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2 Chronicles12:13–16

Rehoboam’s Reign and Death

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2 Chronicles 12:13–16 — Rehoboam’s Reign and Death. Each verse below carries the full apparatus: the Berean Standard Bible, the vocalized original (tap any word), and a parsed breakdown of every term transcribed from the interlinear. Synthesized commentary, canonical threads, and the reading of Christ gather at the end, over the whole unit.

13

Thus King Rehoboam established himself in Jerusalem and reigned. He was forty-one years old when he became king, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city the LORD had chosen from all the tribes of Israel in which to put His Name. His mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonite.

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Hebrew — tap a word ↓

ham·me·leḵ rə·ḥaḇ·‘ām way·yiṯ·ḥaz·zêq bî·rū·šā·lim way·yim·lōḵ kî rə·ḥaḇ·‘ām ’ar·bā·‘îm wə·’a·ḥaṯ ḇen- šā·nāh bə·mā·lə·ḵōw mā·laḵ ū·šă·ḇa‘ ‘eś·rêh šā·nāh bî·rū·šā·lim hā·‘îr ’ă·šer- Yah·weh bā·ḥar mik·kōl šiḇ·ṭê yiś·rā·’êl lā·śūm ’eṯ- šə·mōw šām ’im·mōw wə·šêm na·‘ă·māh hā·‘am·mō·nîṯ

Word by word32 · parsed
הַמֶּ֧לֶךְham·me·leḵThus KingH4428
√ melek — a kingArticleNounmasculine singular
רְחַבְעָ֛םrə·ḥaḇ·‘āmRehoboamH7346
√ Rᵉchabʻâm — Rechabam, an Israelite kingNounpropermasculine singular
וַיִּתְחַזֵּ֞קway·yiṯ·ḥaz·zêqestablished himselfH2388
√ châzaq — to fasten uponConjunctive wawVerbHitpaelConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular
châzaq: to fasten upon, be strong (Hitpael) The Chronicler's verb for a king consolidating after a rival or a blow: Solomon after Adonijah (2 Chronicles 1:1), Abijah after his war (2 Chronicles 13:21), Rehoboam here after Shishak. K&D reads it of a kingdom "utterly weakened and almost destroyed" that gained strength again. The grim art of the passage is that the one thing Rehoboam does strengthen is himself, while v. 14 says the one thing he never made firm was his heart.
בִּירוּשָׁלִַ֖םbî·rū·šā·limin JerusalemH3389
√ Yᵉrûwshâlaim — Jerushalaim or Jerushalem, the capital city of PalestinePreposition-bNounproperfeminine singular
Preposition b with the city name. Jerusalem is named twice in this verse and nowhere is Judah at large named; Pulpit hears in that a narrowing of the king's horizon to "the safety of Jerusalem and himself."
וַיִּמְלֹ֑ךְway·yim·lōḵand reignedH4427
√ mâlak — to reignConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular
כִּ֣יkîH3588
√ kîy — (by implication) very widely used as a relative conjunction or adverb (as below)Conjunction
רְחַבְעָ֨םrə·ḥaḇ·‘ām[He was]H7346
√ Rᵉchabʻâm — Rechabam, an Israelite kingNounpropermasculine singular
אַרְבָּעִ֣ים’ar·bā·‘îmforty-oneH705
√ ʼarbâʻîym — fortyNumbercommon plural
ʼarbâʻîym: forty Forty-one at accession is the reading of both the Hebrew and the LXX here and at 1 Kings 14:21. Cambridge records a variant in the Greek addition following 1 Kings 12:14 (sixteen years old, twelve years reigned) and dismisses it as plainly Midrashic. Pulpit holds that forty-one cannot be shown incorrect, while noting the tension with 2 Chronicles 13:7.
וְאַחַ֣תwə·’a·ḥaṯ. . .H259
√ ʼechâd — properly, united, iConjunctive wawNumberfeminine singular construct
בֶן־ḇen-years oldH1121
√ bên — a son (as a builder of the family name), in the widest sense (of literal and figurative relationship, including grandson, subject, nation, quality or condition, etcNounmasculine singular construct
שָׁנָה֩šā·nāh. . .H8141
√ shâneh — a year (as a revolution of time)Nounfeminine singular
בְּמָלְכ֜וֹbə·mā·lə·ḵōwwhen he became kingH4427
√ mâlak — to reignPreposition-bVerbQalInfinitive constructthird person masculine singular
mâlak: to reign (infinitive construct) bᵉmālᵉkô, preposition b plus infinitive construct plus suffix: "in his becoming king," a temporal frame rather than a separate event. The same root carries the finite verb twice in this verse, so reigning is stated three times over a man whose reign the next verse condemns.
מָלַ֣ךְmā·laḵand he reignedH4427
√ mâlak — to reignVerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular
וּֽשֲׁבַ֨עū·šă·ḇa‘seventeenH7651
√ shebaʻ — seven (as the sacred full one)Conjunctive wawNumberfeminine singular construct
עֶשְׂרֵ֥ה‘eś·rêh. . .H6240
√ ʻâsâr — ten (only in combination), iNumberfeminine singular
שָׁנָ֣ה׀šā·nāhyearsH8141
√ shâneh — a year (as a revolution of time)Nounfeminine singular
בִּֽירוּשָׁלִַ֗םbî·rū·šā·limin JerusalemH3389
√ Yᵉrûwshâlaim — Jerushalaim or Jerushalem, the capital city of PalestinePreposition-bNounproperfeminine singular
הָ֠עִירhā·‘îrthe cityH5892
√ ʻîyr — a city (a place guarded by waking or a watch) in the widest sense (even of a mere encampment or post)ArticleNounfeminine singular
ʻîyr: a city, a place guarded by a watch Stated in apposition to Jerusalem, and the apposition carries the theology: the middle of the verse leaves the king behind entirely and describes the city by what God did to it.
אֲשֶׁר־’ă·šer-H834
√ ʼăsher — who, which, what, thatPronounrelative
יְהוָ֜הYah·wehthe LORDH3068
√ Yᵉhôvâh — Jehovah, Jewish national name of GodNounpropermasculine singular
בָּחַ֨רbā·ḥarhad chosenH977
√ bâchar — properly, to try, iVerbQalPerfectthird person masculine singular
bâchar: to choose (Qal perfect) The Deuteronomic election formula: the place YHWH chooses out of all the tribes to set his Name there (Deuteronomy 12:5, confirmed by the Verifier as sharing bâchar H977, shêbeṭ H7626, sûwm H7760 and shêm H8034 with this verse). Cambridge draws the consequence: though the Ten Tribes were lost, the oath to David was kept by securing the one holy city to his seed. Rehoboam holds Jerusalem on an election older and larger than himself.
מִכֹּל֙mik·kōlfrom allH3605
√ kôl — properly, the wholePreposition-mNounmasculine singular construct
שִׁבְטֵ֣יšiḇ·ṭêthe tribesH7626
√ shêbeṭ — a scion, iNounmasculine plural construct
יִשְׂרָאֵ֔לyiś·rā·’êlof IsraelH3478
√ Yisrâʼêl — Jisrael, a symbolical name of JacobNounpropermasculine singular
לָשׂ֨וּםlā·śūmin which to putH7760
√ sûwm — to put (used in a great variety of applications, literal, figurative, inferentially, and elliptically)Preposition-lVerbQalInfinitive construct
sûwm: to put, set With shêm following, this is the fixed idiom for God placing his Name at the sanctuary. The infinitive states the purpose of the choosing: the city exists for the Name, not the Name for the city or the dynasty.
אֶת־’eṯ-H853
√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Direct object marker
שְׁמ֥וֹšə·mōwHis NameH8034
√ shêm — an appellation, as amark or memorial of individualityNounmasculine singular constructthird person masculine singular
shêm: an appellation, a mark or memorial of individuality The noun occurs twice in this verse and frames it: the divine Name set in the chosen city, and then the name of the king's mother. One name is elective and holy, the other foreign; the Chronicler lets them stand side by side without comment.
שָׁם֙šām. . .H8033
√ shâm — there (transferring to time) thenAdverb
אִמּ֔וֹ’im·mōwHis mother’sH517
√ ʼêm — a mother (as the bond of the family)Nounfeminine singular constructthird person masculine singular
ʼêm: a mother, the bond of the family The queen mother's name is a fixed item in the royal formula (Pulpit lists 1 Kings 15:2; 2 Chronicles 13:2; 1 Kings 22:42; 2 Chronicles 20:32), so its presence here proves no special charge against her by itself.
וְשֵׁ֣םwə·šêmnameH8034
√ shêm — an appellation, as amark or memorial of individualityConjunctive wawNounmasculine singular construct
נַעֲמָ֖הna·‘ă·māhwas NaamahH5279
√ Naʻămâh — Naamah, the name of an antediluvian woman, of an Ammonitess, and of a place in PalestineNounproperfeminine singular
הָֽעַמֹּנִֽית׃hā·‘am·mō·nîṯthe AmmoniteH5984
√ ʻAmmôwnîy — an Ammonite or (the adjective) AmmonitishArticleNounproperfeminine singular
ʻAmmôwnîy: an Ammonite, Ammonitish A rare gentilic (21 verses). JFB infers that through "the unhappy influence of his mother, a heathen foreigner," Rehoboam took an early bias toward idolatry. Pulpit reports Schulz's judgment that she seems to have given her son occasion for idolatry, and notes that Keil and Bertheau prefer to explain the mention by her political weight as queen mother, while faulting them for never showing where that weight "appears." The verse itself states only the name and the nationality; the causal reading is the commentators', not the text's.
14

And Rehoboam did evil because he did not set his heart to seek the LORD.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

way·ya·‘aś hā·rā‘ kî lō hê·ḵîn lib·bōw liḏ·rō·wōš ’eṯ- Yah·weh

Word by word9 · parsed
וַיַּ֖עַשׂway·ya·‘aśAnd Rehoboam did evilH6213
√ ʻâsâh — to do or make, in the broadest sense and widest applicationConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular
ʻâsâh: to do or make Waw consecutive, continuing the narrative of v. 13 without a break: the strengthening and the evil are one sequence, not two chapters of his life.
הָרָ֑עhā·rā‘. . .H7451
√ raʻ — bad or (as noun) evil (natural or moral)ArticleAdjectivemasculine singular
raʻ: bad, evil (natural or moral) With the article and no object clause, the phrase is the standing formula of royal verdict. Pulpit observes that these summarizing moral estimates are common to the compilers of both Chronicles and Kings, and that in Rehoboam's case Kings pins the evil on Judah (1 Kings 14:22) while Chronicles pins it on the king himself.
כִּ֣יkîbecauseH3588
√ kîy — (by implication) very widely used as a relative conjunction or adverb (as below)Conjunction
לֹ֤אlōhe did notH3808
√ lôʼ — not (the simple or absAdverbNegative particle
Negative particle. The pivot of the verse and of the reign is a not.
הֵכִין֙hê·ḵînsetH3559
√ kûwn — properly, to be erect (iVerbHifilPerfectthird person masculine singular
kûwn: to be erect, to establish (Hiphil) The causative of standing firm: to fix, prepare, make something hold its position. Ellicott and K&D both list the same recurrences of the phrase at 2 Chronicles 19:3, 2 Chronicles 30:19 and Ezra 7:10, so this is Chronicles' formal test of a man: is his heart fixed toward God or merely occasionally turned. Applied to Rehoboam the Hiphil is denied, which leaves his heart the one unbuilt structure in a reign full of fortifications.
לִבּ֔וֹlib·bōwhis heartH3820
√ lêb — the heartNounmasculine singular constructthird person masculine singular
lêb: the heart Not the emotions but the seat of resolve, thought and intention, the organ that can be either fixed or loose. Henry's reading follows the grammar closely: he never quite cast off God, yet he never came up to a steady resolution either.
לִדְר֖וֹשׁliḏ·rō·wōšto seekH1875
√ dârash — properly, to tread or frequentPreposition-lVerbQalInfinitive construct
dârash: to tread or frequent, hence to seek, inquire The decisive Chronicler verb: to seek YHWH is to keep going to him, and a king is judged by whether he wore that path. K&D notes the same construction of the phrase at 2 Chronicles 19:3, 30:19 and Ezra 7:10; the Verifier confirms dârash H1875 and kûwn H3559 shared with all three. The verdict is not that Rehoboam sought and failed but that he never set out.
אֶת־’eṯ-H853
√ ʼêth — properly, self (but generally used to point out more definitely the object of a verb or preposition, even or namely)Direct object marker
יְהוָֽה׃סYah·wehthe LORDH3068
√ Yᵉhôvâh — Jehovah, Jewish national name of GodNounpropermasculine singular
Yᵉhôvâh: Jehovah, the national name of God The divine name stands last, as the object of the infinitive: the goal the verse says was never approached. The interlinear surface here carries the verse divider followed by a samekh (יְהוָֽה׃ס), the scribal mark of a closed paragraph, so the Hebrew text itself ends a section on this single negative verdict before the citation formula begins.
15

Now the acts of Rehoboam, from first to last, are they not written in the records of Shemaiah the Prophet and of Iddo the Seer concerning the genealogies? There was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam throughout their days.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

wə·ḏiḇ·rê rə·ḥaḇ·‘ām hā·ri·šō·nîm wə·hā·’ă·ḥa·rō·w·nîm hă·lō- hêm kə·ṯū·ḇîm bə·ḏiḇ·rê šə·ma‘·yāh han·nā·ḇî wə·‘id·dōw ha·ḥō·zeh lə·hiṯ·ya·ḥêś ū·mil·ḥă·mō·wṯ rə·ḥaḇ·‘ām wə·yā·rā·ḇə·‘ām kāl- hay·yā·mîm

Word by word18 · parsed
וְדִבְרֵ֣יwə·ḏiḇ·rêNow the actsH1697
√ dâbâr — a wordConjunctive wawNounmasculine plural construct
dâbâr: a word Construct plural, "the words of Rehoboam": Hebrew names a life's record by what can be said of it, so deeds and speech share one noun. The same construct returns seven words later for the prophetic book (bᵉḏiḇrê Shemaiah), which means the king's acts and the prophet's writing are called the same thing. ⚙ That is the Chronicler's quiet claim about history: a reign is finally a word, and the word that survives it is the one a prophet wrote down.
רְחַבְעָ֗םrə·ḥaḇ·‘āmof RehoboamH7346
√ Rᵉchabʻâm — Rechabam, an Israelite kingNounpropermasculine singular
הָרִאשֹׁנִים֙hā·ri·šō·nîmfrom firstH7223
√ riʼshôwn — first, in place, time or rank (as adjective or noun)ArticleAdjectivemasculine plural
riʼshôwn: first in place, time or rank Paired with ʼachărôwn (H314, hinder, latter) as a merism for the whole: earlier and later, therefore everything. Ellicott renders the pair "the former and the latter."
וְהָאֲ֣חַרוֹנִ֔יםwə·hā·’ă·ḥa·rō·w·nîmto lastH314
√ ʼachărôwn — hinderConjunctive waw, ArticleAdjectivemasculine plural
הֲלֹא־hă·lō-[are] theyH3808
√ lôʼ — not (the simple or absAdverbNegative particle
הֵ֨םhêmnotH1992
√ hêm — they (only used when emphatic)Pronounthird person masculine plural
כְּתוּבִ֜יםkə·ṯū·ḇîmwrittenH3789
√ kâthab — to grave, by implication, to write (describe, inscribe, prescribe, subscribe)VerbQalQalPassParticiplemasculine plural
kâthab: to grave, to write, inscribe Qal passive participle: the acts stand written. The rhetorical question assumes a reader who can go and check, which is the Chronicler's regular gesture toward sources outside his own book.
בְּדִבְרֵ֨יbə·ḏiḇ·rêin the recordsH1697
√ dâbâr — a wordPreposition-bNounmasculine plural construct
שְׁמַֽעְיָ֧הšə·ma‘·yāhof ShemaiahH8098
√ Shᵉmaʻyâh — Shemajah, the name of twenty-five IsraelitesNounpropermasculine singular
הַנָּבִ֛יאhan·nā·ḇîthe ProphetH5030
√ nâbîyʼ — a prophet or (generally) inspired manArticleNounmasculine singular
nâbîyʼ: a prophet or inspired man Shemaiah is the prophet who earlier stopped Rehoboam's war against Israel and who interpreted Shishak's invasion (2 Chronicles 12:5); the man who spoke the word to the king also keeps the record of him.
וְעִדּ֥וֹwə·‘id·dōwand of IddoH5714
√ ʻIddôw — Iddo (or Iddi), the name of five IsraelitesConjunctive wawNounpropermasculine singular
הַחֹזֶ֖הha·ḥō·zehthe SeerH2374
√ chôzeh — a beholder in visionArticleNounmasculine singular
chôzeh: a beholder in vision A rare title (17 verses), used of Iddo here and at 2 Chronicles 9:29, where Iddo's other work is called visions. In Chronicles the archive of the kings is held by seers and prophets, so the history is preserved as prophecy rather than as chancery record.
לְהִתְיַחֵ֑שׂlə·hiṯ·ya·ḥêśconcerning the genealogiesH3187
√ yâchas — to enroll by pedigreePreposition-lVerbHitpaelInfinitive construct
yâchas: to enroll by pedigree (Hitpael) The Hitpael of registering oneself in a genealogy, the same interest that fills 1 Chronicles 1 to 9. Cambridge notes that a book could be titled from a striking word in it (as the Hebrew name of Numbers is Bᵉmidbar) and takes this infinitive as such a title; Pulpit reads it as keeping a continued register of David's line. Either way the note attaches the fall of a faithless king to the preservation of the genealogy that mattered.
וּמִלְחֲמ֧וֹתū·mil·ḥă·mō·wṯThere was warH4421
√ milchâmâh — a battle (iConjunctive wawNounfeminine plural construct
milchâmâh: a battle, war Plural and verbless. Ellicott defends the clause against Reuss's charge of contradiction with 2 Chronicles 11:4: what Shemaiah forbade was one particular campaign, not a permanent peace, and Ellicott adds that Jeroboam appears to have instigated the Egyptian invasion.
רְחַבְעָ֛םrə·ḥaḇ·‘āmbetween RehoboamH7346
√ Rᵉchabʻâm — Rechabam, an Israelite kingNounpropermasculine singular
וְיָרָבְעָ֖םwə·yā·rā·ḇə·‘āmand JeroboamH3379
√ Yârobʻâm — Jarobam, the name of two Israelite kingsConjunctive wawNounpropermasculine singular
כָּל־kāl-throughoutH3605
√ kôl — properly, the wholeNounmasculine singular construct
הַיָּמִֽים׃hay·yā·mîmtheir daysH3117
√ yôwm — a day (as the warm hours), whether literal (from sunrise to sunset, or from one sunset to the next), or figurative (a space of time defined by an associated term), (often used adverb)ArticleNounmasculine plural
yôwm: a day "All the days," the same phrase used at 1 Kings 14:30: the hostility is coextensive with the reign. Division, once made, does not heal within the lifetime of either king.
16

And Rehoboam rested with his fathers and was buried in the City of David. And his son Abijah reigned in his place.

Berean Standard Bible · CC0

Hebrew — tap a word ↓

rə·ḥaḇ·‘ām way·yiš·kaḇ ‘im- ’ă·ḇō·ṯāw way·yiq·qā·ḇêr bə·‘îr dā·wîḏ ḇə·nōw ’ă·ḇî·yāh way·yim·lōḵ taḥ·tāw

Word by word11 · parsed
רְחַבְעָם֙rə·ḥaḇ·‘āmAnd RehoboamH7346
√ Rᵉchabʻâm — Rechabam, an Israelite kingNounpropermasculine singular
וַיִּשְׁכַּ֤בway·yiš·kaḇrestedH7901
√ shâkab — to lie down (for rest, sexual connection, decease or any other purpose)Conjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular
shâkab: to lie down, for rest or decease The Chronicler uses the full formula (lay down with his fathers, was buried, his son reigned in his place) for a king he has just condemned: the verdict of v. 14 does not cancel the burial honours of the house of David. Pulpit counts eleven of Judah's twenty two kings buried in the royal sepulchres, and observes that some later kings were refused that ground.
עִם־‘im-withH5973
√ ʻim — adverb or preposition, with (iPreposition
אֲבֹתָ֔יו’ă·ḇō·ṯāwhis fathersH1
√ ʼâb — father, in a literal and immediate, or figurative and remote applicationNounmasculine plural constructthird person masculine singular
ʼâb: father, literal or remote Construct plural with suffix. "His fathers" reaches past Solomon to David, which is precisely the continuity the chapter has been testing: the man failed, the line held.
וַיִּקָּבֵ֖רway·yiq·qā·ḇêrand was buriedH6912
√ qâbar — to interConjunctive wawVerbNifalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular
qâbar: to inter (Niphal) Passive and agentless, the one thing every king in this book finally has done to him. The place, not the act, is what the Chronicler specifies.
בְּעִ֣ירbə·‘îrin the CityH5892
√ ʻîyr — a city (a place guarded by waking or a watch) in the widest sense (even of a mere encampment or post)Preposition-bNounfeminine singular construct
דָּוִ֑ידdā·wîḏof DavidH1732
√ Dâvid — David, the youngest son of JesseNounpropermasculine singular
Dâvid: David, the youngest son of Jesse The City of David, Mount Zion, is named as the burial ground; Pulpit places it on an eminence at the northern part of Moriah. The verse thus closes the reign inside the only two Davidic realities Rehoboam did not lose: the chosen city of v. 13 and the tomb of his father.
בְנ֖וֹḇə·nōwAnd his sonH1121
√ bên — a son (as a builder of the family name), in the widest sense (of literal and figurative relationship, including grandson, subject, nation, quality or condition, etcNounmasculine singular constructthird person masculine singular
אֲבִיָּ֥ה’ă·ḇî·yāhAbijahH29
√ ʼĂbîyâh — Abijah, the name of several Israelite men and two IsraelitessesNounpropermasculine singular
ʼĂbîyâh: Abijah Named already at 2 Chronicles 11:22, where Rehoboam set him as chief among his brothers, which Ellicott cross references here. The succession is orderly; whether the heart is fixed is a question the next chapter must ask again.
וַיִּמְלֹ֛ךְway·yim·lōḵreignedH4427
√ mâlak — to reignConjunctive wawVerbQalConsecutive imperfectthird person masculine singular
תַּחְתָּֽיו׃פtaḥ·tāwin his placeH8478
√ tachath — the bottom (as depressed)Prepositionthird person masculine singular
tachath: the bottom, hence underneath, in place of "In his place": the throne is a position that outlasts its occupant, and the preposition with suffix is the last word of the reign. Pulpit adds the chronology that Jeroboam still had four years to run, so the rival outlived the Davidic king. The interlinear surface closes with the verse divider and a pe (תַּחְתָּֽיו׃פ), the scribal mark of an open paragraph: the Hebrew text opens a new section on the son, which is where 2 Chronicles 13 takes up Abijah.

The verse-by-verse work is done. What follows gathers the whole unit. All three layers below are machine-generated (⚙). Weigh them; they have no authority.

⚙

Grand Commentary — the unit, read whole

synthesis · verify

AI synthesis — woven from the public-domain voices above and the original text; generated and fallible.

i. The king who strengthened himself — 12:13

⚙ The obituary opens with a verb of recovery. וַיִּתְחַזֵּק (châzaq, H2388) is Hitpael, reflexive: Rehoboam laid hold of strength for himself. K&D insists the connection with what precedes allows only one sense, that after the humiliation by Shishak, which left the kingdom almost destroyed, he gained strength and power again; Cambridge dates the recovery to the departure of Shishak and Benson adds the concrete guess that, his fortified cities of Judah having failed him, he turned to making Jerusalem impregnable. Gill and the Geneva gloss both do the arithmetic: the blow fell in his fifth year, so twelve years of reign remained out of seventeen. JFB alone presses further, calling Shishak's campaign a mere predatory expedition probably repelled before long and crediting Rehoboam's revived government to a general revival of true religion; the text says nothing of either, and we mark that as JFB's reconstruction.

⚙ Then the sentence leaves the king entirely. The relative clause fronts the divine name before its verb, אֲשֶׁר־יְהוָה בָּחַר, and what follows is the Deuteronomic election formula: the city chosen out of all the tribes of Israel to set his Name there (the Verifier confirms bâchar H977, shêbeṭ H7626, sûwm H7760 and shêm H8034 shared with Deuteronomy 12:5). Cambridge draws the conclusion the Chronicler leaves implicit: though the Ten Tribes were lost to the house of David, the Lord kept his oath to David by securing to his seed the one holy city. Rehoboam's tenure of Jerusalem is not his achievement but the residue of a promise. Pulpit, reading the double mention of Jerusalem against 2 Chronicles 11, suspects the king had shrunk to thinking more of his own safety and the city's than of the kingdom in its length and breadth.

ii. The heart that was never made to stand — 12:14

⚙ Nine words carry the verdict, and its weight falls on a negated Hiphil. הֵכִין (kûwn, H3559) is the causative of standing erect, the verb used of establishing thrones and kingdoms; Cambridge prefers the R.V. "he set not his heart" and says the phrase implies steady purpose. Ellicott and K&D both point to the same three recurrences of the formula at 2 Chronicles 19:3, 2 Chronicles 30:19 and Ezra 7:10, so this is Chronicles' standing test of a man rather than an ad hoc complaint. The second verb is dârash (H1875), whose root sense is to tread or frequent: seeking YHWH is a path worn by repetition. Gill unpacks the treading as prayer, supplication and attendance on the worship of God, done in his case outwardly but not heartily.

⚙ Note what is not charged. Kings says Judah did evil and then lists acts of apostasy; Chronicles says the king did the evil, with the article, and gives one ground only, an omission. Barnes reduces the whole to want of earnestness and consistency; Poole and Benson, in nearly identical words, say he humbled himself and seemed penitent for a season and then relapsed because his heart was not right with God; Henry, in his block note on the chapter, says he made nothing of his religion because he never came up to a steady resolution in it, and did evil because he was never determined for good. Ellicott thinks the estimate looks back over the early years that ended in Shishak's invasion. JFB reaches instead for the Ammonitess of v. 13 and a youthful bias toward idolatry, which is inference, not statement. ⚙ The structural irony is the Chronicler's own and needs no supplement: the man who strengthened himself (châzaq) never made his heart firm (kûwn). Every fortification in his reign went up except the one that decides a life.

iii. The record, the endless war, the grave — 12:15 to 12:16

⚙ The closing formula does three things. It names its sources: the words of Rehoboam are written in the words of Shemaiah the prophet and Iddo the seer, one noun (dâbâr, H1697) covering both the deeds and the book, and Cambridge judges that probably one work is meant, begun by Shemaiah and continued by Iddo. The odd tail לְהִתְיַחֵשׂ (yâchas, H3187, Hitpael) is a verb of enrolling by pedigree: Cambridge takes it as the book's title, Pulpit argues for "to make a register," that is, to preserve a continued register of David's genealogy, and rejects both the Authorized Version and Gesenius. Then it names the permanent hostility: a verbless plural, wars of Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days. K&D reads the plural as a state of hostility rather than campaigns, since no battle is narrated after Shemaiah halted the first, and Ellicott defends the clause against Reuss's charge that it contradicts 2 Chronicles 11:4, adding that Jeroboam appears to have instigated the Egyptian invasion.

⚙ Finally it buries him with full honours. He lay down with his fathers and was buried (Niphal, agentless) in the City of David; Abijah his son reigned in his place. Pulpit counts eleven of Judah's twenty two kings laid in those sepulchres, notes that later kings could be refused the ground, and ends with the detail that Jeroboam still had four years to reign. ⚙ So the man condemned for an unfixed heart receives every dynastic honour the formula can give, and the heir is named with Yah in his name. The book is not rewarding him. It is showing that the line is carried by the promise to David and by the election of the city, not by the quality of the kings in it.

Read under Sola Scriptura — this tool’s own fallible reading (⚙)

⚙ Our own fallible reading, offered to be tested: this obituary is the Bible's most sober account of a religious life that never became a settled purpose. Rehoboam is not an apostate on the scale of Ahab. He humbled himself when Shemaiah spoke, he kept the temple city, he rebuilt strength after Shishak, he died in David's tomb and handed the crown to a son whose name confesses YHWH. And the verdict is: he did the evil, because he did not make his heart stand firm to seek the LORD. The two verbs of the unit judge each other. Châzaq, to make oneself strong, he did; kûwn, to make firm, he never did, and the object he left unbuilt was his own heart. Chronicles is not asking whether a man had religious moments under pressure; both Poole and Benson saw that he had them and that they passed. It is asking whether he wore a path (dârash) to God. ⚙ We take the placing of the Name in the chosen city (v. 13) as the answer to the gap this leaves: the covenant does not stand on the king's fixed heart, or the line would have ended here. It stands on an election older than the king, which is why a man who failed the test is still buried in the City of David with his son reigning after him. That is mercy in the architecture of the sentence, not in its verdict. The warning and the hope are both real, and neither cancels the other.

Not a verse but our own reading: he made himself strong and left his heart unbuilt.

⚙

Canonical Threads — out to the whole of Scripture

cross-refs · verify

AI-generated connections. Each carries a verification badge with a recorded basis; contested links are flagged.

The obituary copied over from Kings verbal / quotation: confirmed

⚙ This whole unit is the Chronicler's version of the summary at 1 Kings 14:21 and 14:29 to 31. Ellicott states flatly that from "Rehoboam was one and forty" to "Naamah an Ammonitess" the text runs word for word with 1 Kings 14:21, and Cambridge heads vv. 13 to 16 as the summary of the reign with the same parallels. The differences are as telling as the identity: Kings says Judah did evil, Chronicles says the king did the evil; Kings cites the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah, Chronicles cites Shemaiah and Iddo instead; Pulpit notes that the moral estimate of v. 14 is absent from the parallel altogether.

1 Kings 14:21 · 1 Kings 14:31

basis: Verifier: shared Hebrew lexemes with 1 Kings 14:21 are H5984 ʻAmmôwnîy (in 21 vv), H705 ʼarbâʻîym (in 123 vv), H7651 shebaʻ (in 343 vv), and with 1 Kings 14:31 H5984 ʻAmmôwnîy (in 21 vv), H7346 Rᵉchabʻâm (in 41 vv), H517 ʼêm (in 202 vv). The verbal tier rests not on rarity alone but on Ellicott's explicit statement that the clause is word for word with 1 Kings 14:21 and Cambridge's identification of the same parallel.

Prophets and seers as the royal archive structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ Chronicles repeatedly sources a reign to prophetic writings rather than court annals: Solomon to Nathan, Ahijah and Iddo the seer (2 Chronicles 9:29), Rehoboam to Shemaiah and Iddo here, Abijah to the commentary of Iddo the prophet (2 Chronicles 13:22). Cambridge connects this Iddo with the one at 2 Chronicles 9:29 and notes his other book, the Visions of Iddo, and judges that Shemaiah's and Iddo's work is probably one book with two hands. ⚙ The effect is that Judah's history reaches the reader already interpreted: the men who saw are the men who wrote. Zechariah 1:1 and 1:7 name a different Iddo, grandfather of the prophet, and Ezra 5:1 the same family line; those verses share the name and nothing else.

2 Chronicles 9:29 · 2 Chronicles 13:22 · Zechariah 1:1

basis: Verifier: shared H5714 ʻIddôw (in 9 vv) with 2 Chronicles 13:22, Zechariah 1:1 and 1:7, Ezra 5:1 and Nehemiah 12:4, plus H5030 nâbîyʼ (in 288 vv), H2374 chôzeh (in 17 vv) and H314 ʼachărôwn (in 48 vv) with 2 Chronicles 9:29. Deliberately not tiered verbal: the rare lexeme is a personal name borne by at least two different men, so its rarity proves no literary allusion. The confirmed link is the recurring source formula, which Cambridge documents.

The chosen place where the Name is set structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ The relative clause of v. 13 is not decoration; it is the Deuteronomic sanctuary formula, the place the LORD chooses out of all the tribes to put his Name there (Deuteronomy 12:5), which Solomon's prayer applies to Jerusalem and to David's house together (1 Kings 8:16). The Verifier confirms the shared vocabulary. ⚙ Read in that light the verse says that a king who would not seek God nevertheless reigned seventeen years in the one city God had chosen, and Cambridge names the reason: the oath to David was kept by securing the holy city to his seed even after the Ten Tribes were lost.

Deuteronomy 12:5 · 1 Kings 8:16

basis: Verifier pair check on 2 Chronicles 12:13 with Deuteronomy 12:5 returns shared H977 bâchar (in 164 vv), H7626 shêbeṭ (in 178 vv), H7760 sûwm (in 549 vv), H8033 shâm (in 732 vv), H8034 shêm (in 771 vv), and tiers it structural / thematic. The lexemes are common individually; what is shared is the whole formula, so we claim pattern and not quotation. 1 Kings 8:16 is added on the same formula and was not machine checked.

Setting the heart to seek the LORD: Chronicles' standing test structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ The indictment of v. 14 uses a formula the book applies elsewhere as praise or as measured mercy: Jehoshaphat hears the same words as praise from Jehu the seer (2 Chronicles 19:3), Hezekiah prays for worshippers who set their heart to seek God though not ritually clean (2 Chronicles 30:19), and Ezra sets his heart to seek the law of the LORD (Ezra 7:10). Ellicott and K&D each list exactly these three places, independently, as the recurrences of the phrase. ⚙ So Rehoboam is not being measured against an ideal invented for him; he fails the one test by which this book weighs everyone, including the scribe who may have compiled it.

2 Chronicles 19:3 · 2 Chronicles 30:19 · Ezra 7:10

basis: Verifier pair checks on 2 Chronicles 12:14 with all three refs return shared H1875 dârash (in 152 vv) and H3559 kûwn (in 211 vv), and the machine tiers each pair structural / thematic. Ellicott and K&D both treat it as a recurring fixed phrase, which would argue for a verbal tier, but the shared lexemes are only moderately rare and the Verifier does not report shared H3820 lêb, so we under-claim and keep it structural.

Naamah: a rare name that is not an allusion flagged: verify source

⚙ The Verifier's rare-lexeme search pairs this unit with Genesis 4:22, where Naamah is the sister of Tubal-cain in the line of Cain, and Joshua 15:41, a town of that name in the Shephelah. ⚙ We record the link only to refuse it: the name occurs in five verses of the Hebrew Bible and the referents are unrelated, an antediluvian woman, a village and an Ammonite queen mother. Pulpit does build something on Rehoboam's mother, saying it is like the Bible to give the mother's name and that Solomon and Naamah were in a special sense for Judah a repetition of Adam and Eve, but that figure is his own and the text supplies nothing for it. Pulpit himself reports that Keil and Bertheau, who prefer to explain her mention by her influence as queen mother, never show where that influence appears.

Genesis 4:22 · Joshua 15:41

basis: Verifier: shared H5279 Naʻămâh (in 5 vv), a genuinely rare lexeme, which is exactly why it needs flagging: rarity here is onomastic coincidence between unrelated referents. No commentator in this brief connects the verses, and Pulpit's Adam and Eve figure is his own conjecture, not a recorded link. Flagged so no reader mistakes the shared Strong's number for an allusion.

None who seeks: the Chronicler's verb and the apostolic indictment structural / thematic: confirmed

⚙ The whole verdict on Rehoboam turns on dârash (H1875), to tread a path to God. Paul's indictment of humanity reaches for the same measure, that there is none who seeks after God, and Hebrews states the positive side, that God rewards those who seek him. ⚙ This is our own structural reading, not a claim of citation: a Greek text cannot share a Hebrew lexeme, and no commentator in this brief makes the connection. What the pattern shows is that Chronicles' test of a king is the same test Scripture later applies to everyone, which is also why Rehoboam's failure reads less like a curiosity of the tenth century and more like a diagnosis.

Romans 3:11 · Hebrews 11:6

basis: Cross-Testament, so no shared Strong's number is possible and no verbal tier may be claimed. The basis is the shared pattern of seeking God as the criterion of a life: Hebrew dârash H1875 with kûwn H3559 here, the corresponding Greek verbs there. Confirmed as a motif, asserted by us (⚙) and by no commentator in this brief.

⚙Christ in the Unittypology · verify

AI-generated reading; weigh it against the text.

A faithless king inside the genealogy of the Messiah ancient/widely-held

⚙ The two facts this unit insists on are that Rehoboam did not seek the LORD and that he was buried in the City of David with his son reigning in his place. Both matter for the promise of 2 Samuel 7:12 to 16, where the throne is secured to David's seed with chastening for sin but no withdrawal of steadfast love. Cambridge says it plainly at v. 13: though the Ten Tribes were lost to the house of David, the Lord kept his oath to David by securing to his seed the one holy city of Israel. Matthew's genealogy then carries Rehoboam by name into the line that ends in Christ. ⚙ The apostolic reading of the Davidic promise is ancient and widely held; what we add is only the observation that this obituary is one of the places where the promise visibly outlives the merit of the man carrying it.

2 Samuel 7:12-16 · Matthew 1:7 · Luke 1:32

He slept with his fathers, and one Son did not ancient/widely-held

⚙ The formula of v. 16 is the standard end of every Davidic king: he lay down (shâkab, H7901) with his fathers, he was buried (Niphal of qâbar, H6912, no agent named), another reigned in his place. Pulpit lists the eleven kings of Judah laid in those sepulchres, Rehoboam among them. Peter at Pentecost argues from exactly this pattern: David died and was buried and his tomb is still here, therefore the promise of an undecaying holy one is not about David but about his risen seed. ⚙ Read backwards from Acts 2, the repeated burial notices of Chronicles are a standing argument that the promise has not yet landed. Each grave says "in his place" instead of "forever." The reading is Peter's, not ours.

Acts 2:29-31 · Psalm 16:10

The heart made firm to seek: the antitype of Rehoboam's omission novel

⚙ Rehoboam's condemnation is a negated Hiphil of kûwn (H3559): he did not make his heart stand firm to seek God. The Gospels present the Son in precisely the opposite posture, seeking not his own will but the will of him who sent him, and Luke describes him setting his face toward Jerusalem, the very city named in v. 13 as the place God chose for his Name. ⚙ We offer this as a reading rather than a received exposition: no commentator in this brief draws the contrast, and the vocabulary link cannot be verbal across the Testaments. What the contrast does is locate the deficiency exactly. The house of David needed not a stronger king but a king with a fixed heart, and Chronicles closes reign after reign without one.

John 5:30 · Luke 9:51

Apparatus & Provenance

The biblical text is the Berean Standard Bible (BSB), public domain (CC0). Hebrew/Greek text, transliteration, morphology and Strong’s are transcribed from the Berean interlinear (CC0) + Strong’s lexicons (PD); the literal renderings, divergence notes, word notes and all synthesis are this tool’s own work (⚙) — fallible; verify them.

Named voices, quoted verbatim from public-domain works:

  • Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible (1834)
  • Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges, — (1880s)
  • Charles Ellicott, Commentary for English Readers (1878)
  • Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory (1871)
  • John Gill, Exposition of the Entire Bible (1746–63)
  • Joseph Benson, Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1810s)
  • Keil & Delitzsch, Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1860s)
  • Matthew Henry, Concise Commentary on the Whole Bible (1706)
  • Matthew Poole, Annotations upon the Holy Bible (1685)
  • The Pulpit Commentary, Spence & Exell, eds. (1880s)

⚙ Text and sources. Scripture is BSB (CC0); the interlinear, Strong's numbers, parses and lexicon glosses come from the Berean interlinear as supplied in the brief; the thread bases are Verifier output, with three pair checks run by us and named in the badges. All commentary is public domain and quoted verbatim by anchor, never retyped.

⚙ This unit's commentary is thinner than the author list suggests, and the reader should know it. Henry's entry is one block note on 2 Chronicles 12:1 to 16 repeated identically at each of the four verses. Barnes' note (a single sentence on v. 14) and JFB's note (on vv. 13 and 14) are likewise repeated under vv. 15 and 16, where they do not belong; we have quoted each only at the verse it actually treats. Gill's entries at vv. 15 and 16 are cross reference stubs pointing to 1 Kings 14:29 to 31. Geneva supplies only the verse text plus a bracketed chronological gloss, so it is cited in the commentary rather than quoted as a voice. Poole has no entry at vv. 13 or 16, and Benson's note at v. 15 reproduces Poole's sentence almost word for word, as the brief shows; we credit Poole.

⚙ What is uncertain. (1) The age at accession: forty-one is the reading of the Hebrew and the LXX here and at 1 Kings 14:21, but Cambridge records a Greek variant (sixteen years old, twelve years reigned) in the addition following 1 Kings 12:14 and rejects the passage containing it as Midrashic; Pulpit holds forty-one cannot be shown incorrect while pointing to the tension with 2 Chronicles 13:7. We do not resolve it. (2) Whether Shemaiah and Iddo wrote one book or two: Cambridge says probably one, and the syntax of the Hitpael infinitive is disputed (title of the book per Cambridge, "to make a register" per Pulpit, a genealogical manner per Gesenius as Pulpit reports). (3) Whether the closing clause about the wars belongs to the citation formula or stands on its own: Pulpit raises both options, K&D and Ellicott read it as a statement of standing hostility. (4) Naamah's influence on Rehoboam's idolatry is inference. JFB asserts it, Pulpit reports Schulz's version of it and Keil and Bertheau's alternative, and Pulpit notes that the latter is unsupported. The Hebrew states her name and her nationality only. (5) JFB's general revival of true religion under Rehoboam and his repulse of Shishak are historical reconstruction with no textual warrant in this unit.

⚙ Everything marked with the gear is machine synthesis: fallible, offered to be tested, and never to be mistaken for the Word of God or for the named commentators.

✦ = human, public-domain source, quoted and named. ⚙ = machine synthesis, to be verified. Flagged cross-references are left visible on purpose — the verifier working in the open. “Search the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.” (Acts 17:11)