2 Chronicles11:5–12

i. The king who sat still — 11:5

Ellicott opens the section by telling us what kind of text we are reading: "This section is peculiar to the chronicler," and Cambridge says the same from the other side, "This section has no corresponding section in 1 Kin." Nothing in 11:5 to 11:12 is available anywhere else in Scripture. What the Chronicler chose to preserve, alone, is a building list.

The verse begins with two verbs. וַיֵּ֥שֶׁב (yâshab, H3427, whose root sense the lexicon gives as "properly, to sit down (specifically as judge") and וַיִּ֧בֶן (bânâh, H1129). Ellicott reads the first as a statement about the capital; Gill reads it as obedience, since Rehoboam "was forbid to act offensively, and therefore contented himself to abide in Jerusalem, and not go forth to war; yet he might lawfully put himself into a condition of defence." Benson, Poole, Cambridge and Geneva all agree that the second verb does not mean founding: Geneva's marginal note glosses it "Or, repaired them and made them strong to be more able to resist Jeroboam," and Cambridge supplies the argument, that "certainly Beth-lehem, Tekoa, and Hebron were ancient places."

Then comes the word that governs the pericope: לְמָצ֖וֹר (mâtsôwr, H4692), "something hemming in." K&D notice that it is singular where the cities are plural, and explain why: "The sing. למצור is used, because the building of cities served for the defence of the kingdom." Rehoboam is not fortifying towns. He is fortifying a remnant, and the noun he does it under is the word for a siege.

ii. Fifteen names, and the direction they face — 11:6-11:10

Five verses, fifteen names, and after the single way·yi·ḇen of 11:6 not one further verb until 11:11. The Hebrew holds the list together with וְאֶת־ repeated fourteen times, the object marker taking each city separately in hand. English commas make it a sentence; the Hebrew makes it an inventory.

The commentators agree on what the inventory means, and they arrive at it by counting. Barnes: "Rehoboam was between two dangers: on the north he might be attacked by Jeroboam, on the south by Jeroboam's ally, Egypt. From this side was the greater peril, and therefore out of the 15 cities fortified, all but three were on the southern or western frontier." Ellicott quotes Bertheau to the same effect, that Rehoboam "appears to have been more afraid of an attack from the south and west." K&D quote Bertheau's sentence too, survey the geography themselves, and add the conclusion the other two withhold: "there were none to the north to defend the kingdom against invasions from that side. ... Hence we may conclude that Rehoboam fortified these cities only after the inroad of the Egyptian king Shishak." That is a dating claim the Chronicler's own narrative order contradicts, and K&D offer it as inference; we record it as theirs.

The names themselves carry more than geography. Ellicott and K&D both halt at בֵּֽית־לֶ֛חֶם to say it is "The birthplace of David and of Christ." Barnes and Pulpit note that Adullam is David's cave. Ellicott and K&D note that Zorah is Samson's town; Pulpit and K&D that Hebron is the patriarchs' city, "now called el Khalil (The friend of God, i.e., Abraham)." And the sources will not agree on the map: Cambridge says "the position of the Soco here mentioned and Adullam is uncertain"; K&D say Adullam "has not yet been discovered" and Azekah "has not been re-discovered"; Pulpit says Gath's "Site still unknown"; Ellicott says Azekah is "Uncertain." Gill and K&D flatly contradict each other over whether the Gath of 11:8 is the Philistine city at all.

The verse closes with a phrase Ellicott calls the author's fingerprint: מְצֻרֽוֹת׃ עָרֵ֖י, "‘Arê metsûrôth ("cities of ramparts," or "strongholds"); a phrase peculiar to the chronicler." And it closes with a problem. Cambridge: "None of the fifteen cities seems to have been in Benjamin." Barnes agrees and treats "Judah and Benjamin" as political shorthand. Ellicott, JFB and K&D instead reconstruct a transfer of Zorah and Aijalon from Dan to Benjamin after the Danite migration of Judges 18, K&D marking their own version "probably." The list that looks like the most objective thing in the chapter is the part the sources can least agree on.

iii. Strong, stocked, armed, and still only two tribes — 11:11-11:12

Now the verbs return, and they are verbs of gripping. וַיְחַזֵּ֖ק and then וַֽיְחַזְּקֵ֖ם, both Piel of châzaq (H2388, "to fasten upon"), which Ellicott renders "Literally, strengthened, i.e., put them in an efficient condition for defence, by providing commandants and stores of arms and food." K&D expand the same clause: "he increased their strength by placing them in a thoroughly efficient condition to defend themselves against attacks, appointing commandants (נגידים), provisioning them, and (2 Chronicles 11:12) laying up stores of all kinds of arms."

The men he appoints are נְגִידִ֔ים (nâgîyd, H5057), which Ellicott has to gloss down: "leaders, princes (1Chronicles 9:11). Here it means commandants." And here the sources split on motive, which is the most interesting disagreement in the unit. JFB: "These fortresses Rehoboam placed under able commanders and stocked them with provisions and military stores, sufficient, if necessary, to stand a siege." Cambridge, on the same appointments: "Rehoboam's fortresses (which were scattered all over the country and were not placed on the borders only) were intended to keep Judah in subjection. His appointment of military governors ... and his dispersion of his sons among the fortresses ... were also parts of the same policy of preparedness to put down revolt." Outward defence, or internal control. The Hebrew supports either.

Then 11:12, which begins with weapons and no verb at all, צִנּ֣וֹת and וּרְמָחִ֔ים, shields and thrown lances, Ellicott connecting the shields to "The "targets" of 2Chronicles 9:15." The distributive עִ֤יר וָעִיר֙, "city and city," which Poole renders "In every several city." The chronicler-only idiom לְהַרְבֵּ֣ה מְאֹ֑ד, of which Ellicott says "A form of words only used by the chronicler." And then the last clause, which Henry's single verdict on the whole section has already anticipated: "it is in vain to contend with the purpose of God, when it is made known to us." K&D name the accounting exactly: "And there were to him Judah and Benjamin," which "corresponds to the statement, 2 Chronicles 10:19, that Israel revolted from the house of David." Fifteen fortresses, officers, granaries, oil, wine, shields, spears, and the sum at the bottom of the column is two tribes. Pulpit adds that even that is temporary, Benjamin being named "for a short while" before the kingdom is simply called Judah.