Kings I 14:21

21 And the servants who had been before with the Philistines, who had gone up to the army, turned themselves also to be with the Israelites who were with Saul and Jonathan.

Kings I 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 ) .

Kings I 14:21 In-Context

19 And it came to pass while Saul was speaking to the priest, that the sound in the camp of the Philistines continued to increase greatly; and Saul said to the priest, Withdraw thy hands.

20 And Saul went up and all the people that were with him, and they come to the battle: and, behold, man's sword was against his neighbour, a very great confusion.

21 And the servants who had been before with the Philistines, who had gone up to the army, turned themselves also to be with the Israelites who were with Saul and Jonathan.

22 And all the Israelites who were hidden in mount Ephraim heard also that the Philistines fled; and they also gather themselves after them to battle: and the Lord saved Israel in that day; and the war passed through Bamoth; and all the people with Saul were about ten thousand men.

23 And the battle extended itself to every city in the mount Ephraim.

Footnotes

• [a]. yesterday and the third day.