1 Kings 14:10

Therefore, behold, I will bring evil upon the house [The punishment fell on the house ( 1 Kings 15:29 ), not, however, to the exclusion of the prime offender ( 2 Chronicles 13:20 ; cf. 1 Kings 21:29 ). The reader will observe that the judgments denounced against Jeroboam's sin, like all those of the Old Testament, are temporal. The recompense to come is completely ignored. These severe retributions are calculated and proportioned precisely as if there were no hereafter] of Jeroboam, and win cut off from Jeroboam him that pisseth against the wall [This phrase, which Rawlinson observes is confined to the period from David to Jehu, is by him, and generally, understood to mean "every male." (It is found in 1 Samuel 25:22 ; 1 Kings 16:11 ; 1 Kings 21:21 ; and 2 Kings 9:8 .) But it is noteworthy, as Gesenius has remarked, that this is not a habit of Eastern men. Every traveller in Egypt will confirm the remark of Herodotus ( 1 Kings 2:35 ) on this subject, and the same applies to Palestine; i.e; the men sit down for this purpose, covered with their garments ( 3:24 ; 1 Samuel 24:3 ). Some, consequently, have been led to suppose that the reference is to the dog, but animals would hardly share in the destruction of the royal house. Gesenius is probably right when he interprets it of boys . Thus understood, it lends additional meaning to the passages where it occurs. It expresses extermination, root and branch, man and boy], and him that is shut up and left in Israel [A proverbial expression ( Deuteronomy 32:36 ; 1 Kings 21:21 ; 2 Kings 9:8 ), and involving some play upon words. It evidently means "men of all kinds," but as to the precise signification of the terms "shut up" and "left," there has been much difference of opinion, some