And it came to pass, when Rehoboam had established the kingdom, and had strengthened himself, he forsook the law of the LORD, and all Israel

with him.

And it came to pass, that in the fifth year of king Rehoboam, Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, because they had transgressed against the LORD,

With twelve hundred chariots, and threescore thousand horsemen : and the people were without number that came with him out of Egypt; the Lubims,* the Sukkiims, and the Ethiopians.

And he took the fenced cities which pertained to Judah, and came to Jerusalem.

Then came Shemaiah the prophet to Rehoboam, and to the princes of Judah, that were gathered together to Jerusalem because of Shishak, and said unto them, Thus saith the LORD, Ye have forsaken me, and therefore have I also left you in the hand of Shishak.

Whereupon the princes of Israel and the king humbled themselves; and they said, The LORD is righteous.

And when the LORD saw that they humbled themselves, the word of the LORD came to Shemaiah, saying, They have humbled themselves; therefore I will not destroy them, but I will grant them some deliverance; and my wrath shall not be poured out upon Jerusalem by the hand of Shishak. Nevertheless they shall be his servants; that they may know my service, and the service of the kingdoms of the countries.

So Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem, and took away the treasures of the house of the LORD, and the treasures of the king's house; he took all he carried away also the shields of gold which Solomon had made.

Instead of which king Rehoboam made shields of brass, and committed them to the hands of the chief of the guard, that kept the entrance of the king's house.

And when the king entered into the house of the LORD, the guard came and fetched them, and brought them again into the guard chamber.

And when he humbled himself, the wrath of the LORD turned from him, that he would not destroy him altogether: and also in Judah things went well. So king Rehoboam strengthened himself in Jerusalem, and reigned; for Rehoboam was one and forty years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the LORD had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there. And his mother's name was Naamah an Ammonitess.

And he did evil, because he prepared not his heart to seek the LORD.

COMMENT.-At first the effect of the defection of the ten tribes was to draw closer the bonds that linked Judah with the Temple. All the priests and Levites abandoned their cities up and down the rebellious tribes, rather than sanction the calf-worship, and with them came all that were true and faithful to their God out of the tribes of Israel, giving up their lands for the sake of the right The Lybians.

+ Cave-dwellers.

worship. Rehoboam fortified cities and strengthened himself; but his was not real religion; "he prepared not his heart to seek the Lord," and he fell away. His favourite wife, Absalom's granddaughter, was an idolatress, and the king and his people soon fell into that favourite but forbidden custom of sacrificing in the high places-old Canaanite sacred spots—instead of only in the Temple, a practice that would be the first step to the calf-idolatry. Observe, the worship of prayer might be offered everywhere; it was sacrifice alone that was to be confined to "the place where God had set His Name." It had been permitted wherever Samuel was during the loss of the ark, and afterwards at both the ark and the old tabernacle; but the revelation of the glory in the Holy of Holies, and the fire descending on the altar, had so marked the Temple, that it was disrespect to God, and disobedience to His frequently repeated commands in the Book of Deuteronomy, to hold a sacrifice elsewhere.

The punishment came soon. The peace which had lasted full fifty years was broken, and Jeroboam's friend and patron, the great Egyptian king Sheshonk, or Shishak, marched against Judah, and took Rehoboam's fortified cities. There he lay before Jerusalem, and the prophet Shemaiah, the same who had forbidden Rehoboam to put down the revolt of Israel by force of arms, rebuked the king and his sons and nobles for their sins, which were the cause of the calamity. On their repentance and humiliation, the prophet was sent to announce that the city should be saved, but should for a time be tributary; and accordingly Rehoboam was able to purchase exemption from pillage, by paying over a great quantity of his "father's treasures to the Egyptians, especially the golden shields of the guard of honour, supplying their place with brass.

Shishak, on going home, celebrated his victory by a bas-relief in his great temple at Karnak, where the god appears receiving the submission of one hundred and thirty-three figures in chains, each labelled with the name of a city of Judah—Gibeon, Mahanaim, Ajalon, &c.; and one as Jehudah Malek, the Jewish Royalty-probably representing not Rehoboam himself, but Jerusalem, the royal city. Thus did God chasten Judah with the rod, as a man chasteneth his son; and Judah as yet was not hardened, and, though often backsliding, was not obstinate in her sin like Israel.

LESSON VI.

REIGN OF ABIJAH IN JUDAH.

B.C. 957-955.-1 KINGS xv. 3-5; 2 CHRON. xiii. 1—20.

Now in the eighteenth year of king Jeroboam began Abijah to reign over Judah.

He reigned three years in Jerusalem. Michaiah the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah.

His mother's name also was

And he walked in all the sins of his father, which he had done before him and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father.

Nevertheless for David's sake did the LORD his God give him a lamp in Jerusalem, to set up his son after him, and to establish Jerusalem:

Because David did that which was right in the eyes of the LORD, and turned not aside from any thing that he commanded him all the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite.

And there was war between Abijah and Jeroboam.

And Abijah set the battle in array with an army of valiant men of war, even four hundred thousand chosen men: Jeroboam also set the battle in array against him with eight hundred thousand chosen men, being mighty men of valour.

And Abijah stood up upon mount Zemaraim, which is in mount Ephraim, and said, Hear me, thou Jeroboam, and all Israel;

Ought ye not to know that the LORD God of Israel gave the kingdom over Israel to David for ever, even to him and to his sons by a covenant of salt? *

Yet Jeroboam the son of Nebat, the servant of Solomon the son of David, is risen up, and hath rebelled against his lord.

And there are gathered unto him vain men, the children of Belial, and have strengthened themselves against Rehoboam the son of Solomon, when Rehoboam was young and tender hearted, and could not withstand them.

And now ye think to withstand the kingdom of the LORD in the hand of the sons of David; and ye be a great multitude, and there are with you golden calves, which Jeroboam made you for gods.

Have ye not cast out the priests of the LORD, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites, and have made you priests after the manner of the nations of other lands? so that whosoever cometh to consecrate himself with a young bullock and seven rams, the same may be a priest of them that are no gods.

But as for us, the LORD is our God, and we have not forsaken him; and the priests, which minister unto the LORD, are the sons of Aaron, and the Levites wait upon their business.

VOL. III.

* A firm, lasting, undecaying covenant.

C

And they burn unto the LORD every morning and every evening burnt sacrifices and sweet incense: the shewbread also set they in order upon the pure table; and the candlestick of gold with the lamps thereof, to burn every evening for we keep the charge of the LORD our God; but ye have forsaken him.

And, behold, God himself is with us for our captain, and his priests with sounding trumpets to cry alarm against you. O children of Israel, fight ye not against the LORD God of your fathers; for ye shall not prosper.

But Jeroboam caused an ambushment to come about behind them: so they were before Judah, and the ambushment was behind them.

And when Judah looked back, behold, the battle was before and behind and they cried unto the LORD, and the priests sounded with the trumpets.

Then the men of Judah gave a shout and as the men of Judah shouted, it came to pass, that God smote Jeroboam and all Israel before Abijah and Judah.

And the children of Israel fled before Judah: and God delivered them into their hand.

And Abijah and his people slew them with a great slaughter: so there fell down slain of Israel five hundred thousand chosen men.

Thus the children of Israel were brought under at that time, and the children of Judah prevailed, because they relied upon the LORD God of their fathers.

And Abijah pursued after Jeroboam, and took cities from him, Beth-el with the towns thereof, and Jeshanah with the towns thereof, and Ephraim with the towns thereof.

Neither did Jeroboam recover strength again in the days of Abijah: and the LORD struck him, and he died.

COMMENT. Three verses here come from the Book of Kings, where Abijah is called Abijam. His name meant "the will of JEHOVAH," and as the writer of Kings records no good of him, he may have been unwilling to use the Divine name as part of that of an idolater. In like manner his mother's right name seems to have been Michaiah, "Who is like to JEHOVAH ?" but it was altered to Maachah, or " oppression," in detestation of her. She was the child of Uriel of Gibeah, and of Tamar, the daughter of Absalom, and she is sometimes called Absalom's daughter to mark her descent from David. Abijah had been Rehoboam's favourite son, and had been promoted by him above his brothers. He seems to have been led away by his parents' example, and not to have served the Lord with a perfect heart, though for David's sake God had mercy on him, and would not take the light of the house of David away. He could not have been young when he came to the throne, but Jeroboam took advantage of the death of Rehoboam to raise a huge

army, double that which Judah could bring into the field, perhaps hoping to conquer Jerusalem. Abijah, however, advanced himself into the enemy's country, and when the two armies were about to encounter beneath Mount Ephraim, he ascended Mount Zemaraim, one of its peaks, and made an address, not only to his own army of Judah, but to the hostile army of Israel. He called on these last to remember that it was by God's own appointment that the house of David ruled. He called the engagement a covenant of salt, a term used to express one consecrated by sacrifice, at which salt was always used; besides which, salt was the emblem of the lasting and undecaying. Nevertheless, the weakness of Rehoboam had been taken advantage of, and a rebellion had begun. Abijah, knowing perhaps of the sentence against Jeroboam, called on the Israelites to lay down their arms, since they, the worshippers of golden calves, could never prosper against those who maintained the true worship of the Lord in His Temple day by day, with the true priesthood. "God Himself is with us as our captain," he cries; "O children of Israel, fight not against the Lord God of your fathers, for ye shall not prosper.

Little recking of this noble, trustful appeal, Jeroboam sent an ambush to surprise Abijah's army in the rear-acting, indeed, like a skilful captain; but all in vain. The silver trumpets of the priests sounded, the men of Judah shouted and cried aloud in prayer, and the victory was theirs--a great and most decisive victory, so great that Jeroboam never recovered it; but Abijah took all the southern parts of his territory, even Bethel itself, although Judah did not retain it for any great length of time. Some have thought that Abijah was uplifted by this victory, and only afterwards fell away into pride and idolatry, but as his whole reign lasted no more than two years and a part of another, this does not seem likely. He must have married fourteen wives, and had twenty-two sons and sixteen daughters before that time; and it seems far more likely that after having been ill brought up, danger roused him to a comprehension of his true strength, even the name of the Lord, and that his latter end was more blessed than his beginning.