2 Chronicles · Chapter 12

V. 1. And all Israel-So called, because they forsook God, as Israel had done.

Verse 1. He forsook the law of the Lord] This was after the three years mentioned 2 Chronicles 11:17.

Verse 1. When Rehoboam had established the kingdom — Israel was very much disgraced and weakened by being divided into two kingdoms; yet the kingdom of Judah, having both the temple and the royal city, both the house of David and the house of Aaron, might have done very well if they had continued in the way of their duty: but here we have all out of order there. For Rehoboam forsook the law of the Lord, and all Israel with him — That is, all his people, all Judah, here called Israel, because they walked in the evil ways into which Jeroboam had drawn the kingdom of Israel. Of this defection from God and his service, see 1 Kings 14:22-24. Observe, reader; as long as he thought his throne in an insecure state, he kept to his duty, that he might make God his friend; but when he judged that he was established in his kingdom, he acted as if he thought he had no more occasion for religion. Thus the prosperity of fools destroys them.

Verse 1. Rehoboam forsook the law of the Lord. His juvenile council, his harem of eighteen queens and sixty concubines, are lamentable proofs of the imbecility of his mind. The apple-tree seldom bears two years alike.

V. 2. Fifth year-Presently after the apostacy of the king and people, which was in the fourth year.

Verse 2. Shishak king of Egypt] Concerning this man, and the motive which led him to attack the Jews, see the note on 1 Kings 14:31. Transgressed against the Lord] “Against the WORD of the Lord.”-Targum.

Verse 2. In the fifth year Shishak came up against Jerusalem — Presently after the apostacy of the king and people, which was in the fourth year. As this great calamity came upon them so soon after they began to desert the worship of God, and by a hand they had so little reason to suspect, having had a great deal of friendly correspondence with Egypt in the last reign; and as it came with so much violence, that all the fenced cities of Judah, which Rehoboam had lately fortified and garrisoned, and on which he relied much for the safety of his kingdom, fell into the hands of the enemy without making any resistance, it plainly appeared that the Lord had sent it, because they had transgressed against him. And doubtless God brought this unexpected trouble upon them so soon after their departure from him, not only to manifest his displeasure at, and to punish them for, their crime, but also and especially to recover them to repentance before their hearts were hardened.

Ver. 2. Shishak is called Sesac by Josephus, He is named by Herodotus, lib. 2., by Diodorus, and by Eusebius, and is called successively Sasochis, and Sebacus, and Asychis, and Sesostris. Being a great conqueror by sea and by land, he had no need to bring so great an army against Rehoboam, who was more like a woman than a man. Thus in little more than four years, the glory of Solomon’s kingdom came to the mercy of a foreign king! All is vanity, and vexation of spirit.

V. 3. Lubims-A people of Africk bordering upon Egypt. Sukkiims-A people living in tents, as the word signifies; and such there were not far from Egypt, both in Africk and in Arabia. Ethiopians-Either those beyond Egypt, or the Arabians.

Verse 3. The Lubims] Supposed to be a people of Libya, adjoining to Egypt; sometimes called Phut in Scripture, as the people are called Lehabim and Ludim.

The Sukkiims] The Troglodytes, a people of Egypt on the coast of the Red Sea. They were called Troglodytes, Trwglodutai, oi tav trwglav oikountev, “because they dwelt in caves.”-Hesych. This agrees with what Pliny says of them, Troglodytæ specus excavant, haec illis domus; “The Troglodytes dig themselves caves; and these serve them for houses.” This is not very different from the import of the original name µyyks Sukkiyim, from hks sachah, to cover or overspread; (hence Ëws such, a tabernacle;) the people who were covered (emphatically) under the earth. The Septuagint translate by the word Trwglodutai, Troglodytes. The Ethiopians.] כושים Cushim. Various people were called by this name, particularly a people bordering on the northern coast of the Red Sea; but these are supposed to have come from a country of that name on the south of Egypt.

Verse 3. The Lubims — The people of Lybia, a famous country of Africa, adjoining to Egypt. And the Sukkiims were the Troglodytes, a people who lived on the western side of the Red sea, and had that name from their dwelling in dens and caves of the earth, which is also the meaning of the Hebrew word µyyks, succhiim, here used. As for the people called Cush, which we translate Ethiopians, they were either those to the south of Egypt, or the Scenitæ in Arabia.

3. The Lubim — Libyans, Daniel 11:43; probably identical with the Lehabim of Genesis 10:13. They were an African nation, apparently under Egyptian rule, and are repeatedly mentioned in connexion with the Egyptians and Ethiopians. Compare 1 Chronicles 16:8; Nahum 3:9. They peopled the African coast along the Mediterranean, west of Egypt. The Sukkiim — “This name does not occur elsewhere. The Seventy, who rendered the word by ‘Troglodytes,’ regarded the Sukkiim probably as the ‘cave-dwellers’ along the western shore of the Red Sea, who are mentioned by Strabo and others; but the conjecture of Gesenius, that the word means ‘tent dwellers,’ is plausible, and would point rather to a tribe of Arabs.” — Rawlinson. The Ethiopians inhabited the country south of Egypt, which was watered by the Upper Nile. Compare 2 Kings 19:9; Esther 1:1.

Verse 5. Then came Shemaiah the prophet to Rehoboam and the princes of Judah — Lest they should not readily or rightly understand the meaning of this providence, God sends a prophet to explain it, namely, the same Shemaiah that had brought them an injunction from God not to fight against the ten tribes, who plainly tells them, that the reason why Shishak prevailed against them was, not because they had been impolitic in the management of their affairs, but because they had forsaken God.

5. Shemaiah the prophet — See note on 1 Kings 12:22. The powerful influence of this prophet over the king and the princes is here very noticeable. The time had not yet come when the kings of Judah dared treat Jehovah’s prophets with contempt. Compare 2 Chronicles 16:10; 24:19; 33:10.

Verse 6. Whereupon the princes of Israel and the king humbled themselves] This is not mentioned in the parallel place, 1 Kings 14:25-29: this was the sole reason why Jerusalem was not at this time totally destroyed, and the house of David entirely cut off; for they were totally incapable of defending themselves against this innumerable host.

Verse 6. Whereupon the princes and the king humbled themselves — They penitentially acknowledged their sin, and patiently accepted the punishment of it, saying, The Lord is righteous — We have none to blame but ourselves: let God be clear when he is judged. Thus it becomes us, when we are under the rebukes of divine providence, to justify God, and judge ourselves. “Even princes and kings,” says Henry, “must either bend or break; either be humbled or ruined.”

V. 7. Some deliverance-I will give some stop to the course of my wrath, which was ready to be poured forth upon them to their utter destruction. Those who acknowledge God is righteous in afflicting them, shall find him gracious.

Verse 7. They have humbled themselves — Which though they did by constraint and with reluctance, yet God was pleased so far to regard it, as to mitigate their calamity. I will not destroy them — Such a vast, and now victorious army as Shishak had, having made themselves masters of all the fenced cities, what else could be expected, but that the whole country; and even Jerusalem itself, would in a little time be theirs? But when God says, Here shall the proud waves be stayed, the most threatening force strangely dwindles, and becomes impotent. I will grant them some deliverance — I will give some stop to the course of my wrath, which was ready to be poured forth upon them to their utter destruction. Those who acknowledge God is righteous in afflicting them, shall find him gracious. They that humble themselves before him, shall find favour with him. So ready is the God of mercy to take the first occasion to show mercy. Reader, if thy heart be humbled, and made contrite under humbling and distressing providences, the affliction has done its work, and it shall either be removed, or the property of it altered.

Ver. 7. Shemaiah was a great prophet in the reign of Solomon and of Rehoboam; his addresses brought the nation to repentance, and saved Jerusalem from destruction. Like Samuel, Nathan, and Gad, he left a book of his labours connected with the history of his own times, ver. 15. He was enrolled by the Jews amongst the forty eight prophets sent of God to their nation.

V. 8. May know-That they may experimentally know the difference between my yoke and the yoke of a foreign and idolatrous prince.

Verse 8. They shall be his servants] They shall be preserved, and serve their enemies, that they may see the difference between the service of God and that of man. While they were pious, they found the service of the Lord to be perfect freedom; when they forsook the Lord, they found the fruit to be perfect bondage. A sinful life is both expensive and painful.

Verse 8. They shall be his servants — That is, they shall be much at his mercy, and put under contribution by him, and some of them taken prisoners, and held in captivity by him: that they may know my service, and the service of the kingdoms, &c. — That they may experimentally know the difference between my yoke, and the yoke of a foreign and idolatrous prince. The more God’s service is compared with other services, the more reasonable and easy it will appear. And, whatever difficulties or hardships we may imagine there are in the way of obedience, it is better, a thousand times, to go through them, than to expose ourselves to the punishment of disobedience. Are the laws of temperance thought hard? The effects of intemperance will be much harder. The service of virtue is perfect liberty, the service of vice perfect slavery.

Verse 9. Took away the treasures] Such a booty as never had before, nor has since, come into the hand of man.

The shields of gold] These shields were the mark of the king’s body-guard: it was in imitation of this Eastern magnificence that Alexander constituted his Argyraspides, adorned with the spoils taken from Darius. See Quintus Curtius, lib. viii., c. 5, et alibi.

Verses 9, 10. Shishak took away the treasures of the house of the Lord, and of the king’s house — He plundered both the temple and the exchequer, the treasuries of both which Solomon had left full. David and Solomon, who walked in the ways of God, filled the treasuries, one by war, and the other by merchandise; but Rehoboam, who forsook these ways, emptied them. Respecting the taking away of the golden shields, and substituting brazen ones in their place, see notes on 1 Kings 14:25-28.

Verses 9, 10. Shishak took away the treasures of the house of the Lord, and of the king’s house — He plundered both the temple and the exchequer, the treasuries of both which Solomon had left full. David and Solomon, who walked in the ways of God, filled the treasuries, one by war, and the other by merchandise; but Rehoboam, who forsook these ways, emptied them. Respecting the taking away of the golden shields, and substituting brazen ones in their place, see notes on 1 Kings 14:25-28.

V. 12. Went well-The began to recruity themselves, and regain some degree of their former prosperity.

Verse 12. In Judah things went well — Hebrew, There were good things. The meaning is either, 1st, Though there were many corruptions in Judah, yet there were also divers good things there, which were not in Israel, as the word, and ordinances, and pure worship of God, prophets and ministers of God’s appointment, and divers truly religious people. And thus, this was an additional reason why God would not destroy them. Or, 2d, Notwithstanding this loss, they began to recruit themselves, and to regain some degree of their former prosperity. In Judah, things went ill when all the fenced cities were taken; but when they repented, the posture of the affairs altered, and things went well. If at any time things do not go so well as we could wish, yet we have reason to take notice of it with thankfulness, if they go better than they have done, and better than we expected or deserved, and to own God’s goodness, if he do but grant us some deliverance.

Verse 13. Was one and forty years old] Houbigant thinks he was but sixteen years old when he began to reign; and brings many and forcible arguments to prove that the number forty-one must be a mistake. That he was young when he came to the throne, is evident from his consulting the young men that were brought up with him, 2 Chronicles 10:8, 10. They were young men then; and if he was brought up with them, he must have been young then also. Besides, Abijah, in his speech to Jeroboam, 2 Chronicles 13:7, says that at the time Rehoboam came to the throne he was tender-hearted, and therefore could not withstand the children of Belial raised up against him by Jeroboam: but surely at that time no man could be reputed young and tender-hearted-quite devoid of experience, who was above forty years of age. Besides, if this reading were allowed, it would prove that he was born before his father Solomon began to reign, for Solomon reigned only forty years, and Rehoboam immediately succeeded him.

Verse 13. King Rehoboam strengthened himself in Jerusalem — He recovered so much strength that he reigned with some authority: or, finding that his fenced cities of Judah did not answer his expectation, he now made it his business to fortify Jerusalem, and render that impregnable. And there he reigned seventeen years, in the city which the Lord had chosen to put his name there.

V. 14. Did evil-Or, settled not, although he humbled himself, for a season, yet he quickly relapsed into sin, because his heart was not right with God.

Verse 14. He prepared not his heart, &c. — Directed not, or settled not, &c. That is, although he humbled himself, and seemed penitent for a season, and professed the true religion and worship of God; yet he quickly relapsed into his former sins, because he was not sincere and serious in his actions, and his heart was not right with God. To seek the Lord — He did not serve the Lord, because he did not seek the Lord. He did not pray to the Lord, as Solomon did, for wisdom and grace. Or he did not consult the word of God, did not seek to that as his oracle. Hence, what little goodness he had, passed away like the morning cloud, and he did evil because he was not fully determined for that which was good. Those are easily drawn aside to evil by Satan, who are wavering and inconstant in that which is good, and are not persuaded to make religion their business.

Verse 15. Concerning genealogies] “In the book of the genealogy of the family of David.”-Targum.

Verse 15. Of Iddo the seer concerning genealogies — In an historical account, written by him, of the genealogies and actions of the kings of Judah.

15. Book of Shemaiah — Probably an account of his life and prophecies written by himself. Iddo the seer concerning genealogies — Apparently a different work from that mentioned in 1 Chronicles 9:29. Comp. 2 Chronicles 13:22, and Introduction.

Verse 16. Abijah his son] Concerning the many varieties in this king’s name, see Clarke’s note on “1 Kings 14:31”. II CHRONICLES