For that was a thing God had forbidden him to do; as also to go back by the same way which he came but he said, he was to return by another way. So the king wondered at the abstinence of the man; but was himself in fear, as suspecting a change of his affairs for the worse, from what had been said to him.

CHAP. IX.

OF JADON'S RETURN TO BETHEL AT THE INSTIGATION OF A FALSE PROPHET, AND HIS AWFUL END; THE EFFECT OF THE LYING PROPH. ET'S ARGUMENTS ON THE MIND OF JEROBOAM, &c.

Now there was a certain wicked man in that city, who was a false prophet, whom Jeroboam had in great esteem: but he was deceived by him, and his flattering words. This man was then bedridden, by reason of the infirmities of old age. However he was informed by his sons concerning the prophet that was come from Jerusalem, and concerning the signs done by him; and how when Jeroboam's right hand had been enfeebled, at the prophet's prayer he had it revived again. Whereupon he was afraid that this stranger and prophet should be in better esteem with the king than himself, and obtain greater honour from him; and he gave order to his sons to saddle his ass immediately, and make all ready, that he might go out. Accordingly they made haste to do what they were commanded; and he got upon the ass, and followed after the prophet. And when he had overtaken him, as he was resting himself under a thick and shady oak, he at first saluted him, but presently he complained of him, because he had not come into his house, and partaken of his hospitality. And when the other said, that God had forbidden him to taste of any one's provision in that city, he replied, "Certainly God had not forbidden that I should set food before thee: for I am a prophet as thou art, and worship God in the same manner that thou dost : and I am now come, as sent by him, in order to bring thee into mine house, and make thee my guest." Now Jadon gave credit to this lying prophet, and returned back with him. But when they were at dinner, and were merry together, God appeared to Jadon, and said, that he should suffer punishment for transgressing his commands: and he told him

same way that he went, is not so very evident. There is a passage in Isaiah concerning Sennacherib, which helps, as some think, to elucidate this matter, where God tells him, that he would turn him back by the same way that he came, Isaiah xxxvii. 29, 34, i. e. he should return home without doing any thing. All his threats and all his great projects should have no effect against Jerusalem. And in like manner, when God commanded the prophet not to return by the same way, it was as nuch as if he had said, "See that thou be constant, and stedfast in executing the charge committed to thee; let nothing

what that punishment should be; for he said, that on his return "he should meet with a lion, by which he should be torn to pieces, and be deprived of burial in the sepulchres of his fathers." Which things came to pass, as I suppose, according to the will of God: that so Jeroboam might not give heed to the words of Jadon, as of one that had been convicted of lying. However, as Jadon was again going to Jerusalem, a lion assaulted him, and pulled him off the beast he rode on, and slew him: yet did he not at all hurt the ass: but sat by him, and kept him, as also the prophet's body. This continued till some travellers that saw it came and told it in the city to the false prophet, who sent his sons, and brought the body unto the city, and made a funeral for him, at great expenses. He also charged his sons to bury himself with him, and said, "that all which he had, foretold against that city, and the altar, and priests, and false prophets, would prove true:* and that if he were buried with him he should receive no injurious treatment after his death; the bones not being then to be distinguished asunder." But when he had performed those funeral rites to the prophet, and had given that charge to his sons, as he was a wicked and impious man, he went to Jeroboam and said to him:-"Wherefore is it now that thou art disturbed at the words of this silly fellow?" And when the king related what had happened about the altar and about his own hand; and gave him the names of a divine man, and an excellent prophet; he endeavoured, by a wicked trick, to weaken that his opinion, and by using plausible words concerning what had happened, he aimed to injure the truth that was in them. For he attempted to persuade him, that his hand was enfeebled by the labour it had undergone, in supporting the sacrifices; and that upon its resting awhile it returned to its former nature again. And that as to the altar, it was but new, and had borne an abundance of sacrifices, and those large ones too; and was accordingly broken to pieces, and fallen down, by the weight of what had been laid upon it. He also informed him of the death of him that had foretold those things, and how he perished; whence he copcluded that he had not any thing in him of a hinder or divert thee, but take abundant care that thou do thy business effectually." But this construction is a little too much strained; nor can I see, why we may not say, that God enjoined his prophet not to return by the same way, lest Jeroboam, or any other of the inhabitants of Bethel, either to satisfy their cu riosity upon an occasion so uncommon, or to do him some mischief for his severe denunciations against their altar and way of worship, might send men after him to bring him back. Calmet's and Le Clerc's Commentaries. B.

* 1 Kings xiii. 32.

prophet, nor spake any thing like one. When he had thus spoken, he persuaded the king; and entirely alienated his mind from God, and from doing works that were righteous and holy; and encouraged him to go on in his impious practices.* And accordingly he was to that degree injurious to God, and so great a transgressor; that he sought for nothing else every day but how he might be guilty of some new instances of wickedness; and such as should be more detestable than what he had been so insolent as to do before. And so much shall at present suffice to have said concerning Jeroboam.

CHAP. X.

three children; he married also another of his own kindred, who was the daughter of Absalom by Tamar, whose name was Maachah; and by her he had a son, whom he named Abijah. He had also many other children by other wives; but he loved Maachah above them all. Now he had eighteen legitimate wives, and thirty concubines;§ and he had born to him twenty-eight sons, and threescore daughters; but he appointed Abijah, whom he had by Maachah, to be his successor in the kingdom; and intrusted him with the treasures and the strongest cities.

Now I cannot but think, that the greatness of a kingdom, and its change into prosperity, often becomes the occasion of mischief and of trans

OF EGYPT.

REHOBOAM, the son of Solomon, who, as we said before, was king of the two tribes, built strong and large cities, Bethlehem, Etam, Tekoa, Bethzur, Shoco, Adullam,‡ Ipan, Maresha, Ziph, Adoraim, Lachish, Azekah, Zorah, Aijalon, and Hebron. These he built first of all in the tribe of Judah. He also built other cities in the tribe of Benjamin; and walled them about, and put garrisons in them all, and captains, and a great deal of corn, and wine, and oil; and he furnished every one of them plentifully with other provisions that were necessary for sustenance. Moreover, he put therein shields and spears, for many thousand men. The The priests also that were in all Israel, and the Levites; and if there were any of the multitude that were good and righteous men, they gathered themselves together to him; having left their own cities, that they might worship God in Jerusalem. For they were not willing to be forced to worship the heifers, which Jeroboam had made; and they augmented the kingdom of Rehoboam for three years. And after he had married a woman of his own kindred, and had by her

* How much a larger and better copy Josephus had in this remarkable history of the true prophet of Judea, and his coneern with Jeroboam, and with the false prophet of Bethel, than our other copies have, is evident at first sight. The prophet's very name Jadon, or, as the Constitutions call him, Adonias, IV. 6, is wanting in our other copies; and it is there, with no little absurdity, said, that God revealed Jadon the true prophet's death; not to himself, as here, but to the false prophet. Of which see Essay on the Old Test. page 74, 75. Whether the particular account of the arguments made use of, after all, by the false prophet against his own belief, in order to persuade Jeroboam to persevere in his idolatry and wickedness; and which it seems prevailed with him; than which more plausi ble could not be invented; was intimated in Josephus's copy, or in some other ancient book, cannot now be determined; our other copies say not one word of it. † An. 974.

§ Sixty, 2 Chron. xi. 21.

Gath, 2 Chron. xi. 8. || An. 971.

kingdom so much increased, he went out of the right way into irreligious practices, and despised the worship of God; till the people themselves imitated his wicked actions. For so it usually happens, that the manners of subjects are corrupted at the same time with those of their governors; which subjects then lay aside their own sober way of living, as a reproof of their governors' intemperate courses; and follow their wickedness, as if it were virtue. For it is not possible to show that men approve of the actions of their kings, unless they do the same actions with them. Agreeably whereto it now happened to the subjects of Rehoboam; for when he was grown impious, and a transgressor himself, they endeavoured not to offend him by resolving still to be righteous. But God rent Shishak, king of Egypt, to punish them for their unjust behaviour towards him. Concerning whom Herodotus was mistaken, and applied his actions to Sesostris. For this Shishak,** in the fifth year of the reign of Rehoboam, made an expedition into Judea with many thousand men. For he had one thousand two hundred chariots, threescore thousand horsemen, and four

¶ It may seem something strange, that Shishak, who was so nearly allied to Rehoboam, should come up against him, and take his royal city; but Rehoboam, we must remember, was not the son of Pharaoh's daughter, and therefore no relation to Shishak. But even had he been never so nearly related, as kingdoms, we know, never marry, so, it is likely that Jeroboam, who had lived long in Egypt, stirred him up to invade his rival, that thereby he might establish himself in this new kingdom: and for this reason it was, that, when the armies of Egypt had taken the fenced cities of Judah, they returned, without giving Jeroboam, or his dominions, any the least disturbance. Patrick's Commentary. B.

** That this Shishak was not the same person with the famous Sesostris, as some have very lately, in contradiction to all antiquity, supposed; and that our Josephus did not take him to be the same, as they pretend; but that Sesostris was many centu ries earlier than Shishak, see Authent. Records. Part II. page 1024, 1025, 1026, and the authors there cited.

While Rehoboam, and the multitude with him, were shut up in Jerusalem, by the army of Shishak; and when they besought God to give them victory and deliverance, they could not persuade God to espouse their cause: but Shemaiah the prophet told them, that God threatened to forsake them, as they had themselves forsaken his worship. When they heard this, they were in great consternation, and, seeing no way of deliverance, they all earnestly set themselves to confess that God might justly overlook them, since they had been guilty of impiety towards him, and had let his laws lie in confusion. So when God saw them in that disposition, and that they acknowledged their sins, he told the prophet he would not destroy them; but that he would make them servants to the Egyptians; that they might learn whether they would suffer less by serving men or God. So when Shishak had taken the city without fighting, because Rehoboam was afraid, and received him into it; he spoiled the temple, and emptied the treasures of God, and those of the king, and carried off innumerable thousands of gold and silver; and left nothing at all behind him. He also took away the bucklers of gold, and the shields, which Solomon the king had made. Nay, he did not leave the golden quivers which David had taken from the king of Zobah, and had dedicated to God. And when he had thus done, he returned to his own kingdom. Now Herodotus of Halicarnassus mentions this expedition; having only mistaken the king's name, and in saying that he made war

* 1 Kings xiv. 25.

↑ Herodotus, as here quoted by Josephus, and as this passage still stands in his present copies, Book II. chap. 104, affirms, that "the Phoenicians and Syrians in Palestine, (which last are generally supposed to denote the Jews,) owned their receiving circumcision from the Egyptians." Whereas it is abundantly evident, that the Jews received their circumcision from the patriarch Abraham, Gen. xvii. 9-14. Josh. vii. 22, 23, as I conclude the Egyptian priests themselves did. It is not there fore very unlikely that Herodotus, because the Jews had lived long in Egypt, and came out of it circumcised, did thereupon think they had learned that circumcision in Egypt, and had it not before. Manetho, the famous Egyptian chronologer and historian, who knew the history of his own country much better than Herodotus, complains frequently of his mistakes about their affairs; as does Josephus more than once in this chapter. Nor indeed does Herodotus seem at all acquainted with the affairs of the Jews. For as he never names them, so little or nothing of what he says about them, their country, or maritime cities, two of which he alone mentions, Cadytis and Jenysis, proves

of Palestine into subjection; and took the men that were therein prisoners, without fighting. Now it is manifest that he intended to declare our nation was subdued by him; for he saith, that he left behind him pillars in the land of those that delivered themselves up to him, without fighting, and engraved upon them symbols of their effeminacy. Now our king Rehoboam delivered up our city without fighting. He says withal, that "The Ethiopians learned the rite of circumcision from the Egyptians, with this addition; that the Phonicians and Syrians that live in Palestine confess that they learned it of the Egyptians." Yet is it evident that no other of the Syrians that live in Palestine besides us alone are circumcised. But as to such matters, let every one speak what is agreeable to his own opinion.

When Shishak was gone away, king Rehoboam made bucklers and shields of brass, instead of those of gold;§ and delivered the same number of them to the keepers of the king's palace. So instead of famous warlike expeditions, and that glory which results from those public actions, he reigned in great quietness, though not without fear; as being always an enemy to Jeroboam. And he died when he had lived fifty-seven years, and reigned seventeen. He was in his disposition a proud, and a foolish man; and lost part of his dominions by not hearkening to his father's friends. He was buried at Jerusalem, in the sepulchres of the kings. And his son Abijah¶ succeeded him in the kingdom; and this in the eighteenth year of Jeroboam's reign over the ten tribes. It must be now our business to relate the affairs of Jeroboam, and how he ended his life. For he ceased not, nor rested to be injurious to God; but every day raised up altars upon high mountains, and went on making priests out of the multitude.

true.

Nor indeed do there appear to have ever been any such cities on their coast. See Essay on the Old Testament, Appendix, page 180. Reland's Palestine, tom. II. lib. iii. page 668, 669, 670, and the note on XI. 2.

This shows, to what low condition the kingdom of Judah was reduced. These shields were a matter of state and grandeur; and therefore it concerned them, if they were able, to have them of the same value that they were before. And, as they were carried before the king to the house of the Lord, it seemed likewise to be a matter of religion, that their value should not be diminished. Now, in making these three hundred shields we are told, that three pounds of gold went to one shield, 1 Kings x. 17. This, at four pounds per ounce, or forty-eight pounds sterling to the pound, amounts to no more than 432,000l. and therefore it was a miserable case, that they were reduced from so much wealth to so much poverty, that neither reason of state, nor religion, could raise so small a sum on so great an occasion. Bedford's Scripture Chronology, lib. vi. c. 2. B. §1 Kings xiv. 27.

From An. 976 to 959 B. C.

¶ An. 959.