Bible Commentaries

2 Chronicles 10:1 And Rehoboam went to Shechem: for to Shechem were all Israel come to make him king.

Ver. 1. And Rehoboam went to Shechem.] {See Trapp on "1 Kings 12:1"} {See Trapp on "1 Kings 12:2"} {See Trapp on "1 Kings 12:3"}

2 Chronicles 10:7 And they spake unto him, saying, If thou be kind to this people, and please them, and speak good words to them, they will be thy servants for ever.

Ver. 7. If thou be kind to this people.] "If thou wilt be a servant unto this people this day, and wilt serve them." [1 Kings 12:7] {See Trapp on "1 Kings 12:7"}

2 Chronicles 10:8 But he forsook the counsel which the old men gave him, and took counsel with the young men that were brought up with him, that stood before him.

Ver. 8. The young men … that stood before him.] Qui erant illi ab auribus, a Consilio, poculis.

2 Chronicles 10:10 And the young men that were brought up with him spake unto him, saying, Thus shalt thou answer the people that spake unto thee, saying, Thy father made our yoke heavy, but make thou [it] somewhat lighter for us; thus shalt thou say unto them, My little [finger] shall be thicker than my father’s loins.

Ver. 10. My little finger shall be thicker.] Or, Is thicker, q.d., My dignity, majesty, and might is greater than ever was my father’s. Perhaps he preferred himself before his father - as did also Henry, the eldest son of our King Henry II, who got not so much by his coronation as to have a name in the catalogue of the kings of England - because he was born of a king’s daughter, and so a better woman, in his esteem, than Bathsheba.

2 Chronicles 10:13 And the king answered them roughly; and king Rehoboam forsook the counsel of the old men,

Ver. 13. And king Rehoboam forsook the counsel.]. Livy saith, Fatis urgentibus Rempublicam, omnia salutaria monita sperni; when a state is ripe for ruin, all wholesome counsels are fatally but foolishly slighted.

2 Chronicles 10:16 And when all Israel [saw] that the king would not hearken unto them, the people answered the king, saying, What portion have we in David? and [we have] none inheritance in the son of Jesse: every man to your tents, O Israel: [and] now, David, see to thine own house. So all Israel went to their tents.

Ver. 16. So all Israel went to their tents.] Revolted from Rehoboam, as likewise, upon a like discontent, did the Saracens from Heraclius the Roman emperor, soon overrunning Syria, Egypt, Persia, and other flourishing kingdoms, now in the possession of the Turks. ^(a)

2 Chronicles 10:18 Then king Rehoboam sent Hadoram that [was] over the tribute; and the children of Israel stoned him with stones, that he died. But king Rehoboam made speed to get him up to [his] chariot, to flee to Jerusalem.

Ver. 18. Then king Rehoboam sent Adoram.] But all too late.

“ Quid iuvat amisso claudere septa grege! ”

The people are a most dangerous and heady water when once it is out.

2 Chronicles 10:19 And Israel rebelled against the house of David unto this day.

Ver. 19. And Israel rebelled.] Their making Jeroboam king is added; [1 Kings 12:20] but this historian meddleth not with that usurper or his successors, unless it be by the by, as 2 Chronicles 11:1-4