Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites. And likewise did he for all his strange wives, which sacrificed unto their gods. And Solomon did evil in the sight of the Lord. And the Lord was angry with Solomon, because his heart was turned from the Lord God of Israel, which had appeared unto him twice, and commanded him concerning this thing that he should not go after other gods. Wherefore the Lord said unto Solomon, Forasmuch as this is done of thee, and thou hast not kept my covenant and my statutes which I commanded thee, I will surely rend the kingdom from thee, and give it unto thy servant. Notwithstanding, in thy days I will not do it, for David thy father's sake; but I will rend it out of the hand of thy son. I will not rend away all the kingdom, but will give one tribe to thy son, for David my servant's sake, and for Jerusalem's sake which I have chosen."

We are not informed in the history, what effect this warning had upon the guilty and besotted king. We may gather, however, from the tone of his later writings, that he was brought to true repentance and a happy reformation. It was too late now to avert the calamity which was threatened. The clouds were rapidly gathering around this once happy empire. The scene of peace and prosperity was suddenly overcast. The low mutterings of discontent might be heard. It was beginning to be felt that pomp and outward show did not constitute real happiness. A heavily taxed people were growing restless under their burdens. In these conditions it only needed the sin of Solomon to bring about rebellion and civil war. Nor was this all. Foreign and subject nations were beginning to rouse themselves to resistance. On the south-east, Hadad, of the royal blood of Edom, was troubling the Israelitish king. In the slaughter of the Edomites, by Joab, Hadad, then an infant, had escaped, and flying from one place to another had at last reached Egypt. He grew in favour with the Egyptian king, and eventually married into the royal family. On learning the death of David, he had returned to his own country, and began "a petty warfare which Solomon did not repress.

On the north, another adversary appeared, in the king of Damascus. Rezon had revolted from Hadadezer king of Zobah, and with a band of followers had made himself master of Damascus, and now reigned there. In the later years of Solomon's reign, his power began to be formidable. Both these enemies, as we are told, were permitted thus to annoy the king of Israel, as a punishment of his sin.

A more serious enemy, however, arose in the midst of his own kingdom. "Jeroboam the son of Nebat, an Ephrathite, had distinguished himself as a man of valour." Solomon, seeing his worth, had exalted "him to be a ruler over the house of Joseph.'

From his energy and valour, he had no doubt acquired great influence among the northern tribes. To this person, God sent the prophet Ahijah. As Jeroboam came from Jerusalem, the prophet met him in the field, alone; "and rending his garment into twelve pieces," delivered his energetic message. "Take thee ten pieces: for thus saith the Lord, the God of Israel, Behold, I will rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and will give ten tribes to thee. Because they have forsaken me, and have worshipped other gods, and have not walked in my ways, to do that which is right in mine eyes, to keep my statutes and my judgments. Howbeit, I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hands, he shall have one tribe, that David my servant may have a light alway before me in Jerusalem; and I will make him prince, all the days of his life. But I will take the kingdom out of his son's hands and will give it thee, even the ten tribes; and thou shalt reign according to all that thy soul desireth. And it shall be, if thou wilt hearken unto all that I command thee, and walk in my ways, and do that is right in my sight, to keep 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 afflict the seed of David, but not for ever." This doing of Ahijah soon came to the ears of the king; "and Jeroboam's life was no longer safe." He therefore fled into Egypt, unto Shishak, and remained there until the death of Solomon.

In the midst of these thickening calamities, Solomon slept with his fathers, and was buried in the city of David. It was well for him that he did not live to see the results of his conduct. He had reigned forty years, with scarcely any thing to check the flow of prosperity. He found the kingdom strong, and apparently containing the elements of perpetuity; he left it in actual decay. He came to the throne in a time of peace; he left it shaken by foreign war, and internal strife. A united people welcomed him to the kingdom, with great joy; he so ruled that few probably mourned over his death. With all his great wisdom, a love of display, a voluptuous life, and a sinful departure from the true God; brought misery upon a happy people, and covered his own name with deep disgrace. And yet few, perhaps, would have stood the test to which he was subjected, better than Solomon. It is more difficult to meet the trials of prosperity than of adversity. It is no uncommon thing to see men fail here, who have walked without reproach through the very deepest of afflictions. And the fact that, though he was thus under the power of the world, and his own corruption, he yet, by God's grace, recovered himself, and died in the fear of God, ought to redeem his character, in some measure, from the reproach under which it lies. At all events, in

any just estimate of his character, we must take into account his virtues, as well as his vices; his wisdom, his generosity, his zeal at first for the worship of God, as well as his love of the world, and his shameful idolatry.

SECTION XIII.

DIVISION OF THE KINGDOM REHOBOAM'S REIGN, AND DEATH-JEROBOAM, THE CONTEMPORARY OF REHOBOAM AND ABIJAM.

SOLOMON left but one son, "Rehoboam, the son of Naamah, an Ammonitess, who was forty-one years old when his father died," and he prepared to ascend the throne. "All Israel had assembled at Shechem; and thither Rehoboam went to receive the kingdom, and their allegiance. In the mean time, Jeroboam had returned from Egypt, and appeared boldly as a leader among the congregation of the people. Jeroboam, and the congregation through him, demanded a reduction of the taxes, as a condition of their service. "Thy father made our yoke grievous; now, therefore, make thou the service of thy father, and the yoke which he put upon us, lighter, and we will serve thee." Three days were taken for deliberation: during which Rehoboam consulted with his counsellors. The old men who had stood before his father, and were better acquainted with the true condition of things; advised him to treat the request of the people kindly, "and speak good words unto them." The young men, who had grown up with the king, on the contrary, advised him to return a threatening answer, which should bring the disaffected to submission. When the appointed day came, Rehoboam, following the advice of his young companions, answered the people roughly, saying, "My father made your yoke heavy, and I will add to your yoke; my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scorpions." The haughty monarch was left to take his own course. There was no sympathy between him and his people. The cruelty of this answer at once crushed every loyal feeling on the part of his subjects. Through his folly and pride, was wrought out, by the providence of God, the prediction which the Lord had spoken, by Ahijah the Shilonite, to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.

The words of the king brought things to a crisis. The disaffection, which might have been satisfied by prudent concessions, ripened into rebellion. The people said to the king, "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." Rehoboam was not at first aware of the extent of the defection; and sent Adoram to collect the tribute.

The excited people "stoned him to death," and the terrified king fled in haste to Jerusalem. "So Israel rebelled against the house of David; but the cities of Judah remained faithful to their king." All the northern and eastern tribes took Jeroboam and made him king: and it seems probable, that the tribe of Benjamin was carried away with them; though it soon returned to its allegiance.

The first thoughts of the king were to recover his dominion by war. For this purpose, he collected from Judah and Benjamin an hundred and eighty thousand chosen men. But as he was about to march, Shemaiah the prophet came with a message from God to this infatuated king: "Thus saith the Lord, Ye shall not go up, nor fight against your brethren; return every man to his house; for this thing is from me." The civil war was thus, for a time, averted; they obeyed the word of the Lord, and returned home.

Rehoboam had learned prudence from the severity of the lesson which he had received. Although there was no amity between him and Jeroboam, yet we do not learn that he took any active measures towards regaining his kingdom. Aside from the prohibition of the prophet, there were reasons of state sufficient to keep him from such a hopeless and ruinous undertaking. After his return to Jerusalem, he devoted himself with great energy to fortifying the remnant of the kingdom which remained faithful. He had probably learned the purposes of the king of Egypt; for the towns which he built and garrisoned were chiefly situated in that part of his kingdom lying toward Egypt. Doubtless, also, Hadad the Edomite was becoming more and more formidable.

While Rehoboam was thus preparing himself against any attack from without, he was gradually gaining adherents from the best of the Israelitish kingdom. Grieved at the idolatry of Jeroboam, "the priests and the Levites that were in all Israel resorted to Judah and Jerusalem. And after them, out of all the tribes of Israel, such as set their hearts to seek the Lord God of Israel, came to Jerusalem, to sacrifice unto the Lord God of their fathers. So they strengthened the kingdom of Judah and Rehoboam, for three years they walked in the way of David and Solomon."

Even Judah, however, did not long resist the example of its kings. Solomon had worshipped the gods of his wives; and Rehoboam, probably, followed in the steps of his father, at least so far as his mother's religion was concerned, and the whole tribe almost immediately lapsed into idolatry and the most abominable sin. "And Judah did evil in the sight of the Lord, and provoked him to jealousy with their sins; for they built them high places, and images, and groves, on every high

hill and under every green tree." There were also those who practised the most shocking immoralities, for which the Canaanitish nations had been destroyed from the land. We can hardly believe that those who dwelt almost in sight of the temple, and beneath the protection of Jehovah, should sink so soon into the very lowest depths of sin. But the example of the great was fatally contagious; and there was no strength of principle in the mass of the people to resist it.

A nation so lost to all true religious principle could not expect any longer the protection of God. A rod was prepared for them, which they were soon to feel. "It came to pass, in the fifth year of Rehoboam, Shishak, king of Egypt, came up against Jerusalem, with twelve hundred chariots and sixty thousand horsemen, and people without number, and took the fenced cities of Judah." It is probable that Jeroboam persuaded Shishak to undertake this expedition, in order to cripple and embarrass his rival. As the Egyptian host drew near to Jerusalem, Shemaiah the prophet came to Rehoboam, and the princes of Judah, and said, "Thus saith Jehovah, Ye have forsaken me, and therefore have I also left you in the hand of Shishak." The message of the prophet brought the king and princes in humility before God. And when the Lord saw that they humbled themselves, he sent the prophet, saying, I will not destroy them, but will grant them some deliverance. Nevertheless they shall be the servants of Shishak; that they may know my service, and the service of the kingdoms of the countries." Accordingly the Egyptian king came to Jerusalem, took away the treasures of the temple and of the king's house, and the golden shields which Solomon had made. For some reason (most probably the submissive reception which Rehoboam had given him) Shishak retired without doing any other serious injury to the kingdom. The real cause of this inexplicable conduct, was the unconscious influence exerted by God upon the mind of the Egyptian king. The time when the kingdom of Judah should be destroyed had not yet come, and Rehoboam was left in the peaceful possession of his throne.

Like his father, Rehoboam had taken a multitude of wives. The favourite queen was Maachah, the daughter or granddaughter of Absalom. Her son Abijam, or Abijah, was made chief amongst his brethren, and educated as the heir to the throne. After the invasion of Shishak, we hear little more of this king. He replaced the golden shields with others of brass, which were carried before him when he went to and came from the temple. We know not whether the repentance and humiliation was genuine or not. In some cases it was so, for we are told "that in Judah, things went well;" but whether there was a real change in the life of the king is not certain. The last