Matthew Henry on 1 Kings 12:1-15
Solomon had 1000 wives and concubines, yet we read but of one son he had to bear up his name, and he a fool. It is said (Hos 4:10), They shall commit whoredom, and shall not increase. Sin is a bad way of building up a family. Rehoboam was the son of the wisest of men, yet did not inherit his father's wisdom, and then it stood him in little stead to inherit his father's throne. Neither wisdom nor grace runs in the blood. Solomon came to the crown very young, yet he was then a wise man. Rehoboam came to the crown at forty years old, when men will be wise if ever they will, yet he was then foolish. Wisdom does not go by age, nor is it the multitude of years nor the advantage of education that r…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on 1 Kings 12:11
whips . . . scorpions--The latter [instruments], as contrasted with the former, are supposed to mean thongs thickly set with sharp iron points, used in the castigation of slaves.
Adam Clarke on 1 Kings 12:11
Chastise you with scorpions - Should you rebel, or become disaffected, my father's whip shall be a scorpion in my hand. His was chastisement, mine shall be punishment. St. Isidore, and after him Calmet and others, assert that the scorpion was a sort of severe whip, the lashes of which were armed with iron points, that sunk into and tore the flesh. We know that the scorpion was a military engine among the Romans for shooting arrows, which, being poisoned, were likened to the scorpion's sting, and the wound it inflicted.
John Gill on 1 Kings 12:13
And the king answered the people roughly,.... In a blustering manner, gave them hard words and severe menaces, being worked up to such a spirit by his young counsellors:
and forsook the old men's counsel that they gave him: to give them good words and kind promises.
Keil & Delitzsch on 1 Kings 12:1-24
