1. for all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king. Shechem was a frequent assembly point in the tribal period. One might have expected, however, that the coronation would take place in Jerusalem. In this national meeting at Shechem there appears to be an intimation that Rehoboam’s succession to the throne was not an automatic matter, or, to put this differently, that the Davidic rule over what had been, barely half a century earlier, a federation of tribes was not entirely assured. Thus Rehoboam comes out from Jerusalem to an assembly that he hopes will acclaim or ratify his succession. His knowledge of Jeroboam’s ambitions for the throne may be a motivator.

4. made our yoke heavy. The literal sense of the Hebrew verb is “made hard,” but in all the subsequent occurrences of “yoke” in this story, the more expected “heavy” is used.

now lighten the hard labor. The people refer, of course, to the punishing taxation through forced labor necessitated by Solomon’s vast building projects. Requests for remission of taxes and obligations to the crown when a new king assumed the throne were common in the ancient Near East.

6. the elders. These would be a group of state councillors, experienced men who are not necessarily aged but knowledgeable.

7. this people. They are referred to by all parties in this story with the demonstrative pronoun, distancing them and indicating them as a refractory group with which one must know how to deal properly.

8. the young men with whom he had grown up. The word for “young men,” yeladim, usually means “child” or even “infant.” Since we later learn that Rehoboam was forty when he became king, these are actually middle-aged men. The term may have been chosen to underscore their puerile behavior. In any case, the episode surely reflects the ancient predisposition to seek wisdom from elders, as Job’s three friends repeatedly stress.

10. My little finger is thicker than my father’s loins. This extravagant metaphor is the advice of arrogance. In the event, Rehoboam deletes these words in his response to the people. A few interpreters have seen a sexual allusion here, perhaps because of the proximity to loins, with “little finger” a euphemism for the male member (in rabbinic Hebrew, “little member” means “penis”). That would be in keeping with the macho brashness of these words.

11. I will scourge you with scorpions. These would be either actual scorpions, perhaps poisonous, or an iron implement with a ragged head, perhaps one carved to resemble a scorpion.

15. for it was brought about by the LORD. Rehoboam’s alienating the people has been reported in realistic—possibly historical—terms as a very unwise policy decision. Now, however, it is given a theological explanation: this is the means through which God causes Ahijah’s prophecy to be fulfilled.

16. See to your house, O David! The people’s response, in two lines of poetry, vividly expresses the distance they now feel from the Davidic monarchy: Rehoboam’s brutal language makes them realize that this recently founded dynasty has been a bad idea, and that they owe no fealty to it.

18. Adoram. Earlier, his name was given a longer form, Adoniram.

who was over the forced labor. It is precisely the forced labor that had been the people’s chief complaint. Rehoboam, not yet realizing that his writ no longer extends over the whole people, sends out the chief overseer over the forced labor, unwittingly consigning him to his death.

Then King Rehoboam hastened to mount a chariot. Adoram’s murder by the mob makes Rehoboam realize that his own life is in danger.

21. the tribe of Benjamin. Part of Benjamin remained loyal to the house of David.

the house of Israel. Henceforth, this phrase will refer to the northern tribes, in contradistinction to Judah.

22. Shemaiah man of God. He is clearly a prophet, precisely like Ahijah, but here an alternate designation is used.

24. And they heeded the LORD’s word. It is not clear that they would automatically concede the divine authority of words pronounced by a particular prophet or man of God. In this instance, however, the prospect of a bloody civil war and of a military confrontation between two tribes and ten may have disposed them to accept the prophecy. It is noteworthy that “they”—the people—heed the prophecy, while no explicit mention is made of the king. It may be that the force of the prophetic injunction swayed the people, leaving Rehoboam no choice but to acquiesce.

25. rebuilt Shechem . . . rebuilt Penuel. Penuel was destroyed by Gideon to revenge the failure of its elders to give provisions to his troops (see Judges 8). In the case of Shechem, fortification may be what is indicated.

26. Now the kingdom will turn back to the house of David. Jeroboam clearly understands what Josiah in the seventh century B.C.E. will understand, that possession of a cultic center is also a claim to centralized political authority. Thus he takes steps to create cultic places in the north.

28. two golden calves . . . “Here are your gods, Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.” The representation of Jeroboam’s act as idolatrous—underscored by the use of “gods” in the plural—is tendentious. Calves or bulls were often conceived as a mount or a throne of God, precisely like those winged leonine figures, the cherubim. In all historical likelihood, Jeroboam’s intention was not to displace the worship of YHWH but merely to create alternate cultic centers to Jerusalem with an alternate temple iconography. But the narrator pointedly represents all this in precisely the terms, with an explicit quotation, of Aaron’s golden calf (Exodus 32).

29. one in Bethel and the other . . . in Dan. Bethel was a well-known cultic site, and archaeologists have uncovered the remnants of a substantial cultic site at Dan in the far north. Jeroboam’s decision to create two cultic centers may be a concession on his part to the loose and disparate nature of the constellation of tribes that constituted his new kingdom.

30. And this thing became an offense. It is important for the Deuteronomistic writer to establish that the first king of Israel, despite the admonition of Ahijah, initiated idolatry in his realm, thus setting the stage for the eventual destruction of the northern kingdom.

and the people marched before the one in Bethel and the other in Dan. The Masoretic Text lacks “the one in Bethel,” surely an inadvertent omission. One might have expected the phrase “to go after,” the preposition used for idolatry in 11:2 and 4. Here “to go” is rendered as “to march,” presupposing that the reference is to a procession before the cultic calves.

31. he made buildings for the high places. The literal sense of the Hebrew is “he made a house of high places.” The reference may be to the erection of sanctuaries around the hilltop altars.

the pick of the people. This is what this Hebrew phrase indicates elsewhere, though others understand it in an opposite sense, “the common people.” Jeroboam, however, would have had no motivation to enlist priests from the peasantry. His waywardness is rather reflected in bypassing the priestly caste. See Genesis 47:2, where this same expression appears to mean “the pick” or “the best.”

32. a festival in the eighth month. Calendric differences have often been the lever of sectarian or political divisions among Jews. The festival referred to is Succoth, the most densely attended of the three pilgrim festivals. Its designated date is on the fifteenth of the seventh month, so Jeroboam, by pushing it a month later, is marking a pointed difference between his realm and the southern kingdom.

to sacrifice to the calves that he had made. The wording again represents the cult Jeroboam had set up as sheer idolatry.