1 Kings 12

1 Kings 12:14

Basil of Caesarea: [Not only by reason of wealth] but also because of political honors do people exalt themselves beyond what is due their nature.… The position they occupy is entirely out of keeping with reason, for they possess a glory more unsubstantial than a dream. They are surrounded with a splendor more unreal than the phantoms of the night, since it comes into being or is swept away at the nod of the populace. A fool of this sort was that famous son of Solomon, youthful in years and younger still in wisdom, who threatened his people desiring a milder rule with an even harsher one and thereby destroyed his kingdom. By his threat, the very expedient whereby he hoped to be elevated to a more royal state, he was bereft of the dignity already his. Strength of arm, swiftness of foot and comeliness of body—the spoils of sickness and the plunder of time—also awaken pride in people, unaware as they are that “all flesh is grass and all the glory of humankind as the flower of the field. The grass is withered, and the flower is fallen.” — ON HUMILITY

1 Kings 12:15

Augustine of Hippo: Who can help but tremble at the thought of these judgments of God whereby he accomplishes whatever he pleases even in the hearts of wicked people, while yet rendering to each according to his merits? Solomon’s son, Rehoboam, rejected the salutary counsel of the elders, not to deal harshly with the people, and yielded to the words of men of his own age by replying with threats to those who should have been given a gentle reply. And how did this come about, except by his own will? But as a result of it, the ten tribes of Israel withdrew from him and set up for themselves another king, Jeroboam, that the will of God, who had been angered, might be accomplished, as he had also foretold that it would come to pass. For what does the Scripture say? “And the king condescended not to the people, for the Lord was turned away from him to make good his word, which he had spoken though Ahias, the Silonite, to Jeroboam the son of Nabat.” All this was certainly done by human will, but in such a way that the “turning way” came from the Lord. — ON GRACE AND FREE WILL 21.42

1 Kings 12:16

Ambrose of Milan: Justice, then, especially graces people who are set over any office; on the other hand, injustice fails them and fights against them. Scripture itself gives us an example, where it says that when the people of Israel, after the death of Solomon, had asked his son Rehoboam to free their neck from their cruel yoke and to lighten the harshness of his father’s rule, he, despising the counsel of the old men, gave the following answer at the suggestion of the young men: “He would add a burden to the yoke of his father and change their lighter toils for harder.” Angered by this answer, the people said, “We have no portion in David or inheritance in the son of Jesse. Return to your tents, O Israel. For we will not have this man for a prince or a leader over us.” So, forsaken and deserted by the people, he could keep with him scarcely two of the ten tribes for David’s sake. — On the Duties of the Clergy 2.18.93-94

1 Kings 12:20

Richard Challoner: Juda only: Benjamin was a small tribe, and so intermixed with the tribe of Juda, (the very city of Jerusalem being partly in Juda, partly in Benjamin,) that they are here counted but as one tribe.

1 Kings 12:25

Jerome: We have learned in the books of Kings that under Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, Jeroboam, the son of Nabat, made a division among the people and led ten tribes into Samaria. The tribes of Judah and Benjamin, however, remained under the rule of Rehoboam; and many likewise from the tribe of Levi who were dwelling in Jerusalem as priests and Levites—as it is written in Paralipomenon—returned to the temple of God, that is, to Jerusalem. Thus, there were three tribes in Judea: Judah itself the royal tribe, and Benjamin, and later the Levites from the various tribes, when they had come to the temple. They who were in Samaria had a king from the tribe of Ephraim. Just as they who held sway in Judea had a king from the tribe of Judah and from the family of David, so they who prevailed in Samaria had a king from the tribe of Ephraim, and their kings were called Ephraim. — HOMILIES ON THE Psalms 11 (Psalms 77 [78])

Origen of Alexandria: The people were divided in those times into the kingdom of ten tribes under Jeroboam and the kingdom of two tribes under Rehoboam. And those under Jeroboam were called Israel, and those under Rehoboam Judah. And the division of the people persisted, according to the history, until today. For we know of nothing in the history that united Israel and Judah “into the same nation.” Then Israel first, under Jeroboam and under his successors, sinned excessively, and Israel sinned so much beyond Judah that they were sentenced by Providence to become captives “to the Assyrians until the sign,” as the Scripture says. After this, the sons of Judah also sinned, and as captives they were sentenced to Babylon, not until a sign, as Israel, but for “seventy years,” which Jeremiah prophesied and Daniel also mentioned. — HOMILIES ON Jeremiah 4.2

Origen of Alexandria: The Scriptures tell us that God chose a certain nation on the earth, which they call by several names. For the whole of this nation is termed Israel and also Jacob. And when it was divided in the times of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, the ten tribes subject to him were called Israel, while the remaining two, along with the tribe of Levi, being ruled over by the de¬scendants of David, were named Judah. And the whole of the territory which the people of this nation inhabited, being given to them by God, received the name of Judea, the metropolis of which is Jerusalem—a metropolis, namely, of numerous cities, the names of which lie scattered about in many other passages of Scripture but which are enumerated together in the book of Joshua the son of Nun. Such, then, being the case, the apostle, elevating our power of discernment above the letter, says some¬where, “Behold Israel according to the flesh,” as if there were an Israel “according to the Spirit.” And in another place he says, “For they who are the children of the flesh are not the children of God” nor are “they all Israel who are descended from Israel.” — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 4.1.20-21

1 Kings 12:28

Augustine of Hippo: For all that, King Jeroboam of Israel, who had proof that God was true, when he got the kingdom God had promised, was so warped in mind as not to believe in him. Actually, he feared that if he came to God’s temple in Jerusalem (as all Jews without exception were bound by divine ordinance to do for the offering of sacrifices), his subjects might be alienated from his allegiance and reattached to David’s blood successors as the royal dynasty. With this in mind, he established idolatry in his own kingdom and, with shocking impiety, tricked God’s people into joining him in the worship of idols. Even so, God did not entirely give up sending prophets to reprimand the king, and his successors who continued his idolatry and the people themselves. For it was in Israel that there appeared Elijah and his disciple, Elisha, both magnificent prophets and wonder workers as well. — City of God 17.22

Ephrem the Syrian: While he prepared to establish the reign which was reserved to him by God according to the predictions of the prophets Shemaiah and Ahijah, Jeroboam thought that nothing could be more useful for his purpose than kindling the hatred of the two opposite parties to the highest possible degree, so that he might preclude any chance of reconciliation and peace. Therefore, in order that those who already distrusted each other might be removed from each other even further, he introduced a new reason for dissension concerning the worship of God. He persuaded his party to leave behind their Jewish rites and to take up the religion of the Egyptians which was superior to all other religions, just as Egyptian wisdom and power were greater that those of the Canaanites and the Jews. Since the majority of the tribes agreed, he proposed to worship the ancient idols of the Hebrews, namely, two calves of gold, and dedicated them by using, according to the old custom, the formula “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” — ON THE FIRST BOOK OF KINGS 12:18

Richard Challoner: Golden calves: It is likely, by making his gods in this form, he mimicked the Egyptians, among whom he had sojourned, who worshipped their Apis and their Osiris under the form of a bullock.

1 Kings 12:29

Richard Challoner: Bethel: Bethel was a city of the tribe of Ephraim in the southern part of the dominions of Jeroboam, about six leagues from Jerusalem; Dan was in the extremity of his dominions to the north in the confines of Syria.

1 Kings 12:30

Ishodad of Merv: “The people went before the other [god] as far as Dan.” In order to worship the calf, the crowd walks in procession before it. Dan is the city that is now called Panias. When Israel took possession of the promised land, the children of Dan moved to take hold of that town and called it Dan. Two springs originated from there: Yor and Dan. — BOOKS OF SESSIONS 1 Kings 12:30

Peter Chrysologus: Now let us talk also about the second kind of scandal, which, we said, arises from human cleverness.… Jeroboam raised up a scandal. He set up as gods for the people, golden calves—pitiful images—to keep them from seeking the living God, the true temple, God’s law, the rightly appointed kings and their ancestral rites. Consequently, the whole people thus delivered over to error became a source of scandal like that given, according to the apostle, when a person eats, as harmless to his own conscience, the flesh of animals that were sacrificed to idols. He thinks that through such conduct he may well bring contempt on the inanimate stones and wooden gods that can neither sanctify nor profane anything. But what he thinks is an example of his faith becomes an occasion of error for uninstructed people, for it leads them not to contempt but to worship, and it causes the meal to appear to be a banquet of religious honor to those very inanimate gods that he is intentionally diminishing by this ridicule. Consequently, the apostle wisely concludes and explains, “And through your ‘knowledge’ the weak one will perish, the brother for whom Christ died.” — SERMON 27