2 Chronicleschapter 10
19 verses · Ezra, by tradition · 450 to 400 BC · History
So the king did not listen to the people, and indeed this turn of events was from God, in order that the LORD might fulfill the word that He had spoken through Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam son of Nebat.
Introduction
Ezra, by tradition, History, 2 Chronicles Overview.
This chapter was written for the surviving remnant of Judah, and it tells them how the family of Israel broke in two. Tradition gives the book to Ezra. The writer has followed Solomon's glory for nine chapters, and now his son must travel north to be accepted as king. Listen for the grievance the tribes bring and for the two sets of counsellors. Weigh each answer against what it would cost. The writer tells the story from Judah's side and still gives its own king no excuse.
Context
- Who
- The surviving southern remnant, hearing how the family broke apart
- What
- The assembly at Shechem where Rehoboam refuses to lighten Solomon's yoke and the northern tribes break away under Jeroboam.
- Where
- Shechem, in the hill country of Ephraim, where the northern tribes assembled.
- When
- About 931 BC, at the death of Solomon.
- Why
- To explain honestly why only Judah and Benjamin remained to the house of David, and to set the division under both God's word and the king's folly.
Historical context
Rehoboam has to travel north to Shechem to be made king, and the travelling itself tells you where the balance of power lay. Shechem was the north's ancient assembly place, the ground where Joshua had gathered Israel to renew the covenant. Going there meant negotiating on their terms.
Show the rest of the historical context, 4 more paragraphs
The grievance is specific and economic. The heavy yoke is the forced labour levy and the district taxation that funded the building programme. Solomon's projects were paid for by conscripted work gangs and by taxes gathered in districts, and the north carried much of the weight while Jerusalem got the buildings.
Jeroboam had fled to Egypt after an earlier revolt and returns for this assembly. He arrives as an exile with a following, at the moment of a weak succession.
The advisers split by generation. The elders who had stood before Solomon counsel a soft answer that would buy lifelong loyalty. The young men who grew up with Rehoboam counsel escalation, and the king takes their answer as his own.
Then Rehoboam sends Hadoram, the officer in charge of the forced labour, to face the crowd. That was the most hated office in the kingdom, sent to negotiate with the people who hated it. They stoned him to death, and the king fled to his chariot.
Significance
The writer tells the story from Judah's side and still declines to make Rehoboam a victim. The demand was reasonable, the elders' advice was sound, and the king chose the answer that felt strong.
Show the rest of the significance, 1 more paragraph
The province the first hearers lived in was the last remnant of the half that stayed. This chapter explained, without excuses, why there was only half a family left to come home.
This chapter in Jewish lifeWhat this chapter is in Jewish life and reading.
What is done
2 Chronicles is not read in the synagogue. Chronicles stands among the Writings in the Hebrew canon rather than among the Prophets the Haftarah is drawn from. The division into two books came in through the Greek. The book therefore carries neither a weekly Torah portion nor a Haftarah, and this site's own reading table records the same for all thirty-six chapters. The breaking of the kingdom at Shechem is met in the commentary and the midrash instead, and the rest of this card is drawn from them.
How it is read
Rashi reads the whole chapter as a thing already decided. Shechem was Jeroboam's place, in the territory of Ephraim, and Jeroboam was an Ephrathite. The assembly was brought there by God to fulfil the word spoken to Solomon about tearing the kingdom away (Rashi on II Chronicles 10:1:1, the Judaica Press Tanach with Rashi, CC-BY). Jeroboam's recall from Egypt he places before the crowning rather than after it (Rashi on II Chronicles 10:2:1). The point of the summons is the irony inside it. Jeroboam himself came to make Rehoboam king, and God reversed his intention until Jeroboam reigned (Rashi on II Chronicles 10:3:1).
The grievance he takes as a matter of tax rather than of temper. Solomon was a man who toiled at work, and the people were made to sustain his labourers with the levy (Rashi on II Chronicles 10:4:1). The young men's answer he glosses plainly. The little finger thicker than the father's loins means "I am stronger than he" (Rashi on II Chronicles 10:10:1). The scorpions he explains as a German word for a sting (Rashi on II Chronicles 10:11:2). The verb for burdening he takes from the loading of a donkey in Genesis (Rashi on II Chronicles 10:11:1). The word for taking counsel he reads as a passive form, counsel already given rather than counsel to come (Rashi on II Chronicles 10:6:1).
The longest note in the chapter sets the division against a verse a Christian reader arrives already holding. Rashi reads the words of Jacob about the scepter and Judah as fulfilled at this assembly. Judah is not banished from his kingdom until he comes to Shiloh, and Rashi takes that as Judah coming to Shiloh to crown Rehoboam. Shechem is a small city next to Shiloh, which he proves from the end of Judges and from Jeremiah, and the people gathered there in honour of the Tabernacle of Shiloh. "And when they would assemble in Shechem, the scepter would depart from Judah, for there the kingdom was divided" (Rashi on II Chronicles 10:15:1). The verse read in Christian teaching as a promise reaching forward to the Messiah is read here as the hour the united kingdom ended. A reader should hold the two readings apart and let each stand in its own terms.
Three short notes close the chapter. The cry to go home he reads back to the question about a share in David, as an answer to it (Rashi on II Chronicles 10:16:1). Hadoram he identifies with Adoniram of Solomon's court, saying the name changed because his greatness was humbled under Rehoboam (Rashi on II Chronicles 10:18:1). The verb for the rebellion he sets beside its other uses in Kings and Proverbs and later in this book (Rashi on II Chronicles 10:19:1).
Radak and Metzudat David comment across this chapter as well. The corpus carries their refs with the reason that Sefaria holds no English version of them, so they stand here cited and unquoted. Metzudat David on II Chronicles 10:1:1, 10:2:1, 10:3:1, 10:4:1, 10:5:1, 10:7:1, 10:8:1, 10:10:1 and 10:14:1. Radak on II Chronicles 10:6:1, 10:7:1 and 10:14:1.
What the rabbis say
The corpus carries four rabbinic locators for this chapter and the text of none. Each is cited and linked here rather than quoted. Both places where they fall are at the end, where the division becomes violent.
The eighteenth verse, where the man sent to the people is stoned to death, carries three. They are Bamidbar Rabbah 23:13, Midrash Tanchuma, Masei 12:1 and Midrash Tanchuma Buber, Masei 9:1. The nineteenth, the rebellion of Israel against the house of David, carries one, Otzar Midrashim, Midrashim of Rabbi Shimon bar Yochai, Prayer of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochai 7. What each of them teaches is a saying of the rabbis, and is reported as theirs wherever this site quotes one. The quotations wait on a fetch that carries the text.
Sources: Rashi, Rashi on II Chronicles 10:1:1 to 10:19:1, twelve kept notes, The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg, CC-BY; Radak, Radak on II Chronicles 10:6:1, 10:7:1 and 10:14:1, cited by ref because the corpus carries no English text; Metzudat David, Metzudat David on II Chronicles 10:1:1 to 10:14:1, nine refs cited because the corpus carries no English text; The Sefaria corpus, scripts/data/sources/sefaria/2-chronicles/10.json, the 4 Talmud and Midrash locators of this chapter; This site's reading table, src/lib/hebraic/readings.ts, probed in this lane: 2-chronicles parashot total 0, haftarah uses total 0, hasSynagogueReading true for 0 of 36 chapters, festivalReadingForBook null.
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
Old men counsel kindness, young men counsel scorpions
2 Chronicles 10:1-2
all Israel had gone there to make him king: Shechem carries its own history: Joshua renewed the covenant there in Joshua 24, and Abimelech was made king there in Judges 9. Jeroboam returns from Egypt, “where he had fled from King Solomon,” so Ahijah's chosen man is on the ground before the assembly meets.
2 Chronicles 10:1
“Rehoboam went to Shechem - This chapter is almost word for word the same as 1 Kings 12:1-19, to the notes on which the reader is referred.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
2 Chronicles 10:1
“The narrative of Kings (marginal reference) is repeated with only slight verbal differences.”
he returned from Egypt: Jeroboam comes back from his refuge in Egypt. Verse 15 ties the whole scene to the word the LORD spoke through Ahijah the Shilonite. Henry says God is doing his own work through all the devices of men, and that the cause of the king's obstinacy was of God.
2 Chronicles 10:3-5
So they sent for Jeroboam: The tribes state their grievance, “Your father put a heavy yoke on us,” naming forced labor and taxation that built the temple and the court. They offer service in return, “we will serve you”. Rehoboam asks for three days, and he spends them changing counselors.
a heavy yoke on us: The heavy yoke was the tribute and service Solomon laid on the tribes. The tribes asked for relief and offered service in return. Clarke names the grievance as oppressive taxes, and he stresses that the people asked for the removal of only a part of them.
Three days gave Rehoboam time for counsel. He spent them hearing two councils, the elders of verse 6 and the young men of verse 8. Clarke finds the chapter almost word for word the same as 1 Kings 12:1-19, and Barnes sees only slight verbal differences.
2 Chronicles 10:6-9
King Rehoboam consulted with the elders: Rehoboam consults two councils in turn, the elders “who had served his father Solomon” and “the young men who had grown up with him”. The text marks the shift as a choice: he “rejected the advice of the elders” before he asked the young men.
be kind to these people: The elders had stood before Solomon through his reign. Their counsel asked for kindness in word, and it promised lasting loyalty in return. Wesley comments on their advice that moderate counsels are generally best.
the young men who had grown up: The young men had grown up with Rehoboam and now served him, while the elders had served his father. Rehoboam set the elders aside first. Jamieson, Fausset and Brown hold that in following evil counsel Rehoboam acted as a free agent, obeying his own will and passions.
With the elders Rehoboam asked how he himself should answer. With the young men he asks what answer the group should send, counting himself among them. Wesley thinks it probable that God, once Solomon had declined from Him, left Solomon to himself to lay so grievous a yoke.
2 Chronicles 10:10-11
The young men who had grown up with him replied: The young men turn the petition into open threat, “My little finger is thicker than my father’s waist”. Where Solomon scourged with whips, Rehoboam will scourge “with scorpions”. The speakers are the men “who had grown up with him,” and the next verses show Rehoboam taking their words.
2 Chronicles 10:10
“My little finger shall be thicker - “My weakness shall be stronger than the might of my father.” - Targum.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Each clause of the threat turns a word of the petition back heavier. Whips give way to scorpions, a harsher scourge. Clarke gives the Targum's reading of the boast in verse 10, that the weakness of Rehoboam would be stronger than the might of his father.
To your tents, O Israel: the kingdom torn in two
2 Chronicles 10:12-14
After three days, Jeroboam and all the people returned: On the third day Jeroboam and the people return as arranged. The king answers them “harshly,” repeating the young men's threat almost word for word as his own. Verse 13 names the choice a second time, “King Rehoboam rejected the advice of the elders,” so the narrative brackets the scene.
answered them harshly: Rehoboam rejected the advice of the elders a second time here, as he had at verse 8. Clarke calls Rehoboam a fool who lost his kingdom through folly. The people asked him to lighten the heavy yoke, and the king answered them harshly.
as the young men had advised: Rehoboam repeats the counsel of verse 11 almost word for word, and it becomes royal policy. The elders had promised servants forever. Henry says the son lost ten tribes for the sin of Solomon and kept two for the sake of David's piety and the promise.
this turn of events was from God: The verse gives the cause, the prophecy of 1 Kings 11:29-39, the torn garment and the ten pieces, spoken before Rehoboam faced the assembly. The king's refusal and God's purpose stand side by side in the one verse.
2 Chronicles 10:15
“His counsel was thereby fulfilled. With him are strength and wisdom; both the deceived and the deceiver (the fool and the knave) are his ( Job xii. 16 ), that is, are made use of by him to suit his purposes.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Israel's cry asks what portion it has “in David” and what inheritance “in the son of Jesse”. It borrows the words Sheba son of Bichri raised against David at 2 Samuel 20:1, a revolt the kingdom survived once. This time the tribes go home for good.
2 Chronicles 10:16
“To your tents, O Israel - “To your cities, O Israel.” - Targum. Now, David, see to thine own house - “Now, David, rule over the men of thy own house.” - Targum.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 Chronicles 10:17-19
Rehoboam still reigned over the Israelites: Chronicles keeps the rebellion of the tribes, the stoning of Hadoram, “who was in charge of the forced labor,” and the king's flight to Jerusalem. The closing line, “to this day Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David,” marks the rupture as still open.
Rehoboam sent out Hadoram: Clarke, following Jarchi, says Hadoram was stoned while trying to collect the tribute Solomon had imposed. Sending the officer of the forced labor to the angry tribes answered the petition of verse 4 with the thing they had complained of. The king fled in his chariot.
2 Chronicles 10:18
“Stoned him - When he endeavored to collect the tribute which Solomon had imposed on them. - Jarchi.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
in rebellion against the house of David: Clarke traces a sea of blood, shed between the two kingdoms in the years that followed, to this separation. All Israel went home, and Israel stayed in rebellion against the house of David to this day. Rehoboam still reigned over the Israelites in the cities of Judah.
2 Chronicles 10:19
“Israel rebelled - A few soft words, and the removal of a part of the oppressive taxes, (for they said, Ease thou Somewhat the grievous servitude), would have secured this people to the state, and prevented the shedding of a sea of human blood, which was the consequence of the separation of this kingdom. Rehoboam was a fool; and through his folly he lost his kingdom.”
Adam Clarke · Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
How this psalm is built
The form: Narrative of a failed royal negotiation, closing the united kingdom and opening the ledger of Judah alone, as book classes it.
The patterns in this chapter
| Device | What it does | Where to see it |
|---|---|---|
| The yoke passed from mouth to mouth | One word carries the whole negotiation. The tribes name the yoke at verse 4 and Rehoboam repeats it to both councils at verse 9. The young men build their answer on it at verse 10, and the king makes it his own at verse 14. Matthew Henry reads the request itself as one a wise king could have granted without losing anything.Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on 2 Chronicles 10:3 to 5. | 2 Chronicles 10:4, 2 Chronicles 10:9, 2 Chronicles 10:10, 2 Chronicles 10:11, 2 Chronicles 10:14 |
| Two councils set against each other | The chapter gives the elders their answer at verse 7 and the young men theirs at verses 10 and 11, in the same form and at the same length. The reader weighs them side by side before the king does. Albert Barnes and Adam Clarke both read the younger answer as court flattery from men who had carried no burden themselves.Albert Barnes, Notes on the Old Testament, 1832 to 1869, on 2 Chronicles 10:10. | 2 Chronicles 10:6, 2 Chronicles 10:7, 2 Chronicles 10:8, 2 Chronicles 10:10, 2 Chronicles 10:11 |
| The verdict stated twice around the scene | Verse 8 says Rehoboam rejected the advice of the elders, and verse 13 says it again as he opens his mouth to answer. The narrative brackets the three days with the same judgment at each end and adds no comment of its own. The moral is left standing in the repetition.Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, 1710, on 2 Chronicles 10:12 to 14. | 2 Chronicles 10:8, 2 Chronicles 10:13 |
| Sheba's old slogan taken up again | The cry at verse 16 asks what portion the tribes have in David and what inheritance in the son of Jesse. Sheba son of Bichri raised the same words against David himself at 2 Samuel 20:1, and the united kingdom survived them once. Adam Clarke marks the bitterness of the closing line, spoken over Solomon's son as though David still sat in Jerusalem to be dismissed.Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible, 1832, on 2 Chronicles 10:16. | 2 Chronicles 10:16 |
The historical value
11 more paragraphs on the patterns
The division is the fixed point every later date in this book hangs from. Edwin R. Thiele's reconstruction of the divided-kingdom regnal years places it about 931 BC, and the same reconstruction is what makes the synchronisms between Kings and Chronicles line up with the Assyrian records.
The grievance the tribes bring is an administrative one and it can be named. The heavy yoke is the forced labour levy and the district taxation that paid for the building programme of Solomon's reign. The officer Rehoboam sends in verse 18 holds that levy as his office, which is why the crowd kills him rather than sending him back.
Shechem carries its own record. The site sits in the pass between Ebal and Gerizim in the hill country of Ephraim, and it was the north's assembly ground long before this day.
The debated concept
Verse 15 states that the king's refusal was from God, and the chapter gives no further explanation. Two readings of that clause stand in the commentators, and both are held by men who accept the verse as written.
Matthew Henry holds that the human causes and the divine purpose are both real and neither dissolves the other. Rehoboam's folly and the young men's flattery are genuine causes at their own level, and with God are strength and wisdom, the deceived and the deceiver alike made to serve His purposes. On this reading the verse adds a second account of the same event rather than replacing the first.
Keil reads the clause as the narrator's pointer to the prophecy of 1 Kings 11:29 to 39, the torn garment and the ten pieces, spoken to Jeroboam years before the assembly met. On this reading the verse is chiefly about the word being kept, and the question of the king's freedom is left where the text leaves it.
The positions stand together here without a verdict, which is how the chapter itself leaves them.
The divine connection
The prophecy this chapter fulfils was spoken in the previous book of the canon and is named here by the prophet's own name. Ahijah the Shilonite met Jeroboam on the road, tore a new garment into twelve pieces and gave him ten. The narrator's single interruption at verse 15 does nothing except tie the day at Shechem to that meeting.
The claim is stated at the level the text states it. The word was spoken, the word was kept, and the men who kept it were acting on their own counsel at every step.
Keep studying
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The form and classifications
the compiler of Chronicles, read against the compiler of Kings, 2 Chronicles 10:1 to 19, read with 1 Kings 12:1 to 19 and the site's own guide to this book.
The exposition
Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes; Jamieson Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament; Keil, The Books of the Chronicles; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible and W. H. Bennett, The Books of Chronicles (Expositor's Bible).