THE KINGS OF ISRAEL AND JUDAH. George Rawlinson

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СКАЧАТЬ target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="#ulink_0d0267ee-d356-5934-b039-7514ddc233ad">6 Jeroboam, proud of his high office, had recently clad himself in a new cloak or robe. Ahijah caught hold of this, and stripping it off him tore it into twelve fragments, one for each tribe, and retaining two, gave him the other ten, accompanying his gift with these words: “Take thou ten pieces; for thus saith Jehovah, the God of Israel, Behold, I will rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and will give ten tribes to thee: but he shall have one tribe for My servant David’s sake, and for Jerusalem’s sake, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel: because that they have forsaken Me, and have worshipped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Zidonians, Chemosh the god of the Moabites, and Milcom the god of the children of Ammon, and have not walked in My ways, to do that which is right in Mine eyes, and to keep My statutes and My judgments: as did David his father. Howbeit I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand, but I will make him prince all the days of his life for David My servant’s sake, whom I chose because he kept My commandments and My statutes: but I will take the kingdom out of his son’s hand, and will give it unto thee—even ten tribes. And unto his son will I give one tribe, that David My servant may have a light always before Me in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen to put My name there. And I will take thee, and thou shalt reign according to all that thy soul desireth, and shalt be king over Israel. And it shall be, if thou wilt hearken unto all that I command thee, and wilt walk in My ways, and do that which is right in My sight, to keep My statutes and My commandments, as David My servant did: that I will be with thee, and build thee a sure house, as I built for David, and will give Israel unto thee. And I will for this afflict the seed of David, but not for ever” (1 Kings xi. 31-39.)

It had been before this time prophesied to Solomon, though by what prophet we cannot say,7 that at his death his kingdom would be rent in twain, and the greater portion given to one of his “servants,” one tribe only being reserved for his son (1 Kings xi. 11-13). But he had hitherto not known to whom the prophecy pointed, or which of his servants was to be especially feared. Now, however—for it was not long before the transaction between Jeroboam and Ahijah got wind, either from Jeroboam not keeping the secret or from the meeting having been observed—he found that the fated enemy of his house was the man whom he had so greatly favoured, whom he had raised from a lowly station, and set among the princes of the people. Instantly his anger was inflamed. What? Jeroboam the traitor who would rob his son! He had, then, warmed a serpent in his bosom: he had given the high position which could alone render successful treason possible to the very man who was about to use that high position to humiliate and despoil the best beloved of all his offspring. We need not wonder that, with the unpitying sternness of an Oriental despot, he at once formed the determination of taking his enemy’s life (ibid. ver. 40). It is not clear, however, that Jeroboam had been guilty of any overt act of rebellion or treason. One modern writer indeed, tells us that he “openly rose against Solomon’s rule,” took arms, and with a band of adherents began a “contest which was not a very easy one” to put down.8 But no Biblical writer, not even the author of the Septuagint “Additions,” lends any support to this view. Jeroboam, it is probable, had done nothing more than talk of his fine prospects among his friends and followers. But in the East this is quite enough to draw down upon a subject’s head the vengeance of his sovereign, and Solomon would not be shocking his people’s sense of justice in seeking under the circumstances to kill Jeroboam. That he did so is plainly stated. He did not “banish Jeroboam to Egypt,” as has been alleged;9 but formed a determination to put him to death—a determination which, coming to Jeroboam’s knowledge, induced him to fly the country, and become a refugee in the foreign land which was best able to afford him protection.

Egypt, under the twentieth and twenty-first dynasties, had declined from her high estate, and was no longer the power which she had shown herself in the time of the Thothmeses and the Ramessides. Her Asiatic influence had dwindled and disappeared, and when, under the twenty-first dynasty, Solomon proposed to ally himself with a princess of the reigning house the Egyptian sovereign of the time did not regard the marriage as one of disparity. He readily acquiesced in the offer of the Israelite king, and gave his daughter a dowry suitable to her rank (1 Kings ix. 16), thus indicating his full consent to the match and approval of it. But Egypt was still, even under the twenty-first dynasty, the most powerful of all the states that bordered upon Palestine. And when Sheshonk, the founder of the twenty-second dynasty, came to the throne, she began once more, under his guidance and direction, to be something more than this. She resumed the ambitious projects which had been laid aside for three centuries, and at the same time the taste for magnificence and display which had characterized the Ramesside monarchs. Sheshonk adorned the cities of Thebes, Memphis, and Bubastis with architectural works. He held his Court commonly either at Bubastis or at Thebes, and set himself to rival the glories of other days. Egypt had from a remote antiquity been in the habit of receiving with open arms refugees from abroad; and when Jeroboam, threatened with death by his own sovereign, sought an asylum in the valley of the Nile, Sheshonk acted in accordance with Egyptian traditions in receiving him and giving him shelter. It may well be that in course of time the Israelite exile rose in his favour, and acquired an influence over him; but the doubtful tale of his having given Jeroboam an Egyptian princess in marriage seems scarcely entitled to our acceptance.10

In his sojourn at the Egyptian Court, which appears to have been prolonged for some years, Jeroboam would learn many new things. He would become familiar with a religion imposing by its antiquity, striking in many of its manifestations, and regarded by those who presided over it as not incompatible with a profound conviction of the truth of monotheism. He would observe the working of a firm and stable government, to which revolution was unknown, and which owed its permanency in a great measure to its connection with religion, and to the support lent it by a numerous and well-organized hierarchy. He would obtain a knowledge of the great military strength possessed by a kingdom which had maintained a large standing army for centuries, an army inheriting traditions of discipline, honour, and military spirit. He would contract a taste for architectural display, and an imposing religious ceremonial. It is not mere fancy which sees in Jeroboam’s Egyptian sojourn the key to many of those changes which he introduced, at a later date, into the polity and worship of Israel.11

      Occupied in observing Egyptian institutions, and in obtaining, so far as he possibly could, influence over the Egyptian monarch, Jeroboam passed, as we have said, some years. The time for a fresh movement came only when news reached Egypt of the death of Solomon, and simultaneously of a desire on the part of his friends in Palestine that Jeroboam should return to his native land, and be ready at hand in case the course of events should be such as to call for his intervention.

      Jeroboam responded to the call. When the tribes assembled at Shechem to assist in the coronation of Rehoboam, but hoping at the same time to obtain a redress of grievances at the hands of the new monarch, Jeroboam was there, and acted apparently as the spokesman of the malcontents (1 Kings xii. 3). When the disappointing answer was given to the demands preferred, he was again present (ibid. ver. 12); and it is reasonable to suppose that either from himself or his confederates emanated the cry which was immediately raised—“To your tents, O Israel!” The rebellion broke out at once—Adoniram was murdered—and the Ten Tribes in a formal assembly (ibid. ver. 20) made Jeroboam their king. The sovereignty over Israel, as distinct from Judah, passed once more to Ephraim, and the blessing of Moses upon Joseph (Deut. xxxiii. 13-17) seemed to obtain a fresh accomplishment.

      But Jeroboam, though he had now attained the object of his ambitious aims, had not thereby secured himself a bed of roses. “Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown” is true of most sovereigns, and especially of usurpers. The immediate danger against which he had to prepare was war. Legitimate monarchs do not commonly allow themselves to be despoiled of two-thirds of their territories without at least an attempt to punish the spoiler, and Rehoboam’s first thought on hearing of the election of the son of Nebat to СКАЧАТЬ