This man’s name is proverbial. - - Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin. Such is the awful account given of him by God the Holy Ghost. His name seems to be in some measure characteristic of the man - - he that rejects - - from Jarah to reject; and his history awfully proves, how he rejected the counsel of God against his own soul. His history we have in 1 Kings, from xi. 28. to 14. 20. There was another Jeroboam, the son of Jehoash. (See 2 Kings 14. 23.) During this man’s reign, the prophets Hosea, Amos and, Jonahexercised their ministry.
the son of Nebat and Zeruah, was born at Zereda, in the tribe of Ephraim, 1Ki 11:26. He is the subject of frequent mention in Scripture, as having been the cause of the ten tribes revolting from the dominion of Rehoboam, and also of his having “made Israel to sin,” by instituting the idolatrous worship of the golden calves at Dan and Bethel, 1Ki 12:26-33. He seems to have been a bold, unprincipled, and enterprising man, with much of the address of a deep politician about him; qualities which probably pointed him out to King Solomon as a proper person to be entrusted with the obnoxious commission of levying certain taxes throughout the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh. On a certain day, as Jeroboam was going out of Jerusalem into the country, having a new cloak wrapped about his shoulders, the Prophet Ahijah met him in a field where they were alone, and seizing the cloak of Jeroboam, he cut it into twelve pieces, and then addressing him, said, “Take ten of them to thyself; for thus saith the Lord, I will divide and rend the kingdom of Solomon, and will give ten tribes to thee. If, therefore, thou obeyest my word and walkest in my ways as David my servant has done, I will be with thee, and will establish thy house for ever, and put thee in possession of the kingdom of Israel,” 1Ki 11:14-39. Whether it were that the promises thus made by Ahijah prompted Jeroboam to aim at taking their accomplishment into his own hands, and, with a view to that, began to solicit the subjects of Solomon to revolt; or whether the bare information of what had passed between the prophet and Jeroboam, excited his fear and jealousy, it appears evident that the aged monarch took the alarm, and attempted to apprehend Jeroboam, who, getting notice of what was intended him, made a precipitate retreat into Egypt, where he remained till the death of Solomon. He then returned, and found that Rehoboam, who had succeeded his father Solomon in the throne of David, had already excited the disgust of ten of the tribes by some arbitrary proceedings, in consequence of which they had withdrawn their allegiance from the new monarch. These tribes no sooner heard of his return than they invited him to appear among them in a general assembly, in which they elected him to be king over Israel. Jeroboam fixed his residence at Shechem, and there fortified himself; he also rebuilt Penuel, a city beyond Jordan, putting it into a state of defence, in order to keep the tribes quiet which were on that side Jordan, 1Ki 12:1-25.
But Jeroboam soon forgot the duty which he owed to God, who had given him the kingdom; and thought of nothing but how to maintain himself in the possession of it, though he discarded the worship of the true God. The first suggestion of his unbelieving heart was, that if the tribes over whom he reigned were to go up to Jerusalem to sacrifice and keep the annual festivals, they would be under continual temptations to return to the house of David. To counteract this, he caused two golden calves to be made as objects of religious worship, one of which he placed at Dan, and the other at Bethel, the two extremities of his dominions; and caused a proclamation to be made throughout all his territories, that in future none of his subjects should go up to Jerusalem to worship; and, directing them to the two calves which had been recently erected, he cried out, “Behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of Egypt!” He also caused idolatrous temples to be built, and priests to be ordained of the lowest of the people, who were neither of the family of Aaron nor of the tribe of Levi. 1Ki 12:26-33. Having appointed a solemn public festival to be observed on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, in order to dedicate his new altar, and consecrate his golden calves, he assembled the people at Bethel, and himself went up to the altar for the purpose of offering incense and sacrifices. At that instant a prophet, who had come, divinely directed, from Judah to Bethel, accosted Jeroboam and said, “O altar, altar, thus saith the Lord, A child shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name; and upon thee shall he sacrifice the priests of the high places who now burn incense upon thee: he shall burn men’s bones upon thee.” To confirm the truth of this threatening, the prophet also added a sign, namely, that the altar should immediately be rent asunder, and the ashes and every thing upon it poured upon the earth. Jeroboam, incensed at this interference of the prophet, stretched out his hand and commanded him to be seized; but the hand which he had stretched out was instantly paralyzed, and he was unable to draw it back again. The altar, too, was broken, and the ashes upon it fell to the ground according to the prediction of the prophet. Jeroboam now solicited his prayers that his hand might be restored to him.
The man of God interposed his supplication to Heaven, and the king’s hand was restored to him sound as before. Jeroboam then entreated him that he would accompany him to his own house, and accept a reward; but he answered, “Though thou shouldst give me the half of thine house, I would not go with thee, nor will I taste any thing in this place, for the Lord hath expressly forbidden me to do so,” 1Ki 13:1-10. But notwithstanding this manifest indication of the displeasure of Heaven, it failed of recovering Jeroboam from his impious procedure. He continued to encourage his subjects in idolatry, by appointing priests of the high places, and engaging them in such worship as was contrary to the divine law. This was the sin of Jeroboam’s family, and it was the cause of its utter extirpation. Some time after his accession to the throne of Israel, his favourite son Abijah fell sick, and, to relieve his parental solicitude, Jeroboam instructed his wife to disguise herself, and in that state to go and consult the Prophet Ahijah concerning his recovery. This was the same prophet who had foretold to Jeroboam that he should be king of Israel. He was now blind through old age; but the prophet was warned of her approach, and, before she entered his threshold, he called her by name, told her that her son should die, and then, in appalling terms, denounced the impending ruin of Jeroboam’s whole family, which shortly after came to pass. After a reign of two-and-twenty years, Jeroboam died, and Nadab, his son, succeeded to the crown, 1Ki 13:33-34; 1Ki 14:1-20.
2. JEROBOAM, the second of that name, was the son of Jehoash, king of Israel. He succeeded to his father’s royal dignity, A.M. 3179, and reigned forty-one years. Though much addicted to the idolatrous practices of the son of Nebat, yet the Lord was pleased so far to prosper his reign, that by his means, according to the predictions of the Prophet Jonah, the kingdom of the ten tribes was restored from a state of great decay, into which it had fallen, and was even raised to a pitch of extraordinary splendour. The Prophets Amos and Hosea, as well as Jonah, lived during this reign.
Jeroboam, 1
Jerobo´am, son of Nebat, and first king of Israel, who became king B.C. 975, and reigned 22 years.
He was of the tribe of Ephraim, the son of a widow named Zeruiah, when he was noticed by Solomon as a clever and active young man, and was appointed one of the superintendents of the works which that magnificent king was carrying on at Jerusalem. This appointment, the reward of his merits, might have satisfied his ambition had not the declaration of the prophet Ahijah given him higher hopes. When informed that, by the divine appointment, he was to become king over the ten tribes about to be rent from the house of David, he was not content to wait patiently for the death of Solomon, but began to form plots and conspiracies, the discovery of which constrained him to flee to Egypt to escape condign punishment. The king of that country was but too ready to encourage one whose success must necessarily weaken the kingdom which had become great and formidable under David and Solomon, and which had already pushed its frontier to the Red Sea (1Ki 11:26-40).
When Solomon died, the ten tribes sent to call Jeroboam from Egypt; and he appears to have headed the deputation which came before the son of Solomon with a demand of new securities for the rights which the measures of the late king had compromised. It may somewhat excuse the harsh answer of Rehoboam, that the demand was urged by a body of men headed by one whose pretensions were so well known and so odious to the house of David. The imprudent answer of Rehoboam rendered a revolution inevitable, and Jeroboam was then called to reign over the ten tribes, by the style of ’king of Israel’ (1Ki 12:1-20).
The general course of his conduct on the throne has already been indicated in the article Israel, and need not be repeated in this place. The leading object of his policy was to widen the breach between the two kingdoms, and to rend asunder those common interests among all the descendants of Jacob, which it was one great object of the law to combine and interlace. To this end he scrupled not to sacrifice the most sacred and inviolable interests and obligations of the covenant people, by forbidding his subjects to resort to the one temple and altar of Jehovah at Jerusalem, and by establishing shrines at Dan and Bethel—the extremities of his kingdom—where ’golden calves’ were set up as the symbols of Jehovah, to which the people were enjoined to resort and bring their offerings. The pontificate of the new establishment he united to his crown, in imitation of the Egyptian kings. He was officiating in that capacity at Bethel, offering incense, when a prophet appeared, and in the name of the Lord announced a coming time, as yet far off, in which a king of the house of David, Josiah by name, should burn upon that unholy altar the bones of its ministers. He was then preparing to verify, by a commissioned prodigy, the truth of the oracle he had delivered, when the king attempted to arrest him, but was smitten with palsy in the arm he stretched forth. At the same moment the threatened prodigy took place the altar was rent asunder, and the ashes strewed far around. This measure had, however, no abiding effect. The policy on which he acted lay too deep in what he deemed the vital interests of his separate kingdom, to be even thus abandoned: and the force of the considerations which determined his conduct may in part be appreciated from the fact that no subsequent king of Israel, however well disposed in other respects, ever ventured to lay a finger on this schismatical establishment. Hence ’the sin of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, wherewith he sinned and made Israel to sin,’ became a standing phrase in describing that iniquity from which no king of Israel departed (1Ki 12:25-33; 1 Kings 13).
The contumacy of Jeroboam eventually brought upon him the doom which he probably dreaded beyond all others—the speedy extinction of the dynasty which he had taken so much pains and incurred so much guilt to establish on firm foundations. His son Abijah being sick, he sent his wife disguised to consult the prophet Ahijah, who had predicted that he should be king of Israel. The prophet, although he had become blind with age, knew the queen, and saluted her with—’Come in, thou wife of Jeroboam, for I am sent to thee with heavy tidings.’ These were not merely that the son should die—for that was intended in mercy to one who alone, of all the house of Jeroboam, had remained faithful to his God, and was the only one who should obtain an honored grave—but that his race should be violently and utterly extinguished: ’I will take away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam as a man taketh away dung, till it be all gone’ (1Ki 14:1-18).
The son died so soon as the mother crossed the threshold on her return; and as the death of Jeroboam himself is the next event recorded, it would seem that he did not long survive his son. He died in B.C. 954 (1Ki 14:20).
Jeroboam was perhaps a less remarkable man than the circumstance of his being the founder of a new kingdom might lead us to expect. The tribes would have revolted without him; and he was chosen king merely because he had been pointed out by previous circumstances. His government exhibits but one idea—that of raising a barrier against the reunion of the tribes. Of this idea he was the slave and victim; and although the barrier which he raised was effectual for its purpose, it only served to show the weakness of the man who could deem needful the protection for his separate interests which such a barrier offered.
Jeroboam, 2
Jeroboam, thirteenth king of Israel, son of Joash, whom, in B.C. 824, he succeeded on the throne, and reigned forty-one years. He followed the example of the first Jeroboam in keeping up the idolatry of the golden calves. Nevertheless the Lord had pity upon Israel, the time of its ruin was not yet come, and this reign was long and flourishing. Jeroboam brought to a successful result the wars which his father had under-taken, and was always victorious over the Syrians. He even took their chief cities of Damascus and Hamath, which had formerly been subject to the scepter of David, and restored to the realm of Israel the ancient eastern limits from Lebanon to the Dead Sea. He died in B.C. 783 (2Ki 13:13; 2Ki 14:16; 2Ki 14:23-29).
The Scriptural account of this reign is too short to enable us to judge of the character of a prince under whom the kingdom of Israel seems to have reached a degree of prosperity which it had never before enjoyed, and was not able long to preserve.
The first king of Israel, an Ephraimite, the son of Nebat. During the latter part of Solomon’s reign, and while an officer under him, he plotted against him, and was obliged to flee into Egypt. On the death of Solomon, he was summoned by the ten tribes to return and present their demands to Rehoboam; and when these were refused, he was chosen king of the revolted tribes, B. C. 975. He reigned twentytwo years. The only notable act of his reign marked him with infamy, as the man "who made Israel to sin." It was the idolatrous establishment of golden calves at Bethel and Dan that the people might worship there and not at Jerusalem. He also superseded the sons of Aaron by priests chosen from "the lowest of the people." This unprincipled but effective measure, in which he was followed by all the kings of Israel, was a confession of weakness as well as of depravity. Neither miracles nor warnings, nor the premature death of Abijah his son could dissuade him. He was at war with Judah all his days, and with the brief reign of Nadab his son the doomed family became extinct, 1Ki 12:1-14:20 2Ch 10:1-19 13:1-22.\par JEROBOAM SECOND, the thirteenth king of Israel, son and successor of Joash, B. C. 825 reigned forty-one years. He followed up his father’s successes over the Syrians, took Hamath and Damascus, and all the region east f the Jordan down to the Dead Sea, and advanced to its highest point the prosperity of that kingdom. Yet his long reign added heavily to the guilt of Israel, by increased luxury, oppression, and vice. After him, the kingdom rapidly declined, and his own dynasty perished within a year, 2Ki 14:23-29 15:8-12. See also the contemporary prophets, particularly Amos and Hosea.\par
Jerobo’am. (whose people are many).
1. Jeroboam I. The first king of the divided kingdom of Israel, B.C. 975-954, was the son of an Ephraimite of the name of Nebat. He was raised by Solomon to the rank of superintendent, over the taxes and labors exacted from the tribe of Ephraim. 1Ki 11:28. He made the most of his position, and at last, was perceived by Solomon to be aiming at the monarchy. He was leaving Jerusalem, when he was met by Ahijah, the prophet, who gave him the assurance that, on condition of obedience to his laws, God would establish for him a kingdom and dynasty equal to that of David. 1Ki 11:29-40. The attempts of Solomon to cut short Jeroboam’s designs occasioned his flight into Egypt. There he remained until Solomon’s death.
After a year’s longer stay in Egypt, during which Jeroboam married Ano, the elder sister of the Egyptian queen, Tahpenes, he returned to Shechem, where took place the conference with Rehoboam, see Rehoboam, and the final revolt which ended in the elevation of Jeroboam to the throne of the northern kingdom. Now occurred the fatal error of his policy. Fearing that the yearly pilgrimages to Jerusalem would undo all the work which he effected, he took the bold step of rending the religious unity of the nation, which was as yet unimpaired, asunder. He caused two golden figures of Mnevis, the sacred calf, to be made and set up at the two extremities of his kingdom, one at Dan and the other at Bethel.
It was while dedicating the altar at Bethel that a prophet from Judah suddenly appeared, who denounced the altar, and foretold its desecration by Josiah, and violent overthrow. The king, stretching out his hand to arrest the prophet, felt it withered and paralyzed, and only at the prophet’s prayer, saw it restored, and acknowledged his divine mission. Jeroboam was at constant war with the house of Judah, but the only act distinctly recorded is a battle with Abijah, son of Rehoboam, in which he was defeated. The calamity was severely felt; he never recovered from the blow, and soon after died, in the 22nd year of his reign, 2Ch 13:20, and was buried in his ancestral sepulchre. 1Ki 14:20.
2. Jeroboam II. The son of Joash, the fourth of the dynasty of Jehu. (B.C. 825-784). The most prosperous of the kings of Israel. He repelled the Syrian invaders, took their capital city Damascus, 2Ki 14:28, and recovered the whole of the ancient dominion from Hamah to the Dead Sea. 2Ki 14:25. Ammon and Moab were reconquered, and the TransJordanic tribes were restored to their territory, 2Ki 13:5; 1Ch 5:17-22, but it was merely an outward restoration.
("whose people is many".) "Rehoboam," ("enlarger of the people"), is much the same. Both names appear first in Solomon’s time, when Israel’s numbers were vastly increased.
1. Founder of the northern kingdom of Israel. Son of Nebat and Zeruah of Zereda or Zarthan in the Jordan valley (1Ki 7:46); of Ephraim (so "Ephrathite" means, 1Ki 11:26; 1Sa 1:1). His mother is called a "widow woman." When Solomon was building Millo, and was closing the gap (not "the breaches," for no hostile attack had been made since David had fortified the city, 2Sa 5:9), long afterwards called Tyropreon, separating Zion from Moriah and Ophel, so as to bring the temple mount within the city wall, and so complete the fortification of the city of David, he found Jeroboam able and energetic in "doing the work" (margin, 1Ki 11:28), so he made him overseer over all "the hoary work" of the house of Joseph. In this post Jereboam attempted a rebellion, the Ephraimites being impatient because of the heavy taxes and works imposed, and so having their old jealousy of Judah awakened afresh.
Events moved on, in God’s providence, steadily toward the appointed end: Jeroboam of Ephraim over an army of Ephraimite work. men, employed for 20 years in works for the glory of Judah, and for palaces and idol temples (besides Jehovah’s temple transferred from Shiloh in northern Israel to Judah’s capital), all for a prince no longer of their own line. Naturally, Jeroboam became their king, and they wreaked their vengeance on Adoniram the collector in chief of taxes for those hated works. Solomon suppressed the rebellion, and Jeroboam fled to Egypt. Ahijah the prophet of Shiloh had previously met Jeroboam by the way, and drawn him aside into the field, and in Jehovah’s name intimated that Jeroboam should have ten tribes, and the house of David one, for the apostasy of Solomon and the people, vividly symbolizing the fact as already accomplished in God’s counsel by tearing His new (answering to the youthful vigour of the kingdom) four grainered garment into twelve pieces, and giving him ten.
As two, not merely one, remained, the numbers are symbolical not arithmetical, ten expressing completeness and totality (1Ki 12:20), "they made Jeroboam king over all Israel."
God had expressly said, "I will make Solomon prince all the days of his life"; so that Jeroboam had no pretext from Ahijah for rebellion, and Solomon would have justly slain him had he not escaped to Shishak or Sheshonk of Egypt. Sheshonk having dethroned the Pharaoh whose daughter Solomon had married, had naturally espoused Jeroboam’s cause. At Solomon’s death the Israelites called Jeroboam out of Egypt, for they had been longing for a less theocratic and more worldly kingdom, impatient already of submission to the royal house appointed by Jehovah (2 Samuel 20). Israel, having the right of making king whomsoever God chose (2Sa 2:4; 2Sa 5:3; 1Ch 29:22), assembled to Shechem (Nablus now) for that purpose, the ancient place of national assembly in Ephraim (Jos 24:1), and more suited than Jerusalem to their design of transferring the government to Jeroboam. Jeroboam, having formerly superintended Ephraim in the works of Solomon at Jerusalem in building Mille and repairing the city of David (1Ki 11:27), could readily suggest calumnies from his own professed experience.
Jeroboam as their spokesman, begged of Rehoboam a reduction of their tribute and heavy service, due no doubt to Solomon’s maintaining such splendour and erecting magnificent buildings. They forgot the blessings of his reign, the peace, wealth, and trade which they enjoyed. Rehoboam, following the young men’s counsel rather than the old and experienced counselors of his father (Pro 27:10), answered harshly (1Ki 15:1): "My little finger shall be thicker than my father’s loins .... my father chastised you with whips, but I ... with scorpions," i.e. scourges with barbed points like a scorpion’s sting. Had he "served them," they would have been "his servants for ever." By acting the tyrant he precipitated the secession. Adopting the watchword of Sheba’s rebellion they cried "what portion have we in David? to your tents, O Israel; now see to thine own house (to Judah, of which David’s representative was head), David."
Then they "made Jeroboam king over all Israel." His first care was to fortify (so "build" means, for the two cities existed long before) Shechem his first residence (Tirzah was his subsequent abode, 1Ki 14:17). (It was to Shechem Rehoboam had hastened to meet Israel, to secure Ephraim’s allegiance, as he knew he was sure of Judah’s allegiance; Shechem had been burnt down by Abimelech). Also Penuel, to secure Gilead against enemies from the E. and N.E. Next, adopting carnal policy instead of God’s will, which assured him the kingdom on condition of obedience, and which designs ultimately to reunite Israel to Judah after Judah’s temporary chastisement for sin, he set up two golden calves, one at Dan the other at Bethel, to obviate the apprehended return of Israel to Rehoboam through going up to the great feasts at Jerusalem.
Rome compared the Protestant reformation to Jeroboam’s secession; but it is she who breaks the unity of the faith by representing the one God underimages, in violation of the second commandment; paving the way to violating the first, as Jeroboam’s sin prepared the way for Baal worship. Borrowing Aaron’s words concerning his calf, Jeroboam insinuated that his calf worship was no new religion, but a revival of their fathers’ primitive one in the desert, sanctioned by the first high priest: "Behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of Egypt" (Exo 32:4; Exo 32:8). The places were hallowed by ancient tradition: Bethel on the S. of his kingdom, the scene of Jehovah’s revelation to the patriarch Jacob (Gen 28:11; Gen 28:19; Gen 35:7); and Dan, at the sources of the Jordan (now Tell el Kadi) in the far N., consecrated by the Danites’ image worship, at which Moses’ descendant
(But Condor presents various reasons for supposing, with the older writers except Josephus, that Dan and Bethel were two heights W. and S. of Shechem: Palestine Exploration Quarterly Statement, Jan. 1878.
While Jeroboam stood in person to burn incense, or rather to burn the sacrificial portions of the flesh, upon the altar of Bethel, usurping the priest’s office, a man of God out of Judah, impelled by (1Ki 13:2; Hebrew in; Hag 1:13) the word of Jehovah, Iddo according to Josephus (Ant. 8:8, section 5), cried against the altar: "behold, a child born unto the house of David, Josiah, upon thee shall offer the priests of the high places that burn incense (burn sacrifices) upon thee (retribution in kind), and men’s bones shall be burnt upon thee," to defile thee. He gave also a sign of the future fulfillment of his prophecy; "the altar shall be rent, and the ashes ... poured out" (implying the altar’s destruction and the desecration of the sacrificial service). Josiah’s name, as Cyrus’, in Isa 44:28; Isa 45:1, is specified as a concrete description of what God would do by him ("he whom Jehovah will support"), to execute His judgment on Bethel and its priests: fulfilled 2Ki 23:15-20. Jeroboam attempting to seize the prophet had his hand dried up, and was only restored upon the prophet’s intercession.
Failing by violence, Jeroboam tried to win the prophet by favors; asking him home to refresh himself with food and offering him a present. This only elicited a stronger rejection of him on the part of God. Not for half his house would the prophet go in with him, or eat or drink in the place, or return by the way he came. God would have His people to hold no communion with the apostates of Bethel, or to have any renewed communication with any on the way, which might ensue from meeting the same persons on the same road again. Contrast Balaam’s tempting God (through desire of reward) by asking again, as if God would change His once for all declared will (Numbers 22-24; 1Pe 5:2). An old prophet at Bethel, where, Lot like, he dwelt, risking the corrupting influences of bad association (1Co 15:33; 2Co 6:14-18), jealous that any should be faithful where he himself was not, and desiring to drag down the man of God to his own low level (Psa 62:4), overtook him, and by a lie, saying "an angel of God spoke unto me, Bring him back that he may eat," overcame his constancy. He ought to have remembered God cannot contradict Himself (Num 23:19; Gal 1:8-9).
The prophet, the instrument of his sin (according to God’s righteous law: Pro 1:31; Jer 2:19), became the instrument of his punishment; his tempter became his accuser: "forasmuch as thou hast disobeyed the mouth of Jehovah ... thy carcass shall not come unto the sepulchre of thy fathers." So a lion slew him, yet ate not his body, nor tore the ass, but stood passively, an emblem of mercy amidst judgment; also to mark it was no mere chance, but the visitation of Jehovah, a warning to Bethel; "if judgment begin (thus immediately) at the house of God, what shall the end be of them that obey not ... God; and if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and sinner appear?" (1Pe 4:17-18). God chastises His children immediately, so that they may not be condemned with the world; He is slower in punishing the worldly, that His longsuffering may lead them to repentance (1Co 11:30; 1Co 11:32; Rom 2:4).
The worldly prophet showed much sentimentality at his death, laying his carcass in his own grave, and exclaiming "Alas! my brother." Balaam like (Num 23:10), desiring at death to lie with the man of God, he utters no self reproach, though having caused his death. Jeroboam unwarned by his visitation "returned not from his evil way," "ordaining whosoever would (1Ki 13:33-34; 2Ch 11:15) priests, for the high places, the devils, and the calves" (the gods worshipped in these houses in the high places being called "demons" or devils (literally, goats, from the Egyptian goat-shaped god Mendes or Pan) from their nature, and calves from their form; Lev 17:7, "evil spirits of the desert" (Speaker’s Commentary,
Rehoboam’s son Abijah defeated Jeroboam, and gained for a time Bethel, Jeshanah, and Ephraim. "Because the children of Judah relied upon the Lord God of their fathers," "God delivered (2 Chronicles 13) the Israelites into their hand." Jeroboam never recovered strength again; and the Lord struck him (by a special visitation, 1Sa 25:38), and he died after a 22 years’ reign, and "slept with his fathers," i.e. was buried in his ancestral tomb. Nadab, or Nebat from his grandfather’s name, succeeded. Jeroboam’s master stroke of policy recoiled on himself. The brand rests eternally on him that he "sinned and made Israel to sin." Rejecting Jehovah’s will, he was no longer king by the will of God, but a successful usurper, whose example others followed. The son whose throne Jeroboam was at such pains to secure permanently fell with all Jeroboam’s house before Baasha.
2. Jeroboam II, Joash’s son, fourth of Jehu’s dynasty. In Jehoahaz’ reign Jehovah gave Israel promise of a "saviour" from Syria who "had made Israel like the dust by threshing" (2Ki 13:4-5).
When they repented not, speedy and final judgment followed. The calf worship, as an engine of state policy, still remained at Bethel. The priest there, Amaziah, alleged before Jeroboam (Amo 7:9-13), "Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel," exaggerating Amos’ prophecy, "I will rise against the house of Jeroboam with the sword," as if he had said, "Jeroboam shall die by the sword."
Jeroboam (jĕr’o-bô’am), whose people are many. There were two kings of this name: 1. The first king of the divided kingdom of Israel, b.c. 975-954, was the son of Nebat. He was made by Solomon the superintendent of the taxes exacted from the tribe of Ephraim. 1Ki 11:28. He made the most of his position, and at last was perceived by Solomon to be aiming at the monarchy. He was leaving Jerusalem, when he was met by Ahijah the prophet, who gave him the assurance that, on condition of obedience to his laws, God would establish for him a kingdom and dynasty equal to that of David. 1Ki 11:29-40. Solomon attempting to arrest Jeroboam, caused his night into Egypt. There he remained until Solomon’s death. Jeroboam married Ano, the elder sister of the Egyptian queen Tahpenes, and returned to Shechem, where took place the conference with Rehoboam, and the final revolt which ended in the elevation of Jeroboam to the throne of the northern kingdom. Fearing that the yearly pilgrimages to Jerusalem would undo all the work which he effected, he boldly decided to rend the religious unity of the nation, which was as yet unimpaired. He caused two golden calves to be made and set up at the two extremities of his kingdom, one at Dan and the other at Bethel. It was while dedicating the altar at Bethel that a prophet from Judah suddenly appeared, who denounced the altar, and foretold its desecration by Josiah. The king, stretching out his hand to arrest the prophet, felt it withered and paralyzed, and only at the prophet’s prayer saw it restored. Jeroboam was at constant war with the house of Judah, and in a battle with Abijah was defeated, and soon after died in the 22d year of his reign, 2Ch 13:20, and was buried in his ancestral sepulchre. 1Ki 14:20. 2. Jeroboam II., the son of Joash, the fourth king of the dynasty of Jehu, b.c. 825-784 He was one of the most prosperous of the kings of Israel. He repelled the Syrian invaders, took their capital city Damascus, 2Ki 14:28, and recovered the whole of the ancient dominion from Hamath to the Dead sea. 2Ki 14:25. Ammon and Moab were reconquered, and the trans-Jordanic tribes were restored to their territory, 2Ki 13:5; 1Ch 5:17-22; but it was merely an outward restoration.
[Jerobo’am]
Son of Nebat, of the tribe of Ephraim, and king of Israel. He reigned twenty-two years: B.C. 975-954. He had been an officer under Solomon, but Ahijah the prophet, having found him, tore his new garment into twelve pieces, and gave him ten of them, telling him that he should be king over ten of the tribes. Solomon thereupon sought to kill him, but he fled to Egypt and stayed there till the death of Solomon. On the division of the kingdom, Jeroboam was made king of the ten tribes. Fearing that his subjects, if they went up to Jerusalem to worship, would be alienated from him, he made two golden calves, placing one in Beth-el in the south, and the other in Dan in the north; and declared that these were the gods that had brought Israel out of Egypt. Priests of the common people were ordained by him, sacrifices were offered, and feast days devised. Thus the nation through their king sank at once into open idolatry: a warning to those in Christendom who devise out of their own heart their forms of worship, etc.
A man of God came from Judah to cry against the altar at Beth-el, and the king’s hand, on being put forth to seize him, was dried up. On the prophet entreating the Lord his hand was restored, but he repented not of his idolatry. He had been told that if he would follow the Lord as David had done, his house should be established; but his dynasty extended only to his son Nadab. Jeroboam is charged with doing evil above all that had been before him, and his doings became a proverb. For Israel to sin "as Jeroboam the son of Nebat," was a mark of consummate wickedness. 1Ki 11:26-40; 1Ki 12.- 1Ki 14., etc.
[Jerobo’am]
Son of Jehoash, or Joash, and his successor on the throne of Israel. He was made co-regent in B.C. 836, and reigned alone 41 years: B.C. 825-784. Very little is recorded of this king except that he obtained signal victories over the Syrians, and Hamath and Damascus were recovered, for the Lord had mercy on Israel. "He departed not from all the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat." Amos announced his death by the sword. 2Ki 13:13; 2Ki 14:16-29; 2Ki 15:1; 2Ki 15:8; 1Ch 5:17; Hos 1:1; Amo 1:1; Amo 7:9-11.
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By: Emil G. Hirsch
Name of two kings of Israel. The meaning generally attached to the name is "[he] strives with [oppresses] the people," or "the people strive," the root of the first element being taken to be 
(comp. Judges vi. 32). This equation, however, between "rub" and "rib" presents difficulties. Hommel ("Z. D. M. G." 1895, pp. 525 et seq.) holds "'Am" to be the name of a deity, and gives "'Am fights [for us]." Kittel ("Die Bücher der Könige," p. 99) suggests the derivation from "rabab" (= "to be numerous"), and proposes the rendering "the people, or the sept, is become numerous." This would necessitate the pointing "Yerubbe'am."
1. Biblical Data:
Son of Nebat; founder of the kingdom of Israel; an Ephraimite of Zeredah, whose mother, Zeruah, is described as a widow. Jeroboam rebelled against Solomon, whose favor he had won by his industry during the repairing of the city wall and the building of the Millo. Though appointed by his royal protector overseer of "all the labor of the house of Joseph" (R. V.) he engaged in a conspiracy against him (I Kings xi. 26-28). In this he was encouraged by the prophet Ahijah, the Shilonite, who, upon meeting the young conspirator, rent his new garment into twelve pieces, bidding Jeroboam take ten of them, thus symbolically announcing the division of the realm (as a punishment for Solomon's idolatry) and the appointment of Jeroboam to rule over the ten northern tribes, while one tribe (or two ?), retaining Jerusalem, remained faithful to the house of David. Solomon, suspecting Jeroboam's loyalty, sought to kill him,but the conspirator succeeded in escaping to Egypt, where, under the protection of Shishak, the Egyptian king, he awaited the death of Solomon (I Kings xi. 30-40).
Crowned King.
When Rehoboam convened Israel at Shechem, after his father's death, to confirm his own succession to the throne, Jeroboam, apprised of what had occurred, returned. He seems to have been the spokesman for assembled Israel and to have represented their demands for relief from the "grievous yoke." Upon the refusal of Rehoboam to accede to their demands, and the failure of the attempt to coerce the complainants into submission, which led to the stoning of Adoram, the ten northern tribes asserted their independence by proclaiming Jeroboam their king, the prophet Shemaiah preventing any warlike measures on the part of Rehoboam (I Kings xii. 1-24; II Chron. x., xi. 1-4).
Jeroboam selected Shechem for his capital, and fortified it and Penuel. To prevent his people from turning again to the house of David, he set up two golden calves, one in Beth-el and the other in Dan, on the plea that the pilgrimage to Jerusalem was "too much" for the people and that "these are thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt." Jeroboam also built altars on High Places, and appointed non-Levites to serve them; he changed the date of the Feast of Sukkot from the seventh to the eighth month; on the new date Jeroboam himself offered incense on the altar (I Kings xii. 25 et seq.). This act of his provoked a "man of God" to journey from Judah to Beth-el to cry out against the altar and announce that under Josiah its priests would be slaughtered. As a sign the altar would be rent. Jeroboam, in anger, stretched forth his hand, commanding his attendants to seize the prophet of evil, whereupon the king's hand was "dried up" and the altar was rent; the king recovered the use of his hand only by humbly imploring the prophet to restore it (II Kings xiii. 1 et seq.; for the fate of this "man of God" see I Kings xiii. 11 et seq.).
War with Judah.
Jeroboam, undeterred by this incident, continued his policy of appointing priests regardless of their Levitical origin (I Kings xiii. 33). But when his son Abijah fell sick, Jeroboam sent his wife, in disguise, with presents to Ahijah the prophet, at Shiloh, to consult him concerning the child. Though blind, the prophet recognized her and announced to her the doom of the dynasty: the sick son of Jeroboam would be the only one of his house to come to the grave; all others would meet a violent death (I Kings xiv. 1-17). The account of this episode names Tirzah as the royal residence. Jeroboam became involved in war with Rehoboam's son Abijah, and was defeated, nowithstanding superior numbers and strategy. In consequence of this defeat several districts reverted to the Southern Kingdom. Jeroboam reigned twenty-two years (I Kings xiv. 20; comp. II Chron. xiii. 1).
—In Rabbinical Literature:
Jeroboam became for the rabbinical writers a typical evil-doer. This appears in the Septuagint (2d recension), where even his mother is represented as a disreputable woman. The name is explained as 
(= "one that caused strife among the people," or "one that caused strife between the people and their Heavenly Father"; Sanh. 108b). The name (Nebat) of his father is construed as implying some defect in his progenitor. Jeroboam is excluded from the world to come (Yalḳ., Kings, 196). Although he reached the throne because he reproved Solomon, he was nevertheless punished for doing so publicly (ib.). In the meeting between Jeroboam and the Shilonite the Rabbis detect indications of Jeroboam's presumption, his zeal for impious innovations (ib.). His arrogance brought about his doom (Sanh. 101b). His political reasons for introducing idolatry are condemned (Sanh.90). As one that led many into sin, the sins of many cling to him (Abot v. 18). He is said to have invented one hundred and three interpretations of the law in reference to the priests to justify his course. At first God was pleased with him and his sacrifice because he was pious, and in order to prevent his going astray proposed to His council of angels to remove him from earth, but He was prevailed upon to let him live; and then Jeroboam, while still a lad, turned to wickedness. God had offered to raise him into Gan 'Eden; but when Jeroboam heard that Jesse's son would enjoy the highest honors there, he refused. Jeroboam had even learned the "mysteries of the chariot" (Midr. Teh.; see "Sefer Midrash Abot," Warsaw, 1896).
—Critical View:
The account of Jeroboam's reign as contained in the First Book of Kings reflects the religious views of later, post-Deuteronomic times, though it is not altogether true that it is written from the Judean standpoint, as stated by Well-hausen in Bleek's "Einleitung" (4th ed., p. 243; Stade, "Gesch." i. 344 et seq.). The stress laid on the popular election of the king (I Kings xii. 2) and the evident effort apparent in some portions to regard Jeroboam as an innocent favorite of the people point to an original Israelitish source which in course of time had been worked over by Judean writers (Benzinger, "Die Bücher der Könige," p. 86). The Septuagint has a double recension. This circumstance indicates that the account of this episode must have passed through different stages, in which Jeroboam was first represented as the people's choice, then as the chief conspirator artfully utilizing the just dissatisfaction of the people for his ends, and finally as the wicked seducer of his followers, who, if left to themselves and not kept away from Jerusalem, would soon have overcome their feelings of resentment and returned to the house of David. Even so, their continued defection was not altogether due to Jeroboam's intrigue: it had been foreordained by Yhwh as a penalty for Solomon's idolatry (I Kings xi. 33; comp. 1-8). The prophetic episodes are seemingly introduced in accordance with the editor's desire to have prophets appear at every important crisis (see Benzinger, l.c. Introduction, iii.).
In the second Septuagint recension (xii. 24, Swete = xiii. 15, 16, Lagarde) the Ahijah episode is placed after Jeroboam's return from Egypt, and the prophet is identified with Shemaiah (I Kings xii. 22). It is curious that, though the mantle is rent into twelve pieces, only eleven are accounted for (I Kings xi.29-32). Klostermann suggests (commentary ad loc.) that originally no numbers were mentioned, and that "twelve" is an interpolation. The Septuagint boldly introduces
Reconstructed History.
The antipathy between North and South (Joseph and Judah) was as old as the house of Israel itself. Saul and David had with difficulty succeeded in establishing a closer union under the hegemony of the southern tribes; but Solomon, by extravagant building, by his luxurious court, and by his introduction and support of foreign cults, had awakened again the old spirit of disunion, never altogether extinct in the north. Jeroboam, for a time in the service of Solomon, grasped the opportunity, but, detected in an attempt to build for himself a fortress (see LXX., 2d recension, I Kings xi. 28; Winckler, "Gesch.") and organize an army in his native district, was compelled to flee to Egypt. (The story of his having married Shishak's sister-in-law Ano [LXX., 2d recension] is unhistorical, a double of the preceding episode in Hadad's career.) There he succeeded in winning for his plans the favor of the Egyptian king, with whose consent (see LXX., 2d recension) he returned after the death of Solomon. At home, undoubtedly, a prophetic party countenanced his movement, and his return crystallized the sentiments of all malcontents. He was acknowledged king by the northern tribes, and his southern rival would not even renew the attempt, which cost his general his life during the gathering at Shechem, to retake the rebellious cities by force of arms.
The sanctuaries at Beth-el and Dan, where the golden calves were enshrined, were old and recognized places of worship and pilgrimage (see High Places). The king, by making them royal sanctuaries, gave these old places new significance. The censure passed on Jeroboam for his appointment of non-Levitical priests is post-Deuteronomic. The postponement of the Feast of Sukkot to the eighth month is also charged against him as a sin by later writers. Probably in the north, where the harvest ends later, this annual pilgrimage (not the Sukkot of P or D) took place in the later month. The prophetic party, finding Jeroboam not so pliant a tool as expected, were organizing against him and looking again to the south. This is the basis of the episode at the altar at Beth-el, if the whole is not to be looked upon as altogether a later embellishment drawn from a collection of prophetical experiences, like those of Elijah and Elisha (Budde, in "Zeitschrift für die Alttestamentliche Wissenschaft," 1892, pp. 37 et seq.).
From I Kings xiv. 25 et seq. the inference has been drawn that it was Shishak who kept the Southern Kingdom from resorting to arms. But the inscription of Shishak, on the southern wall of the great temple at Karnak, enumerates as conquered more than sixty cities that belonged to Israel. The most plausible explanation of this is that Shishak encouraged Jeroboam to secede from Judah, at first keeping the latter in check in order after the division the more easily to carry out his intention to reestablish Egyptian suzerainty over Palestine and Syria. Judah, under Abijah, entering into an alliance with King Tabrimmon of Damascus (I Kings xv. 19), succeeded in getting the better of Israel. This is the historical basis of the fiction in II Chron. xiii. 19. Thus, in the closing years of his reign, Jeroboam began to lose ground, and his failure prepared the way for his successor's assassination and the extermination of his dynasty. The chronology of this reign is not beyond all doubt; Ebers gives 949 as the year of Shishak's expedition; Maspero, 925; modern scholars give, variously, 933-912, 937-915, 937-916.
2. (Jeroboam II.) —Biblical Data:
Son of Joash; fourth king of the dynasty founded by Jehu. He ascended the throne in the fifteenth year of Amaziah, King of Judah, and reigned forty-one years (II Kings xiv. 23). His religious policy followed that of Jeroboam I.; that is, under him Yhwh was worshiped at Dan and Beth-el and at other old Israelitish shrines (see High Places), but through actual images, such as the golden calf (II Kings xiv. 24). But in his foreign policy he was extremely successful, restoring the old frontiers of Israel "from the entering of Hamath unto the sea of the plain" (ib.). In fact, Jonah, the son of Amittai the prophet, had designated him as the "helper" ("moshia'") for Israel; his reign arresting for the time being the impending doom of the kingdom. He is remembered as having waged war and won back for Israel Damascus and Hamath (II Kings xiv. 26-28). In II Chron. v. (vi.) 17 he is credited with having classified by genealogies the inhabitants of the recovered (transjordanic) territory.
—Critical View:
Contrary to the usual method of the Books of Kings, in which prophetic experiences and predictions are elaborately introduced, the words of Jonah ben Amittai are not given. The reference to his acclaiming the powerful monarch has the appearance of a timid excuse to account for the palpable exception presented to the Deuteronomic construction of history by the successes of this emulator of Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, and the note (II Kings xiv. 28) shows that sufficient material was accessible to give a much fuller history of his reign. The chronological data require emending. The synchronism in II Kings xiv. 23 agrees with verse 17 preceding, but does not harmonize with xv. 1 following. Again, the length of the reign (41 years) can not be reconciled with xv. 8. In xv. 1 "twenty-seventh year" must be changed to "fifteenth," while the "forty-one" in xiv. 23 should perhaps be "fifty-one." The dating formerly accepted (825-772 B.C.) is now generally abandoned; about 785(3)-745(3) is more probable. The boundaries mentioned correspond with the ideal limits given in Amos vi. 14—Hamath on the Orontes and the Arabah, the southern continuation of the Jordan plain (the Ghor) from Jericho and the Dead Sea to the Red Sea. The expression in xiv. 28 is almost unintelligible, though in meaning it is probably identical with xiv. 25: "to Judah" is certainly a textual error, perhaps due to a false resolution of an abbreviation of the following "for Israel."
His Character.
A man of great energy, this monarch turned togood profit the developments of his times. Damascus had, since the very first days of the independent Northern Kingdom, been a thorn in the flesh of the Israelitish kings. Attacked by Assur-dan III., King of Assyria (773), Damascus had been sensibly weakened. But Assyria itself was on the decline. This enabled Jeroboam to carry out his own plans and extend the boundaries of his kingdom in accordance with claims never totally relinquished. According to Schrader ("K. A. T." 2d ed., pp. 212 et seq.), Jeroboam II. had to pay tribute to Assyria for its acquiescence in his military expeditions and conquests, among which, according to Grätz ("Gesch."), were the cities Lodebar and Karnaim, alluded to in Amos vi. 13.
That certain of the prophets saw in these successes signs of Messianic import is plain from the mention, however grudging, of Jonah's oracle by the compilers of the Books of Kings. Amos and Hosea reveal the disappointment at the miscarriage of these extravagant expectations. The triumphs of the king had engendered a haughty spirit of boastful overconfidence at home (Amos vi. 13). Oppression and exploitation of the poor by the mighty, luxury in palaces of unheard-of splendor, and a craving for amusement were some of the internal fruits of these external triumphs. The Yhwh services at Dan and Beth-el, at Gilgal and Beer-sheba, were of a nature to arouse the indignation of these prophets, and the foreign cults (Amos v.), both numerous and degrading, contributed still further to the corruption of the vainglorious people. What these conditions were bound to lead to, Amos and Hosea had no doubt. Assyria, now weak, would soon recover its prestige, and then would come the day of reckoning. But it is for this arousing of the prophetic spirit that the reign of Jeroboam II. is an important period in the evolution of Judaism. The old Israelitish religion of Yhwh was more and more ethicized, and the connection between it and the old "high places" was loosened. See Amos; Hosea.
JEROBOAM is the name of two kings of Israel.
1. Jeroboam I. was the first king of the northern tribes after the division. His first appearance in history is as head of the forced labourers levied by Solomon. This was perhaps because he was hereditary chief in Ephraim, but we must also suppose that he attracted the attention of Solomon by his ability and energy. At the same time he resented the tyranny of the prince whom he served, and plotted to overthrow it. The design came to the knowledge of Solomon, and Jeroboam fled to Egypt. On the king’s death he returned, and although he did not appear on the scene when the northern tribes made their demand of Rehoboam, he was probably actively enlisted in the movement. When the refusal of Rehoboam threw the tribes into revolt, Jeroboam appeared as leader, and was made king (1Ki 11:26 ff., 1Ki 12:1 to 1Ki 14:20). Jeroboam was a warlike prince, and hostilities with Judah continued throughout his reign. His country was plundered by the Egyptians at the time of their invasion of Judah. It is not clearly made out whether his fortification of Shechem and Penuei was suggested by the experiences of this campaign or not. His religious measures have received the reprobation of the Biblical writers, but they were intended by Jeroboam to please the God of Israel. He embellished the ancestral sanctuaries of Bethel and Dan with golden bulls, in continuance of early Israelite custom. It is fair to assume also that he had precedent for celebrating the autumn festival in the eighth instead of the seventh month.
2. Jeroboam II. was the grandson of Jehu. In his time Israel was able to assert its ancient vigour against its hereditary enemy Syria, and recover its lost territory. This was due to the attacks of the Assyrians upon the northern border of Damascus (2Ki 14:23-29). The temporary prosperity of Israel was accompanied by social and moral degeneracy, as is set forth distinctly by Amos and Hosea.
H. P. Smith.
(Sept. `Ieroboám), name of two Israelitish kings.(1) JEROBOAM I was the first ruler of the Northern Kingdom after the schism of the Ten Tribes. He was a son of Nathan an Ephraimite, and his mother’s name was Sarua. While still a young man he was placed by King Solomon over the tributes of Ephraim and Manasses (1 Kings 11:28). In that capacity he superintended the labours of his tribesmen in the building of the fortress Mello in Jerusalem and of other public works, and he naturally became conversant with the widespread discontent caused by the extravagances which marked the reign of Solomon. Before the end of the latter’s reign, Jeroboam received from the Prophet Abias an intimation that he was destined to be king over ten of the tribes which in punishment of the idolatry of Solomon were about to sever their allegiance to him and his house. At the same time it was promised that if Jeroboam were faithful to the Lord his house would be confirmed in authority over Israel (1 Kings 11:38). Not satisfied to await the death of the king, the time set by the prophet for the fulfillment of the promise, Jeroboam instigated a revolt which was unsuccessful, and he was obliged to flee, taking refuge with King Sesac in Egypt, where he remained until the death of Solomon in 975 B.C. (or 938 according to the Assyrian chronology). After this event he returned to Palestine, and he was made leader of the delegation sent by dissatisfied element of the population to ask the new king Roboam to lighten the burdens which his father had placed upon them. No sooner had Roboam imprudently and harshly rejected their petition than ten of the tribes withdrew their allegiance to the house of David and proclaimed Jeroboam their king, only the tribes of Juda and Benjamin remaining faithful to Roboam. Jeroboam established his headquarters at Sichem, and soon added to the political also a religious schism. Fearing lest the pilgrimages to the temple in Jerusalem prescribed by the Law might be an occasion for the people of the Northern Kingdom to go back to their old allegiance, he determined to provide for them places of worship within their own boundaries, and for this purpose he set up two golden calves to be worshipped, one in Bethel and the other in Dan. He also built temples in the high places and had them served by priests drawn from the lowest of the people (1 Kings 12). The prophet Abias announced the Divine vengeance that was to come upon the house of Jeroboam because of these evil deeds (1 Kings 14), and in the sequel of Israelitish history the worst doings of the kings are always referred to as like unto the wickedness of Jeroboam, the son of Nabat, who caused Israel to sin. He died in 954 (or in 917) after a reign of twenty-two years.(2) JEROBOAM II was the twelfth successor of the preceeding and the fourth king of the dynasty of Jehu. He succeeded his father Joas in 824 (or 783) and reigned forty-one years. In 802 Rammanirar III, King of Assyria, undertook a campaign into the "West lands", and the Kingdom of Israel (Land of Amri), together with Syria and Phoenicia, was placed under a heavy tribute. Jeroboam, however, taking advantage of the weakened condition of Syria, re­established toward the north and in other directions the ancient boundaries of Israel (2 Kings 14:25). The military and patriotic successes of Jeroboam had been foretold by Jonas, son of Amathi (ibid.), and the Sacred Writer adds that the Lord saved the Israelites by the hand of Jeroboam, son of Joas. From the political standpoint, Jeroboam was an intelligent and energetic ruler, but with regard to his religious activities, his reign is resumed in these words: "He did that which was evil before the Lord. He departed not from all the sins of Jeroboam, son of Nabat who made Israel to sin" (2 Kings 14:24). Evidences of the religious decay during his otherwise prosperous reign are found in the writings of the prophets Amos and Osee, his contemporaries, who frequently inveigh against idolatry and its many concomitant evils and moral degradation. Jeroboam II died in 783 (or 743).-----------------------------------See LESÉTRE in VIGOUROUX Dict. de la Bible, s. v.; COOKE in HASTINGS, Dict. Of the Bible, s.v.JAMES F. DRISCOLL Transcribed by WGKofron With thanks to St. Mary’s Church, Akron, Ohio The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VIIICopyright © 1910 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, October 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., CensorImprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York
I. Jeroboam I
(1) Jeroboam I, son of Nebat, an Ephraimite, and of Zeruah, a widow (1Ki 11:26-40; 12 through 14:20). He was the first king of Israel after the disruption of the kingdom, and he reigned 22 years (937-915 bc).
1. Sources
The history of Jeroboam is contained in 1Ki 11:26-40; 12:1 through 14:20; 2 Ch 10:1 through 11:4; 2Ch 11:14-16; 2Ch 12:15; 13:3-20, and in an insertion in the Septuagint after 1Ki 12:24 (a-z). This insertion covers about the same ground as the Massoretic Text, and the Septuagint elsewhere, with some additions and variations. The fact that it calls Jeroboam’s mother a
2. His Rise and Revolt
Jeroboam, as a highly gifted and valorous young Ephraimite, comes to the notice of Solomon early in his reign (1Ki 11:28; compare 1Ki 9:15, 1Ki 9:24). Having noticed his ability, the king made him overseer of the fortifications and public work at Jerusalem, and placed him over the levy from the house of Joseph. The fact that the latter term may stand for the whole of the ten tribes (compare Amo 5:6; Amo 6:6; Oba 1:18) indicates the importance of the position, which, however, he used to plot against the king. No doubt he had the support of the people in his designs. Prejudices of long standing (2Sa 19:40 f; 20 f) were augmented when Israelite interests were made subservient to Judah and to the king, while enforced labor and burdensome taxation filled the people’s hearts h bitterness and jealousy. Jeroboam, the son of a widow, would be the first to feel the gall of oppression and to give voice to the suffering of the people. In addition, he had the approval of the prophet Ahijah of the old sanctuary of Shiloh, who, by tearing his new mantle into twelve pieces and giving ten of them to Jeroboam, informed him that he was to become king of the ten tribes. Josephus says (Ant., VIII, vii, 8) that Jeroboam was elevated by the words of the prophet, “and being a young man of warm temper, and ambitious of greatness, he could not be quiet,” but tried to get the government into his hands at once. For the time, the plot failed, and Jeroboam fled to Egypt where he was received and kindly treated by Shishak, the successor to the father-in-law of Solomon.
3. The Revolt of the Ten Tribes
The genial and imposing personality of Solomon had been able to stem the tide of discontent excited by his oppressive régime, which at his death burst all restraints. Nevertheless, the northern tribes, at a popular assembly held at Shechem, solemnly promised to serve Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, who had already been proclaimed king at Jerusalem, on condition that he would lighten the burdens that so unjustly rested upon them. Instead of receiving the magna charta which they expected, the king, in a spirit of despotism, gave them a rough answer, and Josephus says “the people were struck by his words, as it were, by an iron hammer” (Ant., VIII, viii, 3). But despotism lost the day. The rough answer of the king was met by the Marseillaise of the people:
“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” (1Ki 12:16).
Seeing the turn affairs had taken, but still unwilling to make any concessions, Rehoboam sent Adoram, who had been over the levy for many years (1Ki 5:14; 1Ki 12:18), and who no doubt had quelled dissatisfaction before, to force the people to submission, possibly by the very methods he had threatened to employ (1Ki 12:14). However, the attempt failed. The aged Adoram was stoned to death, while Rehoboam was obliged to flee ignominiously back to Jerusalem, king only of Judah (1Ki 12:20). Thus, the great work of David for a united kingdom was shattered by inferiors, who put personal ambitions above great ideals.
4. The Election
As soon as Jeroboam heard that Solomon was dead, he returned from his forced exile in Egypt and took up his residence in his native town, Zeredah, in the hill country of Ephraim Septuagint 1Ki 12:20). The northern tribes, having rejected the house of David, now turned to the leader, and perhaps instigator of the revolution. Jeroboam was sent for and raised to the throne by the choice and approval of the popular assembly. Divinely set apart for his task, and having the approval of the people, Jeroboam nevertheless failed to rise to the greatness of his opportunities, and his kingdom degenerated into a mere military monarchy, never stronger than the ruler who chanced to occupy the throne. In trying to avoid the Scylla that threatened its freedom and faith (1Ki 11:33), the nation steered into the Charybdis of revolution and anarchy in which it finally perished.
5. Political Events
Immediately upon his accession, Jeroboam fortified Shechem, the largest city in Central Israel, and made it his capital. Later he fortified Penuel in the East Jordan country. According to 1Ki 14:17, Tirzah was the capital during the latter part of his reign. About Jeroboam’s external relations very little is known beyond the fact that there was war between him and Rehoboam constantly (1Ki 14:30). In 2 Ch 13:2-20 we read of an inglorious war with Abijah of Judah. When Shishak invaded Judah (1Ki 14:25 f), he did not spare Israel, as appears from his inscription on the temple at Karnak, where a list of the towns captured by him is given. These belong to Northern Israel as well as to Judah, showing that Shishak exacted tribute there, even if he used violence only in Judah. The fact that Jeroboam successfully managed a revolution but failed to establish a dynasty shows that his strength lay in the power of his personality more than in the soundness of his principles.
6. His Religious Policy
Despite the success of the revolution politically, Jeroboam descried in the halo surrounding the temple and its ritual a danger which threatened the permanency of his kingdom. He justifiably dreaded a reaction in favor of the house of David, should the people make repeated religious pilgrimages to Jerusalem after the first passion of the rebellion had spent itself. He therefore resolved to establish national sanctuaries in Israel. Accordingly, he fixed on Bethel, which from time immemorial was one of the chief sanctuaries of the land (Gen 28:19; Gen 35:1; Hos 12:4), and Dan, also a holy place since the conquest, as the chief centers of worship for Israel. Jeroboam now made “two calves of gold” as symbols of the strength and creative power of Yahweh, and set them up in the sanctuaries at Bethel and Dan, where altars and other sacred objects already existed. It appears that many of the priests still in the land were opposed to his image-worship (2Ch 11:13). Accordingly, he found it necessary to institute a new, non-Levitical priesthood (1Ki 13:33). A new and popular festival on the model of the feasts at Jerusalem was also established. Jeroboam’s policy might have been considered as a clever political move, had it not contained the dangerous ppeal to the lower instincts of the masses, that led them into the immoralities of heathenism and hastened the destruction of the nation. Jeroboam sacrificed the higher interests of religion to politics. This was the “sin of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, wherewith he made Israel to sin” (1Ki 12:30; 1Ki 16:26).
7. Hostility of the Prophets
It may be that many of the prophets sanctioned Jeroboam’s religious policy. Whatever the attitude of the majority may have been, there was no doubt a party who strenuously opposed the image-worship.
(1) The Anonymous Prophet
On the very day on which Jeroboam inaugurated the worship at the sanctuary at Bethel “a man of God out of Judah” appeared at Bethel and publicly denounced the service. The import of his message was that the royal altar should some day be desecrated by a ruler from the house of David. The prophet was saved from the wrath of the king only by a miracle. “The altar also was rent, and the ashes poured out from the altar.” This narrative of 1 Ki 13 is usually assumed to belong to a later time, but whatever the date of compilation, the general historicity of the account is little affected by it.
(2) The Prophet Ahijah
At a later date, when Jeroboam had realized his ambition, but not the ideal which the prophet had set before him, Ahijah predicted the consequences of his evil policy. Jeroboam’s eldest son had fallen sick. He thought of Ahijah, now old and blind, and sent the queen in disguise to learn the issue of the sickness. The prophet bade her to announce to Jeroboam that the house of Jeroboam should be extirpated root and branch; that the people whom he had seduced to idolatry should be uprooted from the land and transported beyond the river; and, severest of all, that her son should die.
8. His Death
Jeroboam died, in the 22nd year of his reign, having “bequeathed to posterity the reputation of an apostate and a succession of endless revolutions.”
II. Jeroboam II
(2) Jeroboam II (2Ki 14:23-29), son of Joash and 13th king of Israel; 4th sovereign of the dynasty of Jehu. He reigned 41 years. His accession may be placed circa 798 bc (some date lower).
1. His Warlike Policy
Jeroboam came into power on the crest of the wave of prosperity that followed the crushing of the supremacy of Damascus by his father. By his great victory at Aphek, followed by others, Joash had regained the territory lost to Israel in the reigns of Jehu and Jehoahaz (2Ki 13:17, 2Ki 13:25). This satisfied Joash, or his death prevented further hostilities. Jeroboam, however, then a young man, resolved on a war of retaliation against Damascus, and on further conquests. The condition of the eastern world favored his projects, for Assyria was at the time engaged, under Shalmaneser III and Assurdan III, in a life-and-death struggle with Armenia. Syria being weakened, Jeroboam determined on a bold attempt to conquer and annex the whole kingdom of which Damascus was the capital. The steps of the campaign by which this was accomplished are unknown to us. The result only is recorded, that not only the intermediate territory fell into Jeroboam’s hands, but that Damascus itself was captured (2Ki 14:28). Hamath was taken, and thus were restored the eastern boundaries of the kingdom, as they were in the time of David (1Ch 13:5). From the time of Joshua “the entrance of Hamath” (Jos 13:5), a narrow pass leading into the valley of the Lebanons, had been the accepted northern boundary of the promised land. This involved the subjection of Moab and Ammon, probably already tributaries of Damascus.
2. New Social Conditions
Jeroboam’s long reign of over 40 years gave time for the collected tribute of this greatly increased territory to flow into the coffers of Samaria, and the exactions would be ruthlessly enforced. The prophet Amos, a contemporary of Jeroboam in his later years, dwells on the cruelties inflicted on the trans-Jordanic tribes by Hazael, who “threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron” (Amo 1:3). All this would be remembered now, and wealth to which the Northern Kingdom had been unaccustomed flowed in to its treasuries. The hovels of unburned brick in which the citizens had lived were replaced by “houses of hewn stone” (Amo 5:11). The ivory house which Ahab built in Samaria (1Ki 22:39; decorations only are meant) was imitated, and there were many “great houses” (Amo 3:15). The sovereign had both a winter and a summer palace. The description of a banqueting scene within one of these palatial abodes is lifelike in its portraiture. The guests stretched themselves upon the silken cushions of the couches, eating the flesh of lambs and stall-fed calves, drinking wine from huge bowls, singing idle songs to the sound of viols, themselves perfumed and anointed with oil (Amo 6:4-6). Meanwhile, they were not grieved for the affliction of Joseph, and cared nothing for the wrongdoing of which the country was full. Side by side with this luxury, the poor of the land were in the utmost distress. A case in which a man was sold into slavery for the price of a pair of shoes seems to have come to the prophet’s knowledge, and is twice referred to by him (Amo 2:6; Amo 8:6).
3. Growth of Ceremonial Worship
With all this, and as part of the social organization, religion of a kind flourished. Ritual took the place of righteousness; and in a memorable passage, Amos denounces the substitution of the one for the other (Amo 5:21). The worship took place in the sanctuaries of the golden calves, where the votaries prostrated themselves before the altar clothed in garments taken in cruel pledge, and drank sacrificial wine bought with the money of those who were fined for non-attendance there (Amo 2:8). There we are subsidiary temples and altars at Gilgal and Beersheba (Amo 4:4; Amo 5:5; Amo 8:14). Both of these places had associations with the early history of the nation, and would be attended by worshippers from Judah as well as from Israel.
4. Mission to Amos
Toward the close of his reign, it would appear that Jeroboam had determined upon adding greater splendor and dignity to the central shrine, in correspondence with the increased wealth of the nation. Amos, about the same time, received a commission to go to Bethel and testify against the whole proceedings there. He was to pronounce that these sanctuaries should be laid waste, and that Yahweh would raise the sword against the house of Jeroboam. (Amo 7:9). On hearing his denunciation, made probably as he stood beside the altar, Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent a messenger to the king at Samaria, to tell him of the “conspiracy” of Amos, and that the land was not able to bear all his words. The messenger bore the report that Amos had declared “Jeroboam shall die by the sword,” which Amos had not done. When the messenger had gone, priest and prophet had a heated controversy, and new threatenings were uttered (Amo 7:10-17).
5. Prophecy of Jonah
The large extension of territory acquired for Israel by Jeroboam is declared to have been the realization of a prophecy uttered earlier by Jonah, the son of Amittai (2Ki 14:25) - the same whose mission to Nineveh forms the subject of the Book of Jonah (Jon 1:1). It is also indicated that the relief which had now come was the only alternative to the utter extinction of Israel. But Yahweh sent Israel a “saviour” (2Ki 13:5), associated by some with the Assyrian king Ramman-nirari III, who crushed Damascus, an left Syria an easy prey, first to Jehoash, then to Jeroboam. (see JEHOASH), but whom the historian seems to connect with Jeroboam himself (2Ki 14:26, 2Ki 14:27).
Jeroboam was succeeded on his death by his weak son Zechariah (2Ki 14:29).
Two kings of Israel had the name Jeroboam. Both of them ruled over the northern part of the divided kingdom, but they were separated in time by more than a hundred years and they belonged to different dynasties.
Jeroboam the son of Nebat
The books of Kings consistently condemn Jeroboam the son of Nebat, the man who led the northern tribes to break away from the Davidic rule. But the chief reason they condemn him is religious rather than political; for Jeroboam established his own religion in the north in opposition to the Levitical system that was based on the Jerusalem temple (1Ki 15:34; 1Ki 16:19; 1Ki 22:52; 2Ki 10:31; 2Ki 14:24; 2Ki 23:15). This false religion, set up by Jeroboam and followed by other kings, was the reason God destroyed the northern kingdom and sent the people into captivity (2Ki 17:21-23).
From his youth Jeroboam was capable and hard-working. Solomon was so impressed with the young man that he put him in charge of the Ephraim-Manasseh workforce (1Ki 11:28). The ambitious Jeroboam cleverly used his position to gain a following among his fellow northerners, in opposition to the southerner Solomon, whose policies he found oppressive. From the prophet Ahijah, Jeroboam learnt that God would punish Solomon by splitting his kingdom and giving ten tribes to Jeroboam. When Solomon tried to kill Jeroboam, Jeroboam escaped to Egypt, where he remained till the end of Solomon’s reign (1Ki 11:29-40).
As soon as Solomon was dead, Jeroboam returned from Egypt and led a rebellion (930 BC). The northern tribes readily crowned Jeroboam their king, in opposition to Solomon’s son, Rehoboam. Rehoboam still reigned in Jerusalem, but only over Judah and its neighbouring tribe, Benjamin (1Ki 12:1-20).
Jeroboam made his capital in Shechem, but later shifted it a few kilometres north to Tirzah (1Ki 12:25; 1Ki 14:17; cf. 1Ki 15:21; cf. 1Ki 15:33). He was wary of the attraction that Jerusalem still held, fearing that if his people went there for religious ceremonies they might transfer their allegiance to Rehoboam. He therefore decided to set up his own independent religion. He built shrines at the towns of Bethel (near his southern border) and Dan (near his northern border), complete with his own order of priests, sacrifices and feasts. His religion attempted to combine the worship of Yahweh with Canaanite religion (1Ki 12:26-33). A bold announcement of judgment by a prophet from Judah showed plainly that God would not accept this new religion (1Ki 13:1-10). Ahijah repeated the announcement of judgment (1Ki 14:1-18).
During his twenty-two years reign Jeroboam fought against the Judean kings, Rehoboam and Abijam (1Ki 15:6-7). His costly loss to Abijam was a final demonstration to him that God would not help one who had broken away from the Davidic dynasty and the Levitical priesthood (2Ch 13:2-20).
Jeroboam the son of Joash
This Jeroboam is usually referred to as Jeroboam II, to distinguish him from the person who established the breakaway northern kingdom. Jeroboam II was one of Israel’s most powerful and prosperous kings, but religiously he was no better than the first Jeroboam. He ruled from 793 to 752 BC (2Ki 13:13; 2Ki 14:23-24).
At that time Syria had declined in power and Assyria was concerned with struggles far removed from Palestine. Jeroboam II was therefore able to strengthen his kingdom without interference from hostile neighbours. He brought territorial expansion and economic growth on a scale not seen in Israel since the days of David and Solomon (2Ki 14:25-28). The prosperity, however, brought with it greed, injustice and exploitation that the prophets Amos and Hosea condemned fearlessly (Amo 1:1; Amo 2:6-8; Amo 3:15; Amo 4:1; Amo 5:10-12; Amo 6:4-6; Hos 1:1; Hos 4:1-2; Hos 4:17-18; Hos 6:8-9; Hos 12:7-8; see AMOS; HOSEA).
Just as one prophet earlier had forecast the expansion of Israel’s territory, so another now forecast God’s judgment throughout that territory (2Ki 14:25; Amo 6:14). Jeroboam would be killed and eventually Israel would go into captivity (Amo 7:9-11).