2 Chronicles 12:13 - Exposition

The parallel to the remaining verses of this chapter is found in 1 Kings 14:21 , 1 Kings 14:22 , 1 Kings 14:29-31 . In Jerusalem . Possibly, considering the words of 2 Chronicles 11:5-12 , 2 Chronicles 11:17 , this may indicate that Rehoboam was brought down to thinking almost more of the safety of Jerusalem and himself than of the kingdom in its length and breadth. One and forty years old (see our note, 2 Chronicles 10:8 , towards the end, and compare our 2 Chronicles 13:7 , as well as the parallel places, 1 Kings 12:8 and 1 Kings 14:21 ). It cannot be held as conclusively shown that the age of forty-one is incorrect. An Ammonitess (see 1 Kings 11:1-9 ). Rehoboam's mother's name and nationality are noted also, and twice in the parallel ( 1 Kings 14:21 , 1 Kings 14:31 ). Naamah was possibly the daughter of Nahash (1Ch 19:1-20:3). The briefness but decidedness of the notifications made as to this mother of Rehoboam leaves us without doubt that there is not lacking significance in them. Schulz (in his ' Scholia in Ver. Test.,' vol. 3.) says the reason is "quia ca filio idololatriae ansam dedisse videtur;" Keil and Bertheau think that, though there was evidence of this in the case of the mention of Asa's mother ( 1 Kings 15:13 ), the explanation here is that Naamah "appears" to have had, as queen-mother, considerable influence in the government. They do not specify where they find this to "appear" with any marked plainness. It is quite true that, in the successive accounts of the Jewish kings, the name of each mother is mentioned ( 1 Kings 15:2 ; 2 Chronicles 13:2 ; 1 Kings 22:42 ; 2 Chronicles 20:32 , etc.). We should say it is like the book, so Divine and human, called the Bible, to do so far-seeing and far-reaching a thing as to give the mother's name; and practically to say that Solomon and Naamah were (in special sense for Judah) a repetition of Adam and Eve. How far Judah and her line of kings may have correctly said, they were answerable for "death and all our woe," the sacred historians say ( 1 Kings 11:4 , 1 Kings 11:9-11 , 1 Kings 11:14 , 1 Kings 11:23 , 1 Kings 11:26 , 1 Kings 11:31 , 1 Kings 11:33 , 1 Kings 11:36 ; 1 Kings 12:24 ; 2 Chronicles 11:4 ).