1 Kings 14:27-28

14:27 King Rehoboam made bronze shields to replace them and assigned them to the officers of the royal guard ¹  who protected the entrance to the royal palace. 14:28 Whenever the king visited the Lord’s temple, the royal guard carried them and then brought them back to the guardroom.

1 Kings 14:2

14:2 Jeroboam told his wife, “Disguise ²  yourself so that people cannot recognize you are Jeroboam’s wife. Then go to Shiloh; Ahijah the prophet, who told me I would rule over this nation, lives there. ³ 

1 Kings 12:10-11

12:10 The young advisers with whom Rehoboam ⁴  had grown up said to him, “Say this to these people who have said to you, ‘Your father made us work hard, but now lighten our burden.’ ⁵  Say this to them: ‘I am a lot harsher than my father! ⁶  12:11 My father imposed heavy demands on you; I will make them even heavier. ⁷  My father punished you with ordinary whips; I will punish you with whips that really sting your flesh.’” ⁸ 

The Song of Songs 3:7

3:7 Look! It is Solomon’s portable couch! ⁹ 

It is surrounded by sixty warriors,

some of Israel’s mightiest warriors.

¹ tn Heb “runners.”

² tn Heb “Get up, change yourself.”

³ tn Heb “look, Ahijah the prophet is there, he told me [I would be] king over this nation.”

⁴ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Rehoboam) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

⁵ tn Heb “Your father made our yoke heavy, but make it lighter upon us.”

⁶ tn Heb “My little one is thicker than my father’s hips.” The referent of “my little one” is not clear. The traditional view is that it refers to the little finger. As the following statement makes clear, Rehoboam’s point is that he is more harsh and demanding than his father.

⁷ tn Heb “and now my father placed upon you a heavy yoke, but I will add to your yoke.”

⁸ tn Heb “My father punished you with whips, but I will punish you with scorpions.” “Scorpions” might allude to some type of torture using poisonous insects, but more likely it refers to a type of whip that inflicts an especially biting, painful wound. Cf. CEV “whips with pieces of sharp metal.”

⁹ tn The term מִטָּה (mittah) refers to a “royal portable couch” spread with covers, cloth, and pillows (HALOT 573 s.v. מִטָּה; BDB 641 s.v. מִטָּה). The Hebrew noun is related to Ugaritic mtt “bed” (UT 1465). The term מִטָּה (“bed, couch”) itself can refer to a number of similar but different kinds of pieces of reclining furniture: (1) the bed of a common person, found in the bedchamber for reposing and sleeping at night (Gen 47:31; 48:2; 49:33; Exod 8:3[7:28]; 2 Sam 4:7; 1 Kgs 17:19; 2 Kgs 4:10, 21, 32; Ps 6:6[7]; Prov 26:14); (2) the royal bed of the king or nobility, often elevated and made of expensive materials (1 Kgs 21:4; 2 Kgs 1:4, 6, 16; 2 Chr 24:25; Esth 7:8; Amos 6:4; Ezek 23:41); (3) the couch of a common person for reclining or sitting during the day (1 Sam 28:23); (4) a royal banqueting couch for reclining at feasts or carousing (Ezek 23:41; Amos 3:12; 6:4; Esth 1:6; 7:8); (5) a portable light-weight bed for transporting the sick (1 Sam 19:15); (6) a portable bed, such as a funeral bier for transporting the dead (2 Sam 3:31); and (7) a portable royal couch for transporting the king (Song 3:7). The royal couch was often made of expensive materials, such as ivory, silver, and gold (Ezek 23:41; Amos 6:4; Song 3:9-10; Esth 1:6).