Matthew Henry on 1 Kings 12:16-24
We have here the rending of the kingdom of the ten tribes from the house of David, to effect which,
I. The people were hold and resolute in their revolt. They highly resented the provocation that Rehoboam had given them, were incensed at his menaces, concluded that that government would in the progress of it be intolerably grievous which in the beginning of it was so very haughty, and therefore immediately came to this resolve, one and all: What portion have we in David? Kg1 12:16. They speak here very unbecomingly of David, that great benefactor of their nation, calling him the son of Jesse, no greater a man than his neighbours. How soon are good men, and their good services to the public,…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on 1 Kings 12:20
JEROBOAM MADE KING OVER THEM. (Kg1 12:20-33)
when all Israel heard that Jeroboam was come again--This verse closes the parenthetical narrative begun at Kg1 12:2, and Kg1 12:21-24 resume the history from Kg1 12:1. Rehoboam determined to assert his authority by leading a large force into the disaffected provinces. But the revolt of the ten tribes was completed when the prophet Shemaiah ordered, in the Lord's name, an abandonment of any hostile measures against the revolutionists. The army, overawed by the divine prohibition, dispersed, and the king was obliged to submit.
Adam Clarke on 1 Kings 12:20
Made him king over all Israel - What is called Israel here, was ten-twelfths of the whole nation; and had they a right to call another person to the throne? They had not, - they had neither legal nor constitutional right. Jeroboam was not of the blood royal; he had no affinity to the kingdom. Nothing could justify this act, but the just judgment of God. God thus punished a disobedient and gainsaying people; and especially Solomon's family, whose sins against the Lord were of no ordinary magnitude.
John Gill on 1 Kings 12:22
But the word of God came unto Shemaiah the man of God,.... A prophet in those days, see 2 Chronicles 12:15 and the word that came to him, as in the Targum, is called the word of prophecy:
saying; as follows.