1 Kings 15:2

Three years [The Alex. LXX . says δεκὰεξ , sixteen . The" three years" are not to be interpreted strictly. As he ascended the throne in the eighteenth and died in the twentieth year of Jeroboam's reign, he cannot have completed three years. But it does not follow that "he cannot have reigned much more than two years" (Rawlinson, and similarly Keil). He may have reigned all but three] reigned he in Jerusalem. And his mother's name was Maachah [in 2 Chronicles 13:2 called Michaiah , Heb. Michajahu . That the same person is meant is proved as well by the context as by 2 Chronicles 11:21 , where the name is given as here. Keil (cf. Dict. Bib . 2:162) ascribes the discrepancy to an error of the copyist; but the names are so unlike in the original as to discountenance this assumption. I venture to suggest that Michajahu was the significant form—the word means "Who is like Jehovah?"—which the name Maachah, "oppression," borne by the Geshurite princess who married David ( 2 Samuel 3:3 ) assumed when she joined the Lord's people , and embraced, as no doubt she would do, the religion of Jehovah. Such a change would be quite in accordance with the genius and traditions of the Semitic races ( Genesis 17:5 , Genesis 17:15 ; Genesis 30:1-43 . passim ; Genesis 32:28 ; Genesis 41:45 ; Exodus 6:3 , etc. Cf. 2 Kings 23:34 ; 2 Kings 24:17 ; Hosea 1:4 , Hosea 1:6 ), and there may well have been special reasons in this case, apart from the piety of David, why it should be made. For the name Maachah appears to have been taken Iron the town and district of that name near Geshur—a part of Syria was called Syria Maachah ( 1 Chronicles 19:6 ; cf. 2 Samuel 10:6-8 ). In 2 Samuel 20:14 , 2 Samuel 20:15 we read of a district of Beth Maachah— and it not improbably witnessed to unhappy memories. How natural it would be that David's bride should take a name of better omen and of a religious import, and how natural that the grand-daughter who bore her name should be called by that name in both its forms. Since writing the above, I find that a somewhat similar idea has occurred long since to others. Both Kimchi and Jarchi hold that she had two names. It is supposed by some that she assumed the name Michaiah , as more dignified, on becoming queen. Wordsworth thinks that Michaiah was her real name, and that it was degraded into Maachah when she was deposed for idolatry. This latter view dovetails with the one suggested above. It would be quite in accordance with Jewish usages and habits of thought that the name which had been changed into Michaiah when the grandmother became a proselyte, should be changed back into Maachah when this princess apostatized], the daughter [rather, grand-daughter. בַּת includes all female descendants, as אֵם (see 2 Samuel 20:10 ) all anxestresses] of Abishalom. We can hardly doubt that Absalom, the son of David, is meant here. We have

(4) The name is so uncommon—in fact, it is ἅπαξ λεγ —that another person can hardly be intended. Moreover the variation in spelling is extremely slight. It has been held, however, that a different person is designated by the name, principally because Absalom had hut one daughter whose name was Tamar ( 2 Samuel 14:27 ), whereas Abijah's mother is said to have been the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah ( 2 Chronicles 13:2 ). But this difficulty admits of an easy solution. Tamar was doubtless married to Uriel, and Maachah was the fruit of this marriage. And with this explanation agrees the account of Josephus (Ant. 8.10, 1).