CHAPTER II.
REHOBOAM AND ABIJAH, JEROBOAM AND NADAB.
1 Kings xiii.–xv. 2 Chr. xi.–xiii. B.C. 975–955.
THIS warning, however, though confirmed by signs and wonders, had little or no effect on Jeroboam himself. He persisted in his evil courses, and his dynasty was destined to pass away, a fact before long revealed to him under very mournful circumstances. His son Abijah fell sick. In his anxiety to know the fate of the hope of his kingdom, Jeroboam bade his wife disguise herself, and repair to Shiloh, and there consult the now blind and aged prophet, who had foretold his own elevation to the throne. Though she was effectually disguised, and presented only the gift of an ordinary person, a few loaves, some cakes, and a cruse of honey, the prophet detected his visitor as soon as he heard the sound of her feet at the door, and confirmed her worst fears. In words of utmost sternness he denounced her husband’s idolatries, and distinctly told her that her son would die. He, indeed, as one in whom was found some good thing towards the Lord God of Israel, would descend into the grave mourned and lamentedby the whole people. But no other of his family would thus receive an honourable funeral, and his death would be but the prelude of the destruction of his father’s dynasty. With a heavy heart the mother returned, and as she entered the town of Tirzah, Abijah sickened, and the blind prophet’s words came true (1 K. xiv. 1–18).
Meanwhile, the relations between the rival kingdoms had been marked by continued hostility (1 K. xiv. 30; 2 Chr. xii. 15). The first step taken by Rehoboam, when the disruption of the kingdom was complete, was to fortify 15 cities in the neighbourhood of his capital, and in the southern and south-western portions of Judah (2 Chr. xi. 5–12). All these he stored with provisions and arms, and placed over them commandants. During the first three years of his reign he walked in the ways of the Lord, and was strengthened in upholding the principles of true religion by numerous bodies of priests and Levites, who flocked into the territory of Judah from that of Jeroboam, as also by many of the tribes of Israel, who still remained faithful to the Lord God of their fathers (2 Chr. xi. 13–17). But soon, like Solomon before him, he too was found wanting. Surrounding himself with a numerous harem, he took 18 wives and 60 concubines, by whom he became the father of numerous sons and daughters. Reserving the throne for Abijah, the son of Maachah daughter of Absalom, he dispersed the rest of the royal princes among his fortified cities, and in the splendour of his court and the security of his now established throne, forgat the law of the Lord (2 Chr. xii. 1), and set an evil example to his subjects, who speedily began to build high places, and set up images and groves on every high hill, and under every green tree (1 K. xiv. 22–24).
Five years, however, after his accession, his peace was rudely disturbed. Shishak the Egyptian king, instigatedprobably by Jeroboam, whom as we have already seen, he had befriended in exile, advanced against Judah with 1200 chariots, 60,000 cavalry, and an enormous host of Libyans, Nubians, and Ethiopians. Having made himself master of Rehoboam’s fenced cities, he penetrated as far as his capital, and forced him to purchase an ignominious peace by delivering up the treasure of the royal palace and the Temple, even to the shields of gold, which Solomon had made for the purpose of being borne before him whenever he visited the Temple in state[347] (1 K. x. 16, 17). More than this the Egyptian monarch did not attempt, as Shemaiah the prophet had promised would be the case, if the king and his people displayed signs of real contrition for their idolatries. After this deep humiliation, the moral condition of Judah seems to have improved, and the rest of Rehoboam’s reign is not marked by any remarkable event. He died, B.C. 957, at the age of 58, after a reign of 17 years, and was succeeded by his son Abijah.
The new king continued the war with Jeroboam, and made a determined effort to recover the ten tribes. At Mount Zemaraim, in the range of Ephraim, he confronted with 400,000 troops twice that number of the enemy; and previously to the battle endeavoured by a solemn address to win over the subjects of his rival to their former allegiance. He reminded them of the Divine election of David to the throne of the entire nation, and the emphatic manner in which the monarchy had been covenanted to him; he recounted the circumstances under which Jeroboam had usurped the regal power, and contrastedthe idolatrous worship he had established with the time-honoured ritual of the Temple, and its divinely-ordained priests. While he thus sought to awaken the loyalty of the tribes, his rival had posted an ambuscade behind the men of Judah, who found themselves entrapped. But, nothing daunted, they cried unto the Lord, and, while the priests sounded with the silver trumpets, raised a shout, and fell upon the foe. The forces of Jeroboam were utterly routed, and Abijah succeeded in capturing the towns of Bethel, Jeshanah, and Ephraim with the surrounding villages. From this signal defeat the king of Israel never recovered strength again (2 Ch. xiii. 20), and soon after died, bequeathing his throne to his son Nadab, while his rival Abijah, after a brief reign of three years, also died, and was succeeded by his son Asa, B.C. 954.
CHAPTER III.
ASA AND BAASHA, ELAH, ZIMRI, OMRI.
1 Kings xv. xvi. 2 Chr. xiv.–xvi. B.C. 955–918.
THE reign of Nadab was very brief, lasting only two years. As he was besieging Gibbethon, a town allotted to Dan (Josh. xix. 44), and afterwards given to the Kohathite Levites (Josh. xxi. 23), but which was now in the hands of the Philistines, Baasha, the son of Abijah, of the house of Issachar, conspired against him, and, usurping the throne, smote all the house of Jeroboam till he left none that breathed, thus fulfilling the words of Ahijah, and destroying the first Israelitish dynasty, B.C. 953.
Between the new king and Asa constant hostilities were maintained. The latter, mindful of the conditions on which he held the kingdom, no sooner ascended the throne, than he commenced a general religious reform throughout his dominions. He removed the idols hisfather had set up, the high places, the images, and the groves; nor did he spare the idolatrous ritual even of his grandmother Maachah, who held the special dignity of queen-mother; he removed the symbol of her religion, and flung the ashes into the brook Kidron. Having thus restored the worship of Jehovah to something of its former purity, he strengthened his kingdom by fortifying the frontier towns, and raised and equipped a large army. He was thus in a condition to confront the enormous host with which his realm was invaded by Zerah, the Ethiopian, probably Osorkon II.[348], the successor of Shishak, and the inheritor of his quarrel with Rehoboam. The Egyptian host penetrated as far as Mareshah in the low country of Judah, where they were confronted by Asa, whose confidence in his God was rewarded by a complete victory, and the Egyptian host fell back routed as far as Gerar, leaving immense spoils in the hands of the men of Judah (2 Chr. xiv. 9–15).