The Kings of Israel and Judah

Jeroboam the First

JEROBOAM, the son of Nebat and Zeruah, who outlived her husband, was “an Ephrathite (or Ephraimite) of Zereda” (1 Kings xi. 26), and was born a subject of King Solomon. His native place, Zereda, lay probably in the valley of the Jordan, and is reasonably identified with Zeredathah, the town or village where Solomon established the foundries for the great works in bronze, which Hiram undertook to cast for the Temple. Nebat, Jeroboam’s father, seems to have died while Jeroboam was still a child, and he was brought up by his mother, “a widow woman,” of whom nothing more is told us.1 He belonged to the middle ranks of society, and, having reached the full vigour of his youth, was among the men of Ephraim impressed by Solomon to aid in constructing the fortifications by which he was seeking to render Jerusalem an impregnable fortress. It has been surmised that he was “among the lower overseers of the labourers;”2 but the Scripture narrative gives no indication of this; and it is most natural to regard him as merely one of the many “young Ephraimites employed on the works.”3 It was as such that, on one occasion, when Solomon was inspecting the progress of the fortification of Millo, which was situated between the Temple hill and the modern Zion, he specially attracted the attention of the monarch, who, noting his vigour and activity, promoted him to the position of head-overseer over the services due to the crown from the house of Joseph. This was a vast rise in the social scale, and gave him a position equal to that of almost any other subject. Whether there is any truth in the statement, that he began at once to affect an almost regal state, maintained a retinue of three hundred chariots, and secretly aspired to the sovereignty,4 is uncertain. The Septuagint “Additions” to the story of Jeroboam do not stand the test of a searching criticism, and if they have been accepted by some writers, as Ewald and Dean Stanley,5 it is rather because they are picturesque and striking, than because they are entitled to be regarded as of any historical value. We know nothing of Jeroboam’s life between his promotion by Solomon and his flight into Egypt, except that, apparently without any scheming of his own, he was the subject of a prophetical announcement, which provoked the anger of Solomon, and led him to seek the life of his too distinguished servant and subject (1 Kings xi. 40).

Ahijah the Shilonite was a prophet of repute under Solomon, who had succeeded to the position previously held by Nathan, and was Court Historiographer during Solomon’s later years (2 Chron. ix. 29). Shiloh, his native town, was one of the principal cities of Ephraim; and he may have been personally acquainted with his brother Ephraimite, whom Solomon had so greatly distinguished. At any rate, as a member of the Court, he would be familiar with Jeroboam’s habits and person. Having, therefore, received from God a commission to invest the young Ephraimite with a prospective sovereignty over ten of the twelve tribes, he took an opportunity of waylaying him on one of his numerous departures from Jerusalem in a place where they two would be alone. Here he made his meaning clear, and impressed it indelibly on the mind of his companion, by accompanying his words with an “acted parable,” according to a practice not uncommon among sages and teachers in the East.6 Jeroboam, proud of his high office, had recently clad himself in a new cloak or robe. Ahijah caught hold of this, and stripping it off him tore it into twelve fragments, one for each tribe, and retaining two, gave him the other ten, accompanying his gift with these words: “Take thou ten pieces; for thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, Behold, I will rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and will give ten tribes to thee: but he shall have one tribe for My servant David’s sake, and for Jerusalem’s sake, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel: because that they have forsaken Me, and have worshipped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Milcom the god of the children of Ammon, and have not walked in My ways, to do that which is right in Mine eyes, and to keep My statutes and My judgments: as did David his father. Howbeit I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand, but I will make him prince all the days of his life for David My servant’s sake, whom I chose because he kept My commandments and My statutes: but I will take the kingdom out of his son’s hand, and will give it unto thee—even ten tribes. And unto his son will I give one tribe, that David My servant may have a light always before Me in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen to put My name there. And I will take thee, and thou shalt reign according to all that thy soul desireth, and shalt be king over Israel. And it shall be, if thou wilt hearken unto all that I command thee, and wilt walk in My ways, and do that which is right in My sight, to keep My statutes and My commandments, as David My servant did: that I will be with thee, and build thee a sure house, as I built for David, and will give Israel unto thee. And I will for this afflict the seed of David, but not for ever” (1 Kings xi. 31-39.)

It had been before this time prophesied to Solomon, though by what prophet we cannot say,7 that at his death his kingdom would be rent in twain, and the greater portion given to one of his “servants,” one tribe only being reserved for his son (1 Kings xi. 11-13). But he had hitherto not known to whom the prophecy pointed, or which of his servants was to be especially feared. Now, however—for it was not long before the transaction between Jeroboam and Ahijah got wind, either from Jeroboam not keeping the secret or from the meeting having been observed—he found that the fated enemy of his house was the man whom he had so greatly favoured, whom he had raised from a lowly station, and set among the princes of the people. Instantly his anger was inflamed. What? Jeroboam the traitor who would rob his son! He had, then, warmed a serpent in his bosom: he had given the high position which could alone render successful treason possible to the very man who was about to use that high position to humiliate and despoil the best beloved of all his offspring. We need not wonder that, with the unpitying sternness of an Oriental despot, he at once formed the determination of taking his enemy’s life (ibid. ver. 40). It is not clear, however, that Jeroboam had been guilty of any overt act of rebellion or treason. One modern writer indeed, tells us that he “openly rose against Solomon’s rule,” took arms, and with a band of adherents began a “contest which was not a very easy one” to put down.8 But no Biblical writer, not even the author of the Septuagint “Additions,” lends any support to this view. Jeroboam, it is probable, had done nothing more than talk of his fine prospects among his friends and followers. But in the East this is quite enough to draw down upon a subject’s head the vengeance of his sovereign, and Solomon would not be shocking his people’s sense of justice in seeking under the circumstances to kill Jeroboam. That he did so is plainly stated. He did not “banish Jeroboam to Egypt,” as has been alleged;9 but formed a determination to put him to death—a determination which, coming to Jeroboam’s knowledge, induced him to fly the country, and become a refugee in the foreign land which was best able to afford him protection.

Egypt, under the twentieth and twenty-first dynasties, had declined from her high estate, and was no longer the power which she had shown herself in the time of the Thothmeses and the Ramessides. Her Asiatic influence had dwindled and disappeared, and when, under the twenty-first dynasty, Solomon proposed to ally himself with a princess of the reigning house the Egyptian sovereign of the time did not regard the marriage as one of disparity. He readily acquiesced in the offer of the Israelite king, and gave his daughter a dowry suitable to her rank (1 Kings ix. 16), thus indicating his full consent to the match and approval of it. But Egypt was still, even under the twenty-first dynasty, the most powerful of all the states that bordered upon Palestine. And when Sheshonk, the founder of the twenty-second dynasty, came to the throne, she began once more, under his guidance and direction, to be something more than this. She resumed the ambitious projects which had been laid aside for three centuries, and at the same time the taste for magnificence and display which had characterized the Ramesside monarchs. Sheshonk adorned the cities of Thebes, Memphis, and Bubastis with architectural works. He held his Court commonly either at Bubastis or at Thebes, and set himself to rival the glories of other days. Egypt had from a remote antiquity been in the habit of receiving with open arms refugees from abroad; and when Jeroboam, threatened with death by his own sovereign, sought an asylum in the valley of the Nile, Sheshonk acted in accordance with Egyptian traditions in receiving him and giving him shelter. It may well be that in course of time the Israelite exile rose in his favour, and acquired an influence over him; but the doubtful tale of his having given Jeroboam an Egyptian princess in marriage seems scarcely entitled to our acceptance.10

In his sojourn at the Egyptian Court, which appears to have been prolonged for some years, Jeroboam would learn many new things. He would become familiar with a religion imposing by its antiquity, striking in many of its manifestations, and regarded by those who presided over it as not incompatible with a profound conviction of the truth of monotheism. He...