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 ) .
