Rehoboam
Rehoboam (Hebrew:רחבעם Rehav'am) was a king of the ancient Kingdom of Judah, succeeding his father Solomon. His grandfather was David. He was the third king of the House of David and the first of the Kingdom of Judah. His mother was Naamah "the Ammonitess." His name means he who enlarges the people.
Rehoboam's reign has been dated to 922 B.C.E.-915 B.C.E. by William F. Albright and 931 B.C.E.-913 B.C.E. by E. R. Thiele. The Bible is the only historical source for his reign. His story is told in the Books of 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles.
When Rehoboam refused to lighten Solomon's policy of heavy taxation and forced labor, the northern tribes seceded from his kingdom, proclaiming Jeroboam I as their king. Only the southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin remained under Rehoboam in what became known as the Kingdom of Judah. The Egyptian king Shishak pillaged Jerusalem in the fifth year of Rehoboam's reign and Judah became a tributary to Egypt.
The Kingdom divided
Background
Rehoboam ascended the throne at the age of 41, and he reigned seventeen years. Although the biblical account holds Solomon's toleration of the religions of his foreign wives responsible for his kingdom's division in Rehoboam's time, the immediate cause of the north's rebellion was Rehoboam's labor and taxation policies. Under his father, the people were taxed heavily to pay for the Solomon's building projects, and forced labor was also mandated. Moreover, Jeroboam, a rising young Ephraimite encouraged by the prophet Ahijah, had increasingly outspoken against Solomonic policy. Forced into exile under Solomon, he had recently returned. Solomon had also accumulated several prominent enemies during his later reign, notably Hadad, the Egyptian-backed heir to the Edomite throne; Rezon, the son of an Aramean army captain, now the de facto ruler of Damascus.
In an apparent gesture to the northern tribes, Rehoboam traveled to Schechem to be crowned, rather than holding his coronation ceremony in Jerusalem. (1 Kings 12:1). There, he was confronted by a large delegation, "the whole assembly of Israel," with the complaint:
- Your father put a heavy yoke on us, but now lighten the harsh labor and the heavy yoke he put on us, and we will serve you.
Rehoboam asked for three days to consider the issue. He first consulted the elders who had advised Solomon, and these men counseled him: "If today you will be a servant to these people and serve them and give them a favorable answer, they will always be your servants." (12:7)
Rehoboam, however, prefered the advice of younger men, who exhorted him to express his authority by refusing to compromise. Rehoboam thus declared to the Israelites: Mmy father also chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions." (1 Kings
The northerners then retracted their recognition of House of David and declared independence. The Bible preserves the political slogan of their movement:
- What share do we have in David,
- what part in Jesse's son?
- To your tents, O Israel!
- Look after your own house, O David!"
Testing the Israelites' determination, Rehoboam he dispatched Adoram, his minister of forced labor, to conscript Israelite men. Adoram, however, was stoned stoned to death, and Rehoboam fled in haste to Jerusalem.
Jeroboam I was appointed king of the northern tribes, and their breakaway state became known as the Kingdom of Israel. Rehoboam returned to Jerusalem as king over what later became know as the Kingdom of Judah, consisting of only the areas alotted to the tribes of Judah and Benjamin.
Wars
Rehoboam organized a sizeable army to suppress the rebellion. Its size is given as 180,000 men by I Kings and by II Chronicles. However a prophet named Shemaiah proclaimed God's words as: "Do not go up to fight against your brothers, the Israelites." Rehoboam immediately abandoned his plans for a full scale invasion. However, he skirmished against the forces of Jeroboam I throughout the remainder of his reign.
In the fifth year of Rehoboam's reign, Pharaoh Shishak and his allies, including the Ethiopians, invaded Judah. The biblical narrative indicates widespread defeats for the Judahites. Jerusalem, too, was taken, and both the Temple and the royal palace were looted. (2 Chronicles11:5-12)
A remarkable memorial of this invasion has been discovered at Karnak, in Upper Egypt. An inscription of Pharoah Sheshonq I on a colomn of a temple there show the god Amun holding in his hand a train of prisoners and other figures, with the names of the captured towns of Judah, the towns which Rehoboam had fortified. [1]
Rehoboam fortified the heart of the kingdom, and thus most of the approaches to Jerusalem were flanked by major fortresses. However, the ascents from the Judean Desert in the east and from the Kingdom of Israel in the north were not covered by the defensive works. The Judean Desert was a ground to which enemies were to be lured and ambushed, and the Judah-Israel border was not guarded because Rehoboam did not recognize the Kingdom of Israel as an independenent state. Thus, Chronicles reports: There was continual warfare between Rehoboam and Jeroboam. (2 Chron. 12:15)
Religious Dimension
The biblical authors view Rehoboam's fate in presiding over the division of his as having been determined by his father Solomon's sin in tolerating idolatry. God reportedly told Solomon:
- 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. Nevertheless, for the sake of David your father, I will not do it during your lifetime. I will tear it out of the hand of your son. (1Kings 11:11-12)
Even Jeroboam's rebellion is foreordained by God. Having proved his merit to Solomon, Jeroboam was placed in charge of labor gangs pressed into service from the tribe of Joseph (Ephraim). Just outside of Jerusalem, Ahijah, a prophet from Shiloh, met Jeroboam and predicted that God would give the rulership of ten Israelite tribes to Jeroboam, leaving only one to Solomon and his descendants. (1 Kings 11:31) Apparently Solomon hears of the prophecy, for he tries to kill Jeroboam, who seeks exile in Egypt until Solomon's death.
The issues of labor and taxation are by no means dismissed as irrelevant in the biblical narrative. Indeed, Jeroboam's role as a labor leader seems to be what qualifies him for leadership, along with Ahijah's blessing.
Another key element in the religious dimension of the drama is Jerusalem and its Temple. Ahijah declares: "I will give one tribe to (Solomon's) son so that David my servant may always have a lamp before me in Jerusalem, the city where I chose to put my Name." Critical scholars suspect the prophecy is a later addition by writers of the Deuteronomistic school. Be that is it may, the incident serve to explain how it came to pass that Jerusalem remained the authorized religious center even while God endorsed Jeroboam's rebellion against Rehoboam.
AFter the division of the kingdom, Rehoboam established a rival religious center at the ancient high place of Bethel. This cite became the object of scorn by later prophets and by the biblical authors themselves. The austensible reason for their disapproval was Jeroboam's erection of a golden bull-calf statue at the site. Scholars suspect another motive was the fact that northern pilgrims would no longer bring their tithes and sacfricial offerings to Jerusalem since they could easily stop at Bethel, just a few miles north of Jerusalem. Whatever the reason, Jerusalem emerged as the only authorized place of worship in either kingdom, in the biblical view.
After Jeroboam's rebellion, Levite priests, formerly scattered among the 12 tribes, reportedly moved in significant numbers to Jerusalem. Jeroboam, whether out of lack of trust for the Levites or because there were now insufficient numbers of them, began appointing non-Levite priests to attend his official altars.
Meanwhile, Rehoboam himself was not living up to the biblical standard of a true "son of David" in Jerusalem:
- Judah did evil in the eyes of the Lord. By the sins they committed they stirred up his jealous anger more than their fathers had done. They also set up for themselves high places, sacred stones and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every spreading tree. There were even male shrine prostitutes in the land; the people engaged in all the detestable practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before the Israelites.
Scholars debate whether there was ever a golden David age in which the Yahwistic religion was practiced throughout Israel and Judah. Bible critics generally hold the view that Judah and Israel were both religously pluralistic and the biblical ideal of moment when this was not so is more legendary than historical. However, the biblical view is that Rehoboam's failure to uphold the Yahwistic ideal is precisely what led to Egypt's successful raids on his cities. Chronicles reports the words of the prophet Shemiah in explaining this:
- Shemaiah came to Rehoboam and to the leaders of Judah who had assembled in Jerusalem for fear of Shishak, and he said to them, "This is what the Lord says, "You have abandoned me; therefore, I now abandon you to Shishak." (2 Chron. 12:5)
The writer of Chronicles concludes his evaluation of Rehoboam in this way:
- Because Rehoboam humbled himself, the Lord's anger turned from him, and he was not totally destroyed. Indeed, there was some good in Judah. King Rehoboam established himself firmly in Jerusalem and continued as king. (2 Chron 12:12-13)
Succession
Rehoboam reportedly had 18 wives and 60 concubines. These bore him 88 children, most of whom appointed to important posts across the country. His primary wife was Mahalath, who was, like Rehoboam himself, a descendant of King David. She bore him three sons: Jeush, Shemariah and Zaham. Another important wife was Maacah, daughter of Absalom, who bore him Abijah, Attai, Ziza and Shelomith. Chronicles 11:21 states, "Rehoboam loved Maacah daughter of Absalom more than any of his other wives and concubines."
He died and was buried beside his ancestors in Jerusalem. He was succeeded by his son Abijah, the son Maacah.
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
I Kings 11-12
II Chronicles 10-12
Battles of the Bible, 1978
| House of David Cadet Branch of the Tribe of Judah | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by: Solomon |
King of Judah Albright: 922 B.C.E. – 915 B.C.E. Thiele: c.931 B.C.E. – 913 B.C.E. Galil: c.931 B.C.E. – 914 B.C.E. |
Succeeded by: Abijam |
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