PARTICULAES CONCERNING REHOBOAM'S FAMILY

(2Chronicles 11:18-23).

This record also is wanting in the Book of Kings. It appears to have been derived from the sources designated in 2Chronicles 12:15.

(18) The daughter.--So rightly, LXX., Vulg., and many Hebrew MSS. for the ordinary reading son.

Of Jerimoth the son of David--Jerimoth does not occur in the list of David's sons (1Chronicles 3:1-8), unless we suppose the name to be a corruption of "Ithream." Probably he was one of "the sons of the concubines" (1Chronicles 3:9).

And Abihail.--The and is not in the present Hebrew text, but is supplied by the LXX. "And of Abihail" is probably the meaning, so that both of Mahalath's parents are named. The LXX. and Vulg. make Abihail a second wife of Rehoboam; but 2Chronicles 11:19-20, as well as the construction of the sentence, make it evident that only one wife is mentioned here. A daughter of David's eldest brother could hardly become the wife of David's grandson.

Eliab the son of Jesse.--1Samuel 17:13; 1Chronicles 2:13.

Verse 18. - The 'Speaker's Commentary' opportunely suggests the probability that we may be indebted here to Iddo's "genealogies" (2 Chronicles 12:15). The word daughter here is a correction of the Keri, the Chethiv having been "son," This Jerimoth is the seventh out of a list of eight men of the same name mentioned in the two books of Chronicles. He is not given as one of the children of David's proper wives in either 1 Chronicles 3:1-8 or 1 Chronicles 14:4-7; Jerome says it was the Jewish tradition that he was the son of a concubine of David. It is just possible that Jerimoth and Ithream were two names of the same person. Abihail was second cousin of Mahalath. It is not quite clear whether Abihail were wife of Jerimoth and mother of Mahalath, or a second wife now mentioned of Rehoboam. The contents of the next verse not differencing the children there mentioned, and assigning her own to each wife of Rehoboam, if these were two wives of his, favours the former supposition (our Hebrew text being "and she bare," not "which bare"). When it is said that Abthail was the daughter of Eliab, the meaning probably is, as again in ver. 20, granddaughter. (For Eliab, see 1 Samuel 16:6; 1 Samuel 17:13; 1 Chronicles 2:13.)

11:13-23 When the priests and Levites came to Jerusalem, the devout, pious Israelites followed them. Such as set their hearts to seek the Lord God of Israel, left the inheritance of their fathers, and went to Jerusalem, that they might have free access to the altar of God, and be out of the temptation to worship the calves. That is best for us, which is best for our souls; in all our choices, religious advantages must be sought before all outward conveniences. Where God's faithful priests are, his faithful people should be. And when it has been proved that we are willing to renounce our worldly interests, so far as we are called to do so for the sake of Christ and his gospel, we have good evidence that we are truly his disciples. And it is the interest of a nation to protect religion and religious people.And Rehoboam took him Mahalath, the daughter of Jerimoth, the son of David, to wife,.... Of which son of David we nowhere else read; perhaps he might be the son of one of his concubines, or he might have two names:

and Abihail the daughter of Eliab the son of Jesse; who was David's eldest brother. 1 Samuel 17:13. She must be a granddaughter or great-granddaughter of his.