12. And Judah and Benjamin belonged to him] If the view, discussed in the note on verse 5, that Rehoboam’s military precautions were carried through to suppress or prevent rebellion in Judah, then this phrase should be rendered And so Judah and Benjamin became his.
¹³And the priests and the Levites that were in all Israel resorted to him out of all their border.
13. resorted to him] Literally took their stand by him.
¹⁴For the Levites left their suburbs and their possession, and came to Judah and Jerusalem: for Jeroboam and his sons cast them off, that they should not execute the priest’s office unto the Lord:
14. suburbs] See note on 1 Chronicles v. 16.
cast them off, that they should not execute the priest’s office unto the Lord] The point is in the concluding words “unto the Lord” (i.e. Jehovah). Jeroboam did not abandon the worship of Jehovah, although later generations thought so and could not conceive that the famous “calves wherewith he made Israel to sin” were images symbolic of Jehovah. The Chronicler regards him as having lapsed into gross idolatry (see verse 15) and as having ejected all the Levites from his kingdom. A less stringent opinion as to his treatment of the priests of Jehovah is expressed in 1 Kings xii. 31, xiii. 33 where it is not said that Jeroboam rejected the tribe of Levi, but only that he allowed men of any tribe to become priests; “he ... made priests from among all the people” (Revised Version). Comparison of Kings and Chronicles is here very valuable as an illustration of the care with which the history in Chronicles has been adapted to indicate that the Northern Kingdom was wholly wicked and apostate from the start. The Chronicler’s hostility to the North is really directed against the Samaritans: see Introduction [§ 6].
¹⁵and he appointed him priests for the high places, and for the he-goats[¹], and for the calves which he had made. ¹⁶And after them, out of all the tribes of Israel, such as set their hearts to seek the Lord, the God of Israel, came to Jerusalem to sacrifice unto the Lord, the God of their fathers.
[¹] Or, satyrs See Leviticus xvii. 7.
15. the he-goats] The heathen Arabs believed in the existence of demons (called jinn) having various animal forms and inhabiting deserted places, and this belief was shared by the Hebrews (compare Isaiah xiii. 21). In this verse and in Leviticus xvii. 7, the writers seem to identify the gods worshipped by the heathen with these demons. (Compare W. R. Smith, Religion of the Semites², pp. 120 ff.)
the calves] Not previously mentioned in Chronicles; 1 Kings xii. 28.