Commentaria in III Regum
Chapter 12. Synopsis of the Chapter
The people ask Roboam for relief from the heavy tributes of Solomon: he refuses and threatens harsher things; wherefore the ten tribes, leaving him, make Jeroboam king; Roboam prepares war against them, verse 21; but God recalls him by the prophet Semeias. Then, verse 26, Jeroboam, fearing lest the people, coming to the temple, should likewise return to Roboam, sets up golden calves as idols in Dan and Bethel.
1. And Roboam came to Sichem: for all Israel were assembled there to make him king. 2. But when Jeroboam the son of Nabat, who was yet in Egypt, (for he fled thither heretofore from king Solomon,) heard of it, he returned out of Egypt. 3. And they sent and called him: and Jeroboam came, and all the multitude of Israel, and they spoke to Roboam, saying: 4. Thy father laid a most grievous yoke upon us: now therefore do thou take off a little of the grievous service of thy father, and of the sore yoke that he laid upon us, and we will serve thee. 5. And he said to them: Go till the third day, and come to me again. And when the people were gone, 6. King Roboam took counsel with the old men that stood before his father Solomon while he yet lived, and he said: What counsel do you give me, to answer this people? 7. And they said to him: If thou wilt comply with this people this day, and serve them, and grant their petition, and speak to them kind words, they will be thy servants for ever. 8. But he forsook the counsel of the old men, which they had given him: and took young men that had been brought up with him, and stood before him: 9. And he said to them: What counsel do you give me, to answer this people, who have said to me: Ease the yoke which thy father hath laid upon us? 10. And the young men that had been brought up with him said to him: Thus shalt thou speak to this people that have said to thee: Thy father made our yoke heavy, but do thou ease us: thus shalt thou speak to them: My little finger is thicker than the loins of my father. 11. And now my father put a heavy yoke upon you, but I will add to your yoke: my father beat you with whips, but I will beat you with scorpions. 12. So Jeroboam and all the people came to Roboam the third day, as the king had appointed, saying: Come to me again the third day. 13. And the king answered the people harshly, leaving the counsel of the old men, which they had given him: 14. And he spoke to them according to the counsel of the young men, saying: My father made your yoke heavy, but I will add to your yoke: my father beat you with whips, but I will beat you with scorpions. 15. And the king condescended not to the people: for the Lord was turned away from him, to fulfil his word, which he had spoken in the hand of Ahias the Silonite to Jeroboam the son of Nabat. 16. And the people seeing that the king would not hearken to them, answered him, saying: What portion have we in David, or inheritance in the son of Isai? To thy dwellings, O Israel: now feed thy house, O David. So Israel departed to their dwellings. 17. But as for the children of Israel that dwelt in the cities of Juda, Roboam reigned over them. 18. And king Roboam sent Aduram, who was over the tribute: and all Israel stoned him, and he died: and king Roboam made haste to get him up into his chariot, and fled to Jerusalem. 19. And Israel revolted from the house of David unto this day. 20. And it came to pass when all Israel heard that Jeroboam was returned, that they sent and called him together to the assembly, and made him king over all Israel: neither did any one follow the house of David, but the tribe of Juda only. 21. And Roboam came to Jerusalem, and assembled all the house of Juda, and the tribe of Benjamin, a hundred and fourscore thousand chosen men for war, to fight against the house of Israel, and to bring back the kingdom to Roboam the son of Solomon. 22. But the word of the Lord came to Semeias the man of God, saying: 23. Speak to Roboam the son of Solomon king of Juda, and to all the house of Juda and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people, 24. Thus saith the Lord: You shall not go up, nor fight against your brethren the children of Israel: let every man return to his house, for this thing is from me. They hearkened to the word of the Lord, and returned from their journey, as the Lord had commanded them. 25. And Jeroboam built Sichem in mount Ephraim, and dwelt there: and going out from thence he built Phanuel. 26. And Jeroboam said in his heart: Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David, 27. If this people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem: and the heart of this people will turn to their lord Roboam the king of Juda, and they will kill me, and return to him. 28. And finding out a device he made two golden calves, and said to them: Go ye up no more to Jerusalem: Behold thy gods, O Israel, who have brought thee out of the land of Egypt. 29. And he set one in Bethel, and the other in Dan: 30. And this thing became an occasion of sin: for the people went to adore the calf as far as Dan. 31. And he made temples in the high places, and priests from the meanest of the people, who were not of the sons of Levi. 32. And he appointed a solemn day in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, after the manner of the solemnity that was kept in Juda. And going up to the altar, he did in like manner in Bethel, to sacrifice to the calves which he had made: and he placed in Bethel priests of the high places which he had made. 33. And he went up to the altar which he had built in Bethel, on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, which he had devised of his own heart: and he made a solemnity for the children of Israel, and went up to the altar to burn incense.
1. AND ROBOAM CAME TO SICHEM,—for Sichem was a place famous for the dwelling and burial of the Patriarchs, and as it were sacred; whence there held an assembly Josue, last chapter, verse 1; Abimelech, Judges chapter 9, verse 1. Here, therefore, the Israelites hold the assembly of the kingdom in Sichem, to make Roboam king there.
4. THY FATHER LAID A MOST GRIEVOUS YOKE UPON US.—For Solomon, to sustain his own magnificence and that of his thousand wives in dress, table, servants, horses and chariots, had laid enormous tributes upon the people, from which the people here justly ask to be in part relieved.
7. IF THOU WILT COMPLY WITH THIS PEOPLE, etc., AND SPEAK TO THEM KIND WORDS, THEY WILL BE THY SERVANTS FOR EVER.—This counsel of the old men was most prudent, because most useful, both for removing the people’s exasperation against Solomon and Roboam, and for relieving their oppression. For excessive tributes drain the wealth, spirit and blood of subjects, and at last their life: wherefore the king deprives himself of their tributes and services while he oppresses them with the same. For the well-being of subjects is the good and well-being of princes; wherefore gentleness and clemency is the supreme endowment of princes, by which they win their subjects, that they may let themselves be ruled by the king, and show themselves ready to carry out all the commands of their prince. Political prudence therefore dictates that you begin your reign with gentleness, and bind your subjects to you by gentleness; afterwards, when they are already bound to you, easily laying upon them the necessary burdens. Well known is that saying: “Men used to sceptres feel no shame; the mildest lot is that of kingdoms under a new king.”
For a long rule has gained for itself strength and authority, as well as boldness to command anything: a new one, however, must by gentleness gradually gain these three.
Hear St. Jerome, epistle 62, praising the clemency of a certain Bishop toward his subjects: “A parent and a Bishop,” he says, “ought to be loved, not feared. It is an ancient saying: Whom one fears, he hates; whom he hates, he wishes dead. Whence also in our writings, although the beginnings of little ones consist in fear, perfect love casts out fear. You do not seek to have monks subject to you, and therefore you have them the more subject. You offer a kiss, they bow the neck; you show a soldier, and obtain a leader; as one among many you are, that you may be one of many. Liberty is quickly indignant if it is oppressed. No one obtains more from a free man than he who does not compel him to serve. We know the ecclesiastical canons, we are not ignorant of the orders of each, and by reading and daily examples we have learned many things, many things up to this age we have experienced. He who yields to scorpions, and thinks he has fingers thicker than his father’s loins, quickly scatters the kingdom of gentle David. Certainly the Roman people did not bear pride even in a king.