REHOBOAM he enlarges the people; Sept. 'Popodµ), only son of Solomon, born of an Ammonitess called Naamah (I Kings xiv. 2r, 31). His reign commenced B.C. 975, when he was at the age of forty-one, and lasted seventeen years. This reign was chiefly remarkable for the political crisis which gave rise to it, and which resulted in the separation of the previously single monarchy into two kingdoms, of which the smaller, which took the name of Judah, adhered to the house of David. All the points involved in this important event, and its immediate results, have been con sidered in the articles ISRAEL, JEROBOAM, JUDAH, and little remains 'e.) be added in this place. It is highly probable, from the considerations adduced in those articles, that the imprudent and imperious answer of the misguided son of Solomon to the public cry for redress of grievances only precipi tated a separation which would in any case have occurred, and could not have been long delayed. The envy of Ephraim at the sceptre being in the house of Judah naturally led to this result ; and the popular voice was, moreover, represented by a man whose presence was an insult to Rehoboam, and whose interest and safety lay in widening the difference, and in producing the separation. Al though this consideration may relieve Rehoboam from the sole responsibility of the separation, it cannot excuse the unwise and foolish answer which threatened a heavier yoke to those who sought to have their existing burdens lightened (I Kings xii. 1-16). Rehoboam at first thought of nothing less than of bringing back the revolted tribes to their by force of arms ; but the disastrous war thus impending was arrested by the interference ot a prophet (I Kings xii. 21-24) ; and the ample
occupation which Jeroboam found in settling his own power left the king of Judah some years in peace, which he employed in fortifying his weakened king dom. Concerning this, and the invasion of the land in the fifth year of Rehoboam's reign, by Shislrak, king of Egypt, see JUDAH, KINGDOM OF. Jeroboam, king of Israel, being in alliance with Egypt, not only escaped this storm, but may pos sibly have instigated the invasion as the most effectual means of weakening his adversary. The treasures which David and Solomon had laid up in, or lavished on, the temple of God and the royal palaces, offered an adequate temptation to the Egyptian king, and they became his prey. The brass with which Rehoboam replaced the plundered gold of Solomon furnished no inapt emblem of the difference between his own power and that of his glorious predecessors (1 Kings xiv. 27). Idolatry, and the worshipping in high places, which had grown up in the last years of Solomon, gained strength in the early years of his son's reign, and were not discouraged by the example or mea sures of the king (i Kings xiv. 22-24) ; and it is probably for the sake of indicating the influence of early education in producing this culpable indiffer ence that it is so pointedly recorded in connection with these circumstances that his mother was Naamah an Ammonitess (2 Chron. xii. 13). The invasion of the land by Shishak seems to have been intended as a punishment for these offences, and to have operated for their correction ; which may account for the peace in which the subsequent years of this king's reign appear to have been passed.