1Ki 14:21
Reign of Rehoboam in Judah (compare 2 Chron 11:5-12:16). - 1Ki 14:21. Rehoboam, who ascended the throne at the age of forty-one, was born a year before the accession of Solomon (see at 1Ki 2:24). In the description of Jerusalem as the city chosen by the Lord (cf., 1Ki 11:36) there is implied not so much an indirect condemnation of the falling away of the ten tribes, as the striking contrast to the idolatry of Rehoboam referred to in 1Ki 14:23. The name of his mother is mentioned (here and in 1Ki 14:31), not because she seduced the king to idolatry (Ephr. Syr.), but generally on account of the great influence which the queen-mother appears to have had both upon the king personally and upon his government, as we may infer from the fact that the mother’s name is given in the case of every king of Judah (vid., 1Ki 15:2, 1Ki 15:13; 1Ki 22:42, etc.).