Rehoboam
    he enlarges the people, the successor of Solomon on the throne,
    and apparently his only son. He was the son of Naamah "the
    Ammonitess," some well-known Ammonitish princess (1 Kings 14:21;
    2 Chr. 12:13). He was forty-one years old when he ascended the
    throne, and he reigned seventeen years (B.C. 975-958). Although
    he was acknowledged at once as the rightful heir to the throne,
    yet there was a strongly-felt desire to modify the character of
    the government. The burden of taxation to which they had been
    subjected during Solomon's reign was very oppressive, and
    therefore the people assembled at Shechem and demanded from the
    king an alleviation of their burdens. He went to meet them at
    Shechem, and heard their demands for relief (1 Kings 12:4).
    After three days, having consulted with a younger generation of
    courtiers that had grown up around him, instead of following the
    advice of elders, he answered the people haughtily (6-15). "The
    king hearkened not unto the people; for the cause was from the
    Lord" (comp. 11:31). This brought matters speedily to a crisis.
    The terrible cry was heard (comp. 2 Sam. 20:1):

      "What portion have we in David?

      Neither have we inheritance in the son of Jesse:

      To your tents, O Israel:

      Now see to thine own house, David" (1 Kings 12:16).
    And now at once the kingdom was rent in twain. Rehoboam was
    appalled, and tried concessions, but it was too late (18). The
    tribe of Judah, Rehoboam's own tribe, alone remained faithful to
    him. Benjamin was reckoned along with Judah, and these two
    tribes formed the southern kingdom, with Jerusalem as its
    capital; while the northern ten tribes formed themselves into a
    separate kingdom, choosing Jeroboam as their king. Rehoboam
    tried to win back the revolted ten tribes by making war against
    them, but he was prevented by the prophet Shemaiah (21-24; 2
    Chr. 11:1-4) from fulfilling his purpose. (See JEROBOAM.)

      In the fifth year of Rehoboam's reign, Shishak (q.v.), one of
    the kings of Egypt of the Assyrian dynasty, stirred up, no
    doubt, by Jeroboam his son-in-law, made war against him.
    Jerusalem submitted to the invader, who plundered the temple and
    virtually reduced the kingdom to the position of a vassal of
    Egypt (1 Kings 14:25, 26; 2 Chr. 12:5-9). A remarkable memorial
    of this invasion has been discovered at Karnac, in Upper Egypt,
    in certain sculptures on the walls of a small temple there.
    These sculptures represent the king, Shishak, holding in his
    hand a train of prisoners and other figures, with the names of
    the captured towns of Judah, the towns which Rehoboam had
    fortified (2 Chr. 11:5-12).

      The kingdom of Judah, under Rehoboam, sank more and more in
    moral and spiritual decay. "There was war between Rehoboam and
    Jeroboam all their days." At length, in the fifty-eighth year of
    his age, Rehoboam "slept with his fathers, and was buried with
    his fathers in the city of David" (1 Kings 14:31). He was
    succeeded by his son Abijah. (See EGYPT.)



 Rehoboam, who sets the people at liberty