(16) And Rehoboam slept with his fathers.--Abridged from 1Kings 14:31, which see.

Abijah.--2Chronicles 11:22. Abijam, the spelling of Kings, is probably due to an accident of transcription.

Verse 16. - In the city of David; i.e on Mount Zion, an eminence on the northern part of Mount Moriah. Here was the bury-lug-place of the kings, chambers with recesses for the successive kings. To this place of royal sepulture some of the kings were not permitted to be brought (2 Chronicles 21:20; 2 Chronicles 24:25; 2 Chronicles 28:27; 2 Kings 15:7). The chief cemetery of the city was on the slopes of the valley of the Kidron (1 Kings 15:13; 2 Kings 23:6; 2 Chronicles 29:5, 16); another, probably, was south of the city on the sides of the ravine of Hinnom (Jeremiah 7:32). In the king's sepulchres eleven out of Judah's twenty-two kings were laid - David, Solomon, Rehoboam, Abijah, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Ahaziah, Amaziah, Jotham, Hezekiah, Josiah. For Asa (2 Chronicles 16:14) and Hezekiah (2 Chronicles 32:33) places of special honour were found. The good priest Jehoiada also had burial in the king's burial-place (2 Chronicles 24:16). Kings Jehoram (2 Chronicles 21:20) and Joash (2 Chronicles 24:25) were buried in the "city of David," but not in the above sepulchres Uzziah, because a leper, was buried in the "field of the burial of the kings" (2 Chronicles 26:23). It is all but certain that these royal sepulchres were in the enclosure now called the "Haram area." (For other interesting and important references, see Nehemiah 3:16; Ezekiel 43:7, 9; 2 Kings 21:18, 26; 2 Chronicles 33:20; 2 Chronicles 28:27.) While Rehoboam was laid thus to sleep with his fathers, Jeroboam's reign had yet four years to run.

12:1-16 Rehoboam, forsaking the Lord, is punished. - When Rehoboam was so strong that he supposed he had nothing to fear from Jeroboam, he cast off his outward profession of godliness. It is very common, but very lamentable, that men, who in distress or danger, or near death, seem much engaged in seeking and serving God, throw aside all their religion when they have received a merciful deliverance. God quickly brought troubles upon Judah, to awaken the people to repentance, before their hearts were hardened. Thus it becomes us, when we are under the rebukes of Providence, to justify God, and to judge ourselves. If we have humbled hearts under humbling providences, the affliction has done its work; it shall be removed, or the property of it be altered. The more God's service is compared with other services, the more reasonable and easy it will appear. Are the laws of temperance thought hard? The effects of intemperance will be found much harder. The service of God is perfect liberty; the service of our lusts is complete slavery. Rehoboam was never rightly fixed in his religion. He never quite cast off God; yet he engaged not his heart to seek the Lord. See what his fault was; he did not serve the Lord, because he did not seek the Lord. He did not pray, as Solomon, for wisdom and grace; he did not consult the word of God, did not seek to that as his oracle, nor follow its directions. He made nothing of his religion, because he did not set his heart to it, nor ever came up to a steady resolution in it. He did evil, because he never was determined for good.Now the acts of Rehoboam,.... Of these two verses; see Gill on 1 Kings 14:29. 1 Kings 14:30. 1 Kings 14:31.