrogance brought about his doom (Sanh. Rehoboam was Solomon's son and David's grandson. These denunciations were preserved to his detriment in the Bible, while any other records of him were lost. Although Jeroboam's lineage was thus wiped out, he remained a respected figure in the northern kingdom, so much so that two centuries later another Israelite king was named for him, Jeroboam II. This article abides by terms of the Creative Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License (CC-by-sa), which may be used and disseminated with proper attribution. Jeroboams legacy is that he was the one who caused Israel to sin. And perhaps more than any other king, Jeroboams life demonstrated why God couldnt trust humans to save humanity. When Solomon died, the people sent word to Jeroboam and he returned. "Based on the tight stratigraphic context, this can be dated to the mid-8th cent. If you do whatever I command you and walk in obedience to me and do what is right in my eyes by obeying my decrees and commands, as David my servant did, I will be with you. [21] The Biblical sources mention that Abijah addressed the armies of Israel, urging them to submit and to let the Kingdom of Israel be whole again,[22] but his plea fell on deaf ears. Jeroboam | My Jewish Learning [14] Identity of related figures This "man of God" who warned Jeroboam has been equated with a seer named Iddo. His name occurs in the Old Testament only in 2 Kings;[20] 1 Chronicles;[21] Book of Hosea;[22] and Book of Amos. Abijah then rallied his own troops with a phrase which has since become famous: "God is with us as our leader". He reigned for 22 years, from 930-909 BC. He comprehends the temptations and obstacles we face. Though the Deuteronomic historianwith an anti-north prejudiceinterpreted, After the division of Israel, Jeroboam I (10th century bc) made Bethel the chief sanctuary of the northern kingdom (Israel), and the city was later the centre for the prophetic ministry of Amos. He later became the first king of the divided northern kingdom of Israel. "However, as for you, I will take you, and you will rule over all that your heart desires; you will be king over Israel. The northern tribes established an independent kingdom called Israel, and Jeroboam was their sovereign. Iddo, the seer, also had visions about Jeroboam, which he wrote in a book that has not survived to modern times. . In that city Joram, son of Ahab, went to heal from his injury that he got in a war with the Arameans (2 Kings 9:1-16). Jeroboam I | Encyclopedia.com Establishing his capital at Shechem, he set aside two pilgrimage sites (Dan in the north and Bethel in the south) as shrine centres. Despite his blindness and the queens disguise, the old prophet recognized her and told her that the child would die as soon as she returned to Tirzah, as Gods punishment for having sinned and worshiped idols. While still a young man, King Solomon made him superintendent over his tribesmen in the building of the fortress Millo in Jerusalem and of other public works, and he naturally became conversant with the widespread discontent caused by the extravagances which marked the reign of Solomon. The first king of the Northern Kingdom of Israel. The prophecies of doom concerning the fall of both the House of Jeroboam and the northern kingdom as a whole ("For the Lord shall smite Israel, and he shall root up Israel out of this good land, which he gave to their fathers, and shall scatter them beyond the river",[29] might have been composed retroactively, after the events described had already come to pass. His sons with Maacah were Abijam, Attai, Ziza, and Shelomith. Jeroboam I was not from the line of David. 33 After this event Jeroboam did not return from his evil way, but a again he made priests of the high places from among 1 all the people; b any who would, he ordained, to be priests of the high places. Although Jeroboam's actions immediately thereafter are not described, he soon came to be seen by Solomon as a threat, and the king now sought to kill the potential rebel. [13] The prophecy is fulfilled in 2 Kings. [23], Rehoboam was the son of an Ammonite woman; and when David praised God because it was permissible to marry Ammonites and Moabites, he held the child upon his knees, giving thanks for himself as well as for Rehoboam, since this permission was of advantage to them both (Yeb. Jeroboam is portrayed by Nickolas Grace in Solomon & Sheba (1995) and by Richard Dillane in Solomon (1997). The northerners, discontented and rebellious, declared that they were seceding and stoned to death Adoram, the official in charge of the forced labor. Jeroboams choice of date for this festival was thus an integral part of his overall plan to restore traditional practices in the N.. And the Lord will strike Israel, so that it will be like a reed swaying in the water. His reign is described in 1 Kings 12 and 1 Kings 14:2131[7] and in 2 Chronicles[8] in the Hebrew Bible. Jeroboam the son of Joash king of Israel began to reign in the fifteenth year of Amaziah king of Judah and reigned for forty-one years in Samaria (v. 23). The tribe of Ephraim descended from Josephs son by the same name. Alternatively, the prophecy could have been a logical deduction. Did Pharaoh Sheshonq Attack Jerusalem? - Biblical Archaeology Society - American Standard Version (1901) Religious considerations were also operative. 34 1 a This event became sin to the house of Jeroboam, b even to blot it out and destroy it from off the face of the earth. Jeroboam's denunciation in both Kings and Chronicles is a manifestation of their pro-Jerusalem bias, and the accusation of his supposed idolatry is specious. Rehoboam was 41 years old (16 in Chapter 12 of Kings III in the Septuagint) when he ascended the throne. When Israel split into two kingdoms, Jeroboam established his regal quarters in Shechem, a city in Ephraims territory (1 Kings 12:25). Bethel was where Jacob once anointed a pillar and made a vow to God (Genesis 31:13), and the Danites had a line of idol-worshipping priests who traced their lineage back to either Moses or Manasseh (Judges 18:3031). I will cut off from Jeroboam every last male in Israelslave or free. Angered that Solomon chose to follow other gods, Yahweh told him, Since this is your attitude and you have not kept my covenant and my decrees, which I commanded you, I will most certainly tear the kingdom away from you and give it to one of your subordinates (1 Kings 11:11). The Scientific and Scriptural Impact of Amos' Earthquake. Jeroboam I - New World Encyclopedia The Anchor Yale Bible Dictionary suggests there was a less arbitrary reason for changing the day of the festival: This, again, reflects the pejorative judgment of the writer. Answer. Kings, 196). In the same prophecy where Ahijah predicts the fall of Jeroboams house, he connects Jeroboams sin to the Assyrian exile which would come centuries later: The Lord will raise up for himself a king over Israel who will cut off the family of Jeroboam. New World Encyclopedia writers and editors rewrote and completed the Wikipedia article Ahijahprophet of Shiloh and thus associated with the shrine that formerly housed the sacred Ark of the Covenantrecognized Jeroboam's potential and dramatically appointed him as the future leader of the Israelite rebellion against Jerusalem's central authority. Its unclear if this prophetic encounter triggered Jeroboams rebellion or if Solomon simply caught wind of it, but immediately after this prophecy, Solomon attempted to kill Jeroboam, and Jeroboam fled to Egypt (1 Kings 11:40). Jeroboam ("increase of the people"), the son of Nebat, (1 Kings 11:26-39), was the first king of the break-away ten tribes or Kingdom of Israel, over whom he reigned for 22 years. A major earthquake had occurred in Israel c. 760 BC, which may have been during the time of Jeroboam II, towards the end of his rule. The Israelites persisted in all the sins of Jeroboam and did not turn away from them until the Lord removed them from his presence, as he had warned through all his servants the prophets. ISBN links support NWE through referral fees. This report is not easily reconciled with the the account in the Book of Kings, which states that Jeroboam finally died in the second year of Rehoboam's grandson Asa, having reigned 22 years. Fr. According to the Book of Chronicles Abijah had a force of 400,000 and Jeroboam 800,000. In the second Greek account (I Kings xii. Aided, perhaps, by Assyrian pressure from the east, he brought to an end the long struggle between Syria and Israel and definitely established the superiority of the latter over Damascus. Corrections? Anyone who wanted to become a priest he consecrated for the high places. Jeroboam was the son of Nebat, a member of the Tribe of Ephraim of Zareda. Under Jeroboam II, the God of Israel was worshiped at Dan and Beth-el and at other old Israelite shrines, through actual images, such as the golden calf. The ten northern tribes assembled at Shechem to proclaim Rehoboam King of Israel. Deut. After this event, he returned and participated in a delegation sent to ask the new king Rehoboam to reduce taxes. Yet Jeroboam the son of Nebat, the servant of Solomon the son of David, is risen up, and hath rebelled against his lord . Rehoboam was 41 years old (16 in Chapter 12 of Kings III in the Septuagint) when he ascended the throne.[2]. These ostraca, while unremarkable in themselves, contain valuable information about the script, language, religion and administrative system of the period. In the fifth year of Rehoboam's reign, Shishak, king of Egypt, brought a huge army and took many cities. ), first king of post-Solomonic Israel; son of Nebat and Zeruah, from the town of Zeredah in Ephraim (i Kings 11:26). The narrative introduces Jeroboam after describing how two men (Haddad and Rezon) actively fought against Solomon, but then it explains how Jeroboam became one of Solomons officials and describes a prophecy which likely incited his rebellion. The Kings of Judah were the monarchs who ruled over the ancient Kingdom of Judah. God's Purpose in Our Hardships - In Touch Ministries Jeroboam fortified Shechem as the capital of his kingdom and also rebuilt the town of Peniel, the ancient site of Jacob's famous wrestling match with the angel of Yahweh (Genesis 32:30). You have made for yourself other gods, idols made of metal; you have aroused my anger and turned your back on me. The prophet said that God was giving Jeroboam ten tribes and leaving only two to the descendants of King David. Ahijah's message, however, is that Abijah will die, which he does. She is unnamed in the Masoretic Text, but according to the Septuagint, she was an Egyptian princess called Ano: In 1 Kings,[17] Jeroboam's son Abijah gets sick, and he sends his wife to the prophet Ahijah. [10][20] When he died he was buried beside his ancestors in Jerusalem. Nevertheless, I will not do it in your days, for the sake of your father David; I will tear it out of the hand of your son. 3) has the rebels exclaim: "We leave to Rehoboam the Temple his father built. His life was recorded and his story was told by people who loathed him. Jeroboam ruled for 41 years. Like several of the other kings of Israel would later do to their predecessors' descendants, Baasha killed Jeroboam's whole family after taking power, thus fulfilling the reported prophecy of Ahijah years earlier. Jeroboam died after reigning for 22 years and was succeeded by his son Nadab, who was overthrown and killed by Baasha two years later. (This wouldve been a big no-no.) Logos Bible Software 10 review: Do you REALLY need it? Between 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles, theres a lot we can gather about Jeroboam I. The wife of Jeroboam is a character in the Hebrew Bible. Despite the negative opinion displayed toward Jeroboam in the Bible, it is becoming increasingly clear that his actions were based on an earlier . The new breakaway kingdom continued to be called Kingdom of Israel, and was also known as Samaria, or Ephraim or the northern kingdom. [6] Jeroboam's reign was the period of the prophets Hosea, Joel, Amos and Jonah, all of whom condemned the materialism and selfishness of the Israelite elite of their day: "Woe unto those who lie upon beds of ivory eat lambs from the flock and calves [and] sing idle songs "[12] The Book of Kings condemns Jeroboam for doing "evil in the eyes of the Lord", meaning both the oppression of the poor and his continuing support of the cult centres of Dan and Bethel, in opposition to the temple in Jerusalem. His people are sinful and can make no claim on the Lord to sustain His church. Jeroboam pointed with his arm to the man and ordered his men to seize him. The end result was that Yahweh sent the nation into exile when it fell to the Assyrians (2 Kgs 17:2123).. The prophet rented his coat in 12 pieces, giving ten to Jeroboam. Kings of Judah The genealogy of the kings of Judah, along with the kings of Israel. Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. In the account of I Kings and II Chronicles, Rehoboam saw his rule limited to only the Kingdom of Judah in the south following a rebellion by the ten northern tribes of Israel in 932/931 BCE, which led to the formation of the independent Kingdom of Israel under the rule of Jeroboam in the north. Scholars debate whether this meant Jeroboam established two capitals (one on each side of the Jordan River), but Shechem was his primary base of operations. xii. Therefore the Lord said to Solomon, "Because you have done this, and have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom away from you and give it to your servant. While still young, he was promoted by King Solomon to be the chief superintendent of the bands of forced laborers from the tribe of "Joseph," referring normally to both Ephraim and Manasseh,[1] working on projects in Jerusalem. Exodus 32, anyone?). He became infamous in the Bible for creating national shrines at Bethel and Dan that competed with the Kingdom of Judah's Temple of Jerusalem. By any objective historical standard, Jeroboam was a highly successful and popular political leader who established a long-lived independent nation and provided it with spiritual underpinnings which, being destroyed more than a century after the Assyrian conquest in the reforms of King Josiah, outlasted both his own dynasty and the Kingdom of Israel itself. Dogs will eat those belonging to Jeroboam who die in the city, and the birds will feed on those who die in the country. "The Chronicles of the Kings of Israel", likely compiled by or derived from these kings' own scribes, is likely the source for the basic facts of Jeroboam's life and reign, though the compiler(s) of the extant Book of Kings clearly made selective use of it and added hostile commentaries. Aided, perhaps, by Assyrian pressure from the east, he brought to an end the long struggle between Read More biblical literature The inevitable war between Jeroboam and Rehoboam seems to have gone at first in favour of the south, but the power of Judah was permanently checked by an Egyptian invasion under Sheshonk, who captured a number of cities in Palestine (not including Jerusalem) and exacted an enormous tribute from Rehoboam. Jeroboam reigned for 22 years (14:20), approximately from 928 to 907 b.c.e. Speaking to Jeroboams wife, the prophet Ahijah relays a sharp rebuke from God: I tore the kingdom away from the house of David and gave it to you, but you have not been like my servant David, who kept my commands and followed me with all his heart, doing only what was right in my eyes. Judah had just been conquered and turned into a vassal of Egypt, while Israel stood between the Egyptian and Mesopotamian empires. Contributing Writer 2022 2 Feb When you consider the kings of Israel and the evil they did in the eyes of the Lord, perhaps no one. Occasionally, like Ephraim itself, "Joseph" is used to refer to the area and people of the northern kingdom generally. Rehoboam was stricken with a running sore as a punishment for the curse which David had invoked upon Joab (II Sam. 25 Then Jeroboam built Shechem in mount Ephraim, and dwelt therein; and went out from thence, and built Penuel. Who Was Herod? 24) Naamah is said to have been the daughter of Hanun (), son of Nahash, a king of Ammon (II Sam. For example in one edition of the Greek Septuagint version of the Hebrew Bible (2d recension), his mother is represented not simply as a widow but as a promiscuous woman. golden calf, idol worshipped by the Hebrews during the period of the Exodus from Egypt in the 13th century bc and during the age of Jeroboam I, king of Israel, in the 10th century bc. Solomon had laborers build terraces in Jerusalem and fill in a gap in the wall. Solomon discovered the conspiracy and condemned Jeroboam to death. 6 Things to know about Ahab in the Bible Clarence L. Haynes Jr. But theres also some controversy about how hes portrayed in the Bible.