1 Kings 14:21

21 Rechav`am the son of Shlomo reigned in Yehudah. Rechav`am was forty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Yerushalayim, the city which the LORD had chosen out of all the tribes of Yisra'el, to put his name there: and his mother's name was Na`amah the `Ammonite.

1 Kings 14:21 Meaning and Commentary

1 Kings 14:21

And Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah
Over the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin, when Jeroboam reigned over the other ten:

Rehoboam [was] forty one years old when he began to reign;
being born one year before his father Solomon began to reign, and so it might have been expected he would have begun his reign more wisely than he did:

and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem;
not half so long as his father and grandfather, being neither so wise nor so good a prince as either of them:

the city which the Lord did choose out of all the tribes of Israel, to
put his name there;
to have a temple built for him, and his worship carried on in it; which was an aggravation of the sin of Rehoboam, that he should reign in such a place, and yet be guilty of the crimes he was; the three first years he reigned well, but afterwards forsook the law of the Lord, ( 2 Chronicles 11:17 ) ( 12:1 )

and his mother's name was Naamah an Ammonitess;
and which is observed again, ( 1 Kings 14:31 ) , she being the instrument of drawing him into idolatry, which it is very probable she practised in the days of Solomon, ( 1 Kings 11:5 1 Kings 11:7 ) .

1 Kings 14:21 In-Context

19 The rest of the acts of Yarov`am, how he warred, and how he reigned, behold, they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Yisra'el.

20 The days which Yarov`am reigned were two and twenty years: and he slept with his fathers, and Nadav his son reigned in his place.

21 Rechav`am the son of Shlomo reigned in Yehudah. Rechav`am was forty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Yerushalayim, the city which the LORD had chosen out of all the tribes of Yisra'el, to put his name there: and his mother's name was Na`amah the `Ammonite.

22 Yehudah did that which was evil in the sight of the LORD, and they provoked him to jealousy with their sins which they committed, above all that their fathers had done.

23 For they also built them high places, and pillars, and Asherim, on every high hill, and under every green tree;