Rehoboam

2 definitions found

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:

  Rehoboam
     he enlarges the people, the successor of Solomon on the throne,
     and apparently his only son. He was the son of Naamah "the
     Ammonitess," some well-known Ammonitish princess (1 Kings 14:21;
     2 Chr. 12:13). He was forty-one years old when he ascended the
     throne, and he reigned seventeen years (B.C. 975-958). Although


     he was acknowledged at once as the rightful heir to the throne,
     yet there was a strongly-felt desire to modify the character of
     the government. The burden of taxation to which they had been
     subjected during Solomon's reign was very oppressive, and
     therefore the people assembled at Shechem and demanded from the
     king an alleviation of their burdens. He went to meet them at
     Shechem, and heard their demands for relief (1 Kings 12:4).
     After three days, having consulted with a younger generation of
     courtiers that had grown up around him, instead of following the
     advice of elders, he answered the people haughtily (6-15). "The
     king hearkened not unto the people; for the cause was from the
     Lord" (comp. 11:31). This brought matters speedily to a crisis.
     The terrible cry was heard (comp. 2 Sam. 20:1):
     
       "What portion have we in David?
     
       Neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse:
     
       To your tents, O Israel:
     
       Now see to thine own house, David" (1 Kings 12:16).
     And now at once the kingdom was rent in twain. Rehoboam was
     appalled, and tried concessions, but it was too late (18). The
     tribe of Judah, Rehoboam's own tribe, alone remained faithful to
     him. Benjamin was reckoned along with Judah, and these two
     tribes formed the southern kingdom, with Jerusalem as its
     capital; while the northern ten tribes formed themselves into a
     separate kingdom, choosing Jeroboam as their king. Rehoboam
     tried to win back the revolted ten tribes by making war against
     them, but he was prevented by the prophet Shemaiah (21-24; 2
     Chr. 11:1-4) from fulfilling his purpose. (See {JEROBOAM}.)
     
       In the fifth year of Rehoboam's reign, Shishak (q.v.), one of
     the kings of Egypt of the Assyrian dynasty, stirred up, no
     doubt, by Jeroboam his son-in-law, made war against him.
     Jerusalem submitted to the invader, who plundered the temple and
     virtually reduced the kingdom to the position of a vassal of
     Egypt (1 Kings 14:25, 26; 2 Chr. 12:5-9). A remarkable memorial
     of this invasion has been discovered at Karnac, in Upper Egypt,
     in certain sculptures on the walls of a small temple there.
     These sculptures represent the king, Shishak, holding in his
     hand a train of prisoners and other figures, with the names of
     the captured towns of Judah, the towns which Rehoboam had
     fortified (2 Chr. 11:5-12).
     
       The kingdom of Judah, under Rehoboam, sank more and more in
     moral and spiritual decay. "There was war between Rehoboam and
     Jeroboam all their days." At length, in the fifty-eighth year of
     his age, Rehoboam "slept with his fathers, and was buried with
     his fathers in the city of David" (1 Kings 14:31). He was
     succeeded by his son Abijah. (See {EGYPT}.)
     

From Hitchcock's Bible Names Dictionary (late 1800's) [hitchcock]:

  Rehoboam, who sets the people at liberty