Text -- 1 Kings 12:1-9 (NET)

Rehoboam Loses His Kingdom

12:1 Rehoboam traveled to Shechem, for all Israel had gathered in Shechem to make Rehoboam king. 12:2 When Jeroboam son of Nebat heard the news, he was still in Egypt, where he had fled from King Solomon and had been living ever since. 12:3 They sent for him, and Jeroboam and the whole Israelite assembly came and spoke to Rehoboam, saying, 12:4 “Your father made us work too hard. Now if you lighten the demands he made and don’t make us work as hard, we will serve you.” 12:5 He said to them, “Go away for three days, then return to me.” So the people went away. 12:6 King Rehoboam consulted with the older advisers who had served his father Solomon when he had been alive. He asked them, “How do you advise me to answer these people?” 12:7 They said to him, “Today if you show a willingness to help these people and grant their request, they will be your servants from this time forward.” 12:8 But Rehoboam rejected their advice and consulted the young advisers who served him, with whom he had grown up. 12:9 He asked them, “How do you advise me to respond to these people who said to me, ‘Lessen the demands your father placed on us’?”

Commentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes

NET Notes: 1Ki 12:1

¹ tn Heb “come [to].”

² tn Heb “him”; the referent (Rehoboam) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

NET Notes: 1Ki 12:2

¹ tc Verse 2 is not included in the Old Greek translation. See the note on 11:43.

² tn Heb “and Jeroboam lived in Egypt.” The parallel text in 2 Chr 10:2 reads, “and Jeroboam returned from Egypt.” In a purely consonantal text the forms “and he lived” and “and he returned” are identical (וישׁב).

NET Notes: 1Ki 12:3

¹ tn Heb “They sent and called for him.”

NET Notes: 1Ki 12:4

¹ tn Heb “made our yoke burdensome.”

² tn Heb “but you, now, lighten the burdensome work of your father and the heavy yoke which he placed on us, and we will serve you.” In the Hebrew text the prefixed verbal form with vav (וְנַעַבְדֶךָ, [vÿna’avdekha] “and we will serve you”) following the imperative (הָקֵל [haqel], “lighten”) indicates purpose (or result). The conditional sentence used in the translation above is an attempt to bring out the logical relationship between these forms.

NET Notes: 1Ki 12:6

¹ tn Heb “stood before.”

² tn Heb “saying.”

NET Notes: 1Ki 12:7

¹ tn Heb “If today you are a servant to these people and you serve them and answer them and speak to them good words, they will be your servants all the days.”

NET Notes: 1Ki 12:8

¹ tn Heb “He rejected the advice of the elders which they advised and he consulted the young men with whom he had grown up, who stood before him.” The referent (Rehoboam) of the initial pronoun (“he”) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

NET Notes: 1Ki 12:9

¹ tn In the Hebrew text the verb “we will respond” is plural, although it can be understood as an editorial “we.” The ancient versions have the singular here.

² tn Heb “Lighten the yoke which your father placed on us.”