Annotations upon the remaining historicall part of the Old Testament. The second part. to wit, the books of Joshua, Judges, the two books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles, and the books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther : wherein first, all such passages in the text are explained as were thought likely to be questioned by any reader of ordinary capacity : secondly, in many clauses those things are discovered which are needfull and usefull to be known ... and thirdly, many places that might at first seem to contradict one another are reconciled ... / by Arthur Jackson.

CHAP. XI.

Vers. 4. ANd they obeyed the words of the Lord, &c.] See 1. Kings 12.24.

Vers. 11. And he fortified the strong holds, and put captains in them, &c.] That is, many places that were by situation and nature strong, he forti∣fied also by art, and made them castles, and put captains in them, some of which were perhaps his sonnes whom he dispersed unto every fenced citie throughout Judah and Benjamin, vers. 23. And he dealt wisely, and dispersed all his children throughout all the countreys of Judah and Benjamin, unto every fenced citie,

Vers. 12. And in every citie he put shields and spears.] That is, weapons both for defence and offence.

Vers. 14. For Jeroboam and his sonnes had cast them off from executing the priests office unto the Lord.] To wit, by forbidding them to go up to Jerusalem to execute the priests office in the Temple, as by the Law they were enjoyned: and this is ascribed not onely to Jeroboam, but also to his sonnes, because he used them as his instruments in restraining them from going up to sacrifice at the Temple, having happely given them the charge and command of the fenced cities, as Rehoboam did his sonnes, vers. 23.

Vers. 15. And he ordained him priests for the high places, and for the devils, and for the calves which he had made.] Hereby it appears that Jeroboam set up other idols besides his golden calves, in which he pretended the worship of the true God, and why he said in them to have served devils, see Levit. 17.7.

Vers. 17. So they strengthened the kingdome of Judah, and made Rehoboam the sonne of Solomon strong, three years.] That is, by the accesse of these Levites and others of the ten tribes the kingdome of Judah was strengthened, and so conti∣nued three years. Indeed till the fifth yeare Shishak invaded not the land of Judah, chap. 12.2. But in the fourth yeare they began to corrupt themselves; and because so soon as they forsook God, God also forsook them, therefore even then are they counted as a weakned people, their defence being then departed from them: as was evident in the preparations which Shishak immediately made against them.

For three years they walked in the way of David and Solomon.] To wit, before

his fall, and after his repentance: for by this place amongst others, it appears that Solomon before his death repented him of his idolatry, and turned unto the Lord, though he could not so soon purge the land of those idolatrous monuments which himself had raised; as it was with Manasseh, chap. 33.18. For it is not likely that the beginning of Rehoboams reigne would have been David-like, if Solomon had died and left the kingdome in so corrupt a condition. Yet some conceive that Solo∣mon is here joyned with David, because himself continued incorrupt from idolatry, though he suffered high places to be set up for his wives.

Vers. 18, And Rehoboam took him Mahalath the daughter of Jeremoth, &c.] Though Rehoboam had eighteen wives, vers. 21. yet three of them onely are expres∣sed by name: the third, because he had by her Abijah who succeeded him in the throne, and the first two onely to make way to the mention of the third, because he married them first, and then afterward took the third to wife, to wit, Maachah the daughter of Abishalom the mother of Abijah. Concerning whom, see the notes, 1. Kings 15.2.

Vers. 22. And Rehoboam made Abijah the sonne of Maachah the chief, to be ruler among his brethren, &c.] That is, he gave him the preheminency in all re∣spects above his brethren, as intending that he should succeed him in the throne. Now if he were not his eldest sonne, unlesse, he had expresse direction for this from God, it was doubtlesse against that Law, Deut. 21.15.

Vers. 23. And he dealt wisely, and dispersed all his children throughout all the countreys of Judah and Benjamin, unto every fenced citie.] The wisdome and pol∣licie of Rehoboam in dispersing his other sonnes into the severall fenced cities in the out-skirts of his kingdome was this, that hereby they were kept, either from variance amongst themselves, or from consulting together against their brother Abijah, and perhaps under a pretence of honouring them with the charge of those places, were little better then prisoners there, under the eye of some that were appointed to watch over them; (for indeed otherwise there would have been little policie in putting the strong places of the kingdome into their hands) to which purpose also it was (as I conceive) that the better to content them, he allowed them most liberall and prince∣ly maintenance in all regards, which is implyed in the following clause, he gave them victualls in abundance.