Matthew Henry on 2 Chronicles 11:1-12
How the ten tribes deserted the house of David we read in the foregoing chapter. They had formerly sat loose to that family (Sa2 20:1, Sa2 20:2), and now they quite threw it off, not considering how much it would weaken the common interest and take Israel down from that pitch of glory at which it had arrived in the last reign. But thus the kingdom must be corrected as well as the house of David. 1. Rehoboam at length, like a bold man, raises an army, with a design to reduce the revolters, Ch2 11:1. Judah and Benjamin were not only resolved to continue their allegiance to him, but ready to give him the best assistance they could for the recovery of his right. Judah was his own tribe, that own…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on 2 Chronicles 11:5
built cities for defence in Judah--This is evidently used as the name of the southern kingdom. Rehoboam, having now a bitter enemy in Israel, deemed it prudent to lose no time in fortifying several cities that lay along the frontier of his kingdom. Jeroboam, on his side, took a similar precaution (Kg1 12:25). Of the fifteen cities named, Aijalon, now Yalo, and Zorah, now Surah, between Jerusalem and Jabneh [ROBINSON], lay within the province of Benjamin. Gath, though a Philistine city, had been subject to Solomon. And Etham, which was on the border of Simeon, now incorporated with the kingdom of Israel, was fortified to repel danger from that quarter. These fortresses Rehoboam placed under a…
Read the whole note in the consoleAdam Clarke on 2 Chronicles 11:11
Store of victual - In these places he laid up stores of provisions, not only to enable them to endure a siege; but also that they might be able, from their situation, to supply desolate places.
John Gill on 2 Chronicles 11:12
And in every several city he put shields and spears,.... Furnished them with these and perhaps other pieces of armour, these being put for all, to defend themselves with against an enemy, and to annoy them:
and made them exceeding strong; so that they could not be easily taken:
having Judah and Benjamin on his side: which tribes cleaved to one another, and to Rehoboam, and to the kings of the house of David, in later times, as well as to the true religion.
