2 Chronicles 10:16

10:1-19 The ten tribes revolt from Rehoboam. - Moderate counsels are wisest and best. Gentleness will do what violence will not do. Most people like to be accosted mildly. Good words cost only a little self-denial, yet they purchase great things. No more needs to be done to ruin men, than to leave them to their own pride and passion. Thus, whatever are the devices of men, God is doing his own work by all, and fulfilling the word which he has spoken. No man can bequeath his prosperity to his heirs any more than his wisdom; though our children will generally be affected by our conduct, whether good or bad. Let us then seek those good things which will be our own for ever; and crave the blessing of God upon our posterity, in preference to wealth or worldly exaltation.

16–19 (= 1 Kings 12:16-19 ). The Revolt 16 . And we have none inheritance ] R.V. neither have we inheritance . Contrast the language of the ten tribes after the collapse of Absalom’s rebellion: We have ten parts in the king ( 2 Samuel 19:43 ). to your tents ] See note on 2 Chronicles 7:10 . And now, David, see to thine own house ] R.V. now see to thine own house, David . went ] R.V. departed .

10 . into their tents ] R.V. unto their tents (as 1 Kings 8:66 ). The Hebrew word ( ohel ) here approaches in meaning the corresponding Arabic word ( ahl ), which denotes household or one’s own people , e.g. in the phrase ahlu ’linjil , “the household of the Gospel,” i.e. “the Christians” a phrase found in the Koran. Cp. 2 Chronicles 10:16 ; 2 Chronicles 25:22 . glad and merry in heart ] R.V. joyful and glad of heart (as in 1 Kings 8:66 ). 2 Chronicles 7:10

And when all Israel saw that the king would not hearken unto them, the people answered the king, saying, What portion have we in David? and we have none inheritance in the son of Jesse: every man to your tents, O Israel: and now, David, see to thine own house. So all Israel went to their tents.

Verse 16. - What portion have we in David? (see 2 Samuel 20:1 ). To your tents, O Israel ; i.e. there is nothing more to be done here; all may as well go home. The use, and especially repeated use, of the names, David, Jesse, David , plainly speaks tribe rivalry, if not jealousy. 2 Chronicles 10:16

(16) And when all Israel saw. —Now all Israel had seen. Kings: “And all Israel saw.” The chronicler makes a new start. (The word “saw” is wanting in very many Hebrew MSS., and in LXX., Vulg., and Targ., and some Hebrew editions.) Answered.—Returned the king—scil., a word, which Kings supplies. Every man to your tents, O Israel.—Literally, A man (’îsh) to thy tents, &c. The word “man” is probably spurious, being due to a repetition of the letters of the preceding proper name Jesse (Heb., Yishai or Ishai). Kings, LXX., Vulg. are without it, but Syriac has it. See to thine own house—i.e., govern Judah, thine own tribe. Vulg., “pasce domum tuam.”

15-17. the king hearkened not unto the people, for the cause was of God—Rehoboam, in following an evil counsel, and the Hebrew people, in making a revolutionary movement, each acted as free agents, obeying their own will and passions. But God, who permitted the revolt of the northern tribes, intended it as a punishment of the house of David for Solomon's apostasy. That event demonstrates the immediate superintendence of His providence over the revolutions of kingdoms; and thus it affords an instance, similar to many other striking instances that are found in Scripture, of divine predictions, uttered long before, being accomplished by the operation of human passions, and in the natural course of events.

This event is narrated in our chapter, except in so far as a few unessential differences in form are concerned, exactly as we have it in 1 Kings 12:1-19 ; so that we may refer for the exposition of it to the commentary on 1 Kings 12 , where we have both treated the contents of this chapter, and have also discussed the deeper and more latent causes of this event, so important in its consequences.