Thing Fall Apart
JEROBOAM, KING OF ISRAEL, SON OF NEBAT (יָרָבְעָם, yarov'am). Also known as Jeroboam I. The name of his father, Nebat, is not found anywhere else in the Bible. An Ephraimite from the hill country of Zeredah. A servant of Solomon until Jeroboam carried out a rebellion against him (1 Kgs 11:26–28). Became the first king of the northern kingdom of Israel. Reigned from ca. 922–901 BC. His life, reign, and legacy are vilified by the religious reforms he enacted throughout the northern kingdom because he attempted to keep the loyalty of the people focused on him instead of their God, Yahweh (1 Kgs 12:26–28).
Sources
The main accounts of Jeroboam, his rebellion, and reign as northern king can be found in 1 Kgs 11:26–14:20 and 2 Chr 10:2–13:20. However, the book of Chronicles is primarily interested in the kings of Judah, thus focusing only on the interaction Jeroboam has with the southern kings. An alternative account of the events surrounding Jeroboam’s rise to power is retained in the Septuagint in 3 Kingdoms 12:24. (For a review of the historical viability of the Septuagint version, see Gordon, “History or Midrash?” 368–93. A more recent analysis can be found by Sweeney, “Reassessment,” 165–95. Schenker argued against Sweeney’s approach in “Jeroboam’s Rise and Fall,” 367–73.)
Early Life, Family, and Rebellion
In the book of Kings, Jeroboam is introduced within the successive line of adversaries that God raised up against Solomon (1 Kgs 11:14–24). The name of his mother, Zeruah, has been cause for much speculation. Zeruah—meaning” leper” or “skin disease”—may be a mistaken transcription of the proper name “Zeruiah,” a deliberate polemic inserted to further vilify Jeroboam, or the result of a scribal mistake (see Gray, I and II Kings, 290, 293; for a contrasting opinion, see Cogan, I Kings, 337 who argues that Jeroboam’s mother merely had a skin disease). Jeroboam’s mother is also identified as a widow (1 Kgs 11:26).
Jeroboam is described as an “industrious” and “very able” servant of Solomon. He is appointed by Solomon to oversee “all the forced labor of the house of Joseph” (1 Kgs 11:28 NRSV). The phrase “house of Joseph” may reflect identification of Jeroboam with all 10 tribes of northern Israel (often termed “the house of Joseph” following the division of the northern and southern kingdoms). It could have also been used to highlight Jeroboam’s affiliation with the tribe of Ephraim, which was founded by Joseph’s son (Gray, I and II Kings, 294).
Following his appointment by Solomon, Jeroboam encountered the prophet Ahijah from Shilon, who tore a new garment into 12 pieces and gave 10 pieces to Jeroboam (1 Kgs 11:20–31). Tearing the cloak into 12 pieces symbolically represents the coming division of the tribes of Israel, and the reign of Jeroboam over the 10 northern tribes. Ahijah promised Jeroboam, “You shall reign over all that your soul desires; you shall be king over Israel” (1 Kgs 11:37). Ahijah detailed the blessings to be given to Jeroboam and his house, with conditions requiring that Jeroboam’s rule remain faithful to Yahweh (1 Kgs 11:31–39).
Although Ahijah’s prophecy may have been seen as treasonous by Solomon, it is unclear whether the rebellion Jeroboam is credited with (1 Kgs 11:26) is attributed to his encounter with Ahijah, or an account of Jeroboam taking action against the king (Cogan, I Kings, 338). Solomon sought to kill Jeroboam, so Jeroboam fled to Egypt and remained there until Solomon’s death and his son Rehoboam’s ascension to the throne (1 Kgs 11:40).
Ascent to the Throne and Political Reforms
When Jeroboam returned from Egypt—following the death of Solomon ca. 922 BC—he secured a pivotal role in the proceedings at Shechem where Rehoboam had expected Israel to crown him king (1 Kgs 12:2–3, 12). In Kings and Chronicles, Jeroboam occupies a central role in the negotiations at Shechem, which end in rebellion against the line of David (2 Chr 10:2–3, 12). Northern Israel first demonstrates their support for Jeroboam by stoning Adoram—Jeroboam’s replacement appointed by Rehoboam to oversee the forced labor (1 Kgs 12:18). The northern tribes assemble to Jeroboam and make him king (1 Kgs 12:20), ensuring a split between Israel and Judah that lasts until the fall of Israel to the Assyrians in 722 BC.
Little is known about Jeroboam’s political reforms. Jeroboam is said to have fortified Shechem and Penuel (a site of uncertain location), but by the end of his reign, the northern capital was located at Tirzah, where it would remain until the reign of Omri.
Historians Göstra Ahlström (56–58) and Nigel Allan (353–57) argue that Jeroboam moved the northern capital successively from Shechem to Penuel before ending up at Tirzah. Although the Bible is silent on any issues of Jeroboam’s political or economic administration, J. Alberto Soggin insists that eighth century BC Samarian ostraca show no evidence of administrative changes, and therefore that Jeroboam kept much of the Solomonic administration and divisions intact (Soggin, History of Ancient Israel, 198–200).
Religious Reforms
Concerned about Israelite worship in the temple in Jerusalem, Jeroboam instituted specific religious reforms to keep the people from returning to the house of David (1 Kgs 12:26–27). Jeroboam made two calves of gold which he placed at Bethel and Dan, declaring, “Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt” (1 Kgs 12:28). This action seems to deliberately echo the divergence of the Israelites from Yahweh in Exod 32:4. John Gray cautions against describing these calves as idols—they might merely have been artifacts similar to the ark of the covenant (Gray, I and II Kings, 315). Jeroboam may not have yet been encouraging the worship of foreign deities, but merely assuming the power of Yahweh into a traditional religious form.
Jeroboam enforced a religious distinction between the northern and southern tribes by building up the high places, establishing a new festival for the people, and even appointing non-Levites as priests (1 Kgs 12:31–32). The account in Chronicles records a mass emigration of Levites from the tribes of Israel to Judah and Jerusalem, “[b]ecause Jeroboam and his sons had prevented them from serving as priests of the Lord” (1 Chr 11:14). Chronicles records a further religious aberrance not featured in the account in Kings: Jeroboam instituted the worship of goat-demons, which were outlawed by Lev 17:7. This account may be a further vilification of the religious reforms enacted by Jeroboam, but it confirms that Jeroboam attempted to shift worship from Jerusalem to Dan and Bethel.
Later Life and Death
Chronicles records a battle between Abijah, king of Judah, and Jeroboam not found in Kings. Abijah proclaims the greatness of Judah, and assures that Judah will be victorious in battle by noting that the specific religious rituals which Jeroboam overthrew were still maintained (2 Chr 13:11). The following route of Jeroboam and the northern kingdom detailed in the book of Chronicles results in a permanent loss of Jeroboam’s power, and the capture of the religious shrine at Bethel (2 Chr 13:19–20). While the account of Abijah and Jeroboam warring is absent from the book of Kings, another Abijah occupies the space: Jeroboam’s son. His son had fallen ill, and in an incident that echoes Saul’s séance with a witch at Endor (1 Sam 28:3–25), he commanded his wife to disguise herself and ascertain the future of their son’s life from Ahijah, the prophet at Shiloh. The visit by Jeroboam’s wife ends in a pronouncement against the king of his coming destruction and the death of Abijah, his son. Although Chronicles mandates that Yahweh struck down Jeroboam specifically, the narrative in Kings merely states that Jeroboam “slept with his ancestors” (1 Kgs 14:20).
Legacy
Jeroboam is often portrayed in a similar light as Saul. As the first king of northern Israel, Jeroboam faced many of the same expectations thrust upon the first king of all Israel—Saul—and is portrayed as following a similar path. Ahijah’s tearing of his cloak is resonant of Saul’s rejection by Samuel (1 Sam 15:27–28). Both men failed to live up to the expectations of the biblical authors who wrote about them.
Just as the author of Kings judged the southern kings based on whether they followed in the steps of David, Jeroboam became the benchmark to judge whether the northern kings were still straying from Yahweh. For the author of Kings, the sins of Jeroboam are sins which perpetually plague the northern kings and led to the eventual destruction of Israel. As articulated by John Holder, the author of Kings believed that “The fate of dynasty, cult, and kingdom has been sealed through Jeroboam’s violation of the basic cultic principles that underpin these institutions” (Holder, Presuppositions, 37). The book of Kings makes this point explicitly: “The people of Israel continued in all the sins that Jeroboam committed; they did not depart from them until the Lord removed Israel out of his sight, as he foretold through all his servants and prophets. So Israel was exiled from their own land to Assyria until this day” (2 Kgs 17:22–23).