1 Kings 11:24

24 and [he] gathered men against him, and was made the prince of thieves, when David killed them (of Zobah); and they went to Damascus, and dwelled there (and stayed there); and they made him king in Damascus.

1 Kings 11:24 Meaning and Commentary

1 Kings 11:24

And he gathered men unto him
Perhaps some of the scattered forces of his master:

and became captain over a band, when David slew them of Zobah;
some that escaped enlisted under this man, and lived by plunder the remainder of David's reign, and so in the reign of Solomon unto his old age, when his heart was turned away from God to idols, by his wives:

and they went to Damascus, and dwelt therein, and reigned in Damascus;
Rezon and his men went thither, not in David's time, for he put a garrison there, ( 2 Samuel 8:6 ) but towards the close of Solomon's days, and when Hadad set up in Edom, which gave him the hint to do the same at Damascus, of which he became king, and was the founder of that kingdom; after him there was a long race of kings there.

1 Kings 11:24 In-Context

22 And Pharaoh said to him, And of what thing hast thou need with me, that thou seekest to go to thy land? And he answered, Of nothing; but I beseech thee, that thou deliver me/that thou let me go. (And Pharaoh said to him, And what thing hast thou still need of from me, that thou now seekest to go back to thy own land to get? And he answered, Nothing; but I beseech thee, that thou let me go.)

23 And God raised (up) another adversary to Solomon, Rezon, the son of Eliadah, that fled Hadadezer, king of Zobah, his lord (who fled from Hadadezer, the king of Zobah, his lord);

24 and [he] gathered men against him, and was made the prince of thieves, when David killed them (of Zobah); and they went to Damascus, and dwelled there (and stayed there); and they made him king in Damascus.

25 And he was [an] adversary of Israel in all the days of Solomon; and this is (besides) the evil of Hadad, and his hatred against Israel; and he reigned in Syria. (And he was an adversary of Israel in all the days of Solomon, besides the evil that Hadad did; and he hated Israel, and he reigned upon Syria.)

26 (And) Also Jeroboam, the son of Nebat, of Ephraim of Zereda, the servant of Solomon, of which Jeroboam, a woman widow (a widow woman), Zeruah by name, was (his) mother, he (also) raised (up) his hand against the king.