1–4 (= 1 Kings xii. 21–24).
Shemaiah forbids Civil War.
The Chronicler here omits the elevation of Jeroboam to be king over Israel (1 Kings xii. 20).
¹And when Rehoboam was come to Jerusalem, he assembled the house of Judah and Benjamin, an hundred and fourscore thousand chosen men, which were warriors, to fight against Israel, to bring the kingdom again to Rehoboam.
1. an hundred and fourscore thousand] The number is small compared with the Judean armies mentioned in xiii. 3, xiv. 7, xvii. 14; yet it is far greater than is credible. The word rendered thousand may originally have been used to denote a tribal division, thus including women and children and old men. If so, the actual warriors represented by 180 such “thousands” would be about 30,000, a very large number for so small a state, yet not impossible. But, however that may be for the early days, there is little or no doubt that the Chronicler understood the word in its strict sense: a literal thousand. See the note on xvii. 14.
²But the word of the Lord came to Shemaiah the man of God, saying,
2. Shemaiah] See xii. 5, 15.
³Speak unto Rehoboam the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all Israel in Judah and Benjamin, saying, ⁴Thus saith the Lord, Ye shall not go up, nor fight against your brethren: return every man to his house; for this thing is of me. So they hearkened unto the words of the Lord, and returned from going against Jeroboam.
3. to all Israel in Judah and Benjamin] The Chronicler does not hesitate to use the term “Israel” in speaking of Judah. Thus the princes of the Southern Kingdom are called “the princes of Israel” (xii. 6, xxi. 4), the populace as a whole is called “Israel” (xii. 1, xv. 17), Jehoshaphat and Ahaz are each called “king of Israel” (xxi. 2, xxviii. 19), and the sepulchres of the kings at Jerusalem are called the “sepulchres of the kings of Israel” (xxviii. 27). Israel in Chronicles then = the covenant-people. In Kings, on the contrary, Israel generally means the Northern Kingdom.
5–23.
The Prosperity of Rehoboam.
These verses have no corresponding section in 1 Kings On the other hand, the Chronicler omits three important sections of 1 Kings, viz. xii. 25–33 (the setting up of the golden calves), xiii. 1–32 (the episode of the prophet who cried against the altar in Beth-el) and xiv. 1–18 (the death of the son of Jeroboam).