International Standard Bible Encyclopedia

(1) Jeroboam I, son of Nebat, an Ephraimite, and of Zeruah, a widow (1Ki 11:26-40; 12 through 14:20). He was the first king of Israel after the disruption of the kingdom, and he reigned 22 years (937-915 bc).

The history of Jeroboam is contained in 1Ki 11:26-40; 12:1 through 14:20; 2 Ch 10:1 through 11:4; 2Ch 11:14-16; 2Ch 12:15; 13:3-20, and in an insertion in the Septuagint after 1Ki 12:24 (a-z). This insertion covers about the same ground as the Massoretic Text, and the Septuagint elsewhere, with some additions and variations. The fact that it calls Jeroboam's mother a pórnē (harlot), and his wife the Egyptian princess Ano (compare 1 Ki 11); that Jeroboam is punished by the death of his son before he has done any wrong; that the episode with the prophet's mantle does not occur until the meeting at Shechem; that Jeroboam is not proclaimed king at all - all this proves the passage inferior to the Massoretic Text. No doubt it is a fragment of some historical work, which, after the manner of the later Midrash, has combined history and tradition, making rather free use of the historical kernel.

Jeroboam, as a highly gifted and valorous young Ephraimite, comes to the notice of Solomon early in his reign (1Ki 11:28; compare 1Ki 9:15, 1Ki 9:24). Having noticed his ability, the king made him overseer of the fortifications and public work at Jerusalem, and placed him over the levy from the house of Joseph. The fact that the latter term may stand for the whole of the ten tribes (compare Amo 5:6; Amo 6:6; Oba 1:18) indicates the importance of the position, which, however, he used to plot against the king. No doubt he had the support of the people in his designs. Prejudices of long standing (2Sa 19:40 f; 20 f) were augmented when Israelite interests were made subservient to Judah and to the king, while enforced labor and burdensome taxation filled the people's hearts h bitterness and jealousy. Jeroboam, the son of a widow, would be the first to feel the gall of oppression and to give voice to the suffering of the people. In addition, he had the approval of the prophet Ahijah of the old sanctuary of Shiloh, who, by tearing his new mantle into twelve pieces and giving ten of them to Jeroboam, informed him that he was to become king of the ten tribes. Josephus says (Ant., VIII, vii, 8) that Jeroboam was elevated by the words of the prophet, “and being a young man of warm temper, and ambitious of greatness, he could not be quiet,” but tried to get the government into his hands at once. For the time, the plot failed, and Jeroboam fled to Egypt where he was received and kindly treated by Shishak, the successor to the father-in-law of Solomon.

Seeing the turn affairs had taken, but still unwilling to make any concessions, Rehoboam sent Adoram, who had been over the levy for many years (1Ki 5:14; 1Ki 12:18), and who no doubt had quelled dissatisfaction before, to force the people to submission, possibly by the very methods he had threatened to employ (1Ki 12:14). However, the attempt failed. The aged Adoram was stoned to death, while Rehoboam was obliged to flee ignominiously back to Jerusalem, king only of Judah (1Ki 12:20). Thus, the great work of David for a united kingdom was shattered by inferiors, who put personal ambitions above great ideals.

As soon as Jeroboam heard that Solomon was dead, he returned from his forced exile in Egypt and took up his residence in his native town, Zeredah, in the hill country of Ephraim Septuagint 1Ki 12:20). The northern tribes, having rejected the house of David, now turned to the leader, and perhaps instigator of the revolution. Jeroboam was sent for and raised to the throne by the choice and approval of the popular assembly. Divinely set apart for his task, and having the approval of the people, Jeroboam nevertheless failed to rise to the greatness of his opportunities, and his kingdom degenerated into a mere military monarchy, never stronger than the ruler who chanced to occupy the throne. In trying to avoid the Scylla that threatened its freedom and faith (1Ki 11:33), the nation steered into the Charybdis of revolution and anarchy in which it finally perished.

Immediately upon his accession, Jeroboam fortified Shechem, the largest city in Central Israel, and made it his capital. Later he fortified Penuel in the East Jordan country. According to 1Ki 14:17, Tirzah was the capital during the latter part of his reign. About Jeroboam's external relations very little is known beyond the fact that there was war between him and Rehoboam constantly (1Ki 14:30). In 2 Ch 13:2-20 we read of an inglorious war with Abijah of Judah. When Shishak invaded Judah (1Ki 14:25 f), he did not spare Israel, as appears from his inscription on the temple at Karnak, where a list of the towns captured by him is given. These belong to Northern Israel as well as to Judah, showing that Shishak exacted tribute there, even if he used violence only in Judah. The fact that Jeroboam successfully managed a revolution but failed to establish a dynasty shows that his strength lay in the power of his personality more than in the soundness of his principles.

Despite the success of the revolution politically, Jeroboam descried in the halo surrounding the temple and its ritual a danger which threatened the permanency of his kingdom. He justifiably dreaded a reaction in favor of the house of David, should the people make repeated religious pilgrimages to Jerusalem after the first passion of the rebellion had spent itself. He therefore resolved to establish national sanctuaries in Israel. Accordingly, he fixed on Bethel, which from time immemorial was one of the chief sanctuaries of the land (Gen 28:19; Gen 35:1; Hos 12:4), and Dan, also a holy place since the conquest, as the chief centers of worship for Israel. Jeroboam now made “two calves of gold” as symbols of the strength and creative power of Yahweh, and set them up in the sanctuaries at Bethel and Dan, where altars and other sacred objects already existed. It appears that many of the priests still in the land were opposed to his image-worship (2Ch 11:13). Accordingly, he found it necessary to institute a new, non-Levitical priesthood (1Ki 13:33). A new and popular festival on the model of the feasts at Jerusalem was also established. Jeroboam's policy might have been considered as a clever political move, had it not contained the dangerous ppeal to the lower instincts of the masses, that led them into the immoralities of heathenism and hastened the destruction of the nation. Jeroboam sacrificed the higher interests of religion to politics. This was the “sin of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, wherewith he made Israel to sin” (1Ki 12:30; 1Ki 16:26).

(2) Jeroboam II (2Ki 14:23-29), son of Joash and 13th king of Israel; 4th sovereign of the dynasty of Jehu. He reigned 41 years. His accession may be placed circa 798 bc (some date lower).

Jeroboam came into power on the crest of the wave of prosperity that followed the crushing of the supremacy of Damascus by his father. By his great victory at Aphek, followed by others, Joash had regained the territory lost to Israel in the reigns of Jehu and Jehoahaz (2Ki 13:17, 2Ki 13:25). This satisfied Joash, or his death prevented further hostilities. Jeroboam, however, then a young man, resolved on a war of retaliation against Damascus, and on further conquests. The condition of the eastern world favored his projects, for Assyria was at the time engaged, under Shalmaneser III and Assurdan III, in a life-and-death struggle with Armenia. Syria being weakened, Jeroboam determined on a bold attempt to conquer and annex the whole kingdom of which Damascus was the capital. The steps of the campaign by which this was accomplished are unknown to us. The result only is recorded, that not only the intermediate territory fell into Jeroboam's hands, but that Damascus itself was captured (2Ki 14:28). Hamath was taken, and thus were restored the eastern boundaries of the kingdom, as they were in the time of David (1Ch 13:5). From the time of Joshua “the entrance of Hamath” (Jos 13:5), a narrow pass leading into the valley of the Lebanons, had been the accepted northern boundary of the promised land. This involved the subjection of Moab and Ammon, probably already tributaries of Damascus.

Jeroboam's long reign of over 40 years gave time for the collected tribute of this greatly increased territory to flow into the coffers of Samaria, and the exactions would be ruthlessly enforced. The prophet Amos, a contemporary of Jeroboam in his later years, dwells on the cruelties inflicted on the trans-Jordanic tribes by Hazael, who “threshed Gilead with threshing instruments of iron” (Amo 1:3). All this would be remembered now, and wealth to which the Northern Kingdom had been unaccustomed flowed in to its treasuries. The hovels of unburned brick in which the citizens had lived were replaced by “houses of hewn stone” (Amo 5:11). The ivory house which Ahab built in Samaria (1Ki 22:39; decorations only are meant) was imitated, and there were many “great houses” (Amo 3:15). The sovereign had both a winter and a summer palace. The description of a banqueting scene within one of these palatial abodes is lifelike in its portraiture. The guests stretched themselves upon the silken cushions of the couches, eating the flesh of lambs and stall-fed calves, drinking wine from huge bowls, singing idle songs to the sound of viols, themselves perfumed and anointed with oil (Amo 6:4-6). Meanwhile, they were not grieved for the affliction of Joseph, and cared nothing for the wrongdoing of which the country was full. Side by side with this luxury, the poor of the land were in the utmost distress. A case in which a man was sold into slavery for the price of a pair of shoes seems to have come to the prophet's knowledge, and is twice referred to by him (Amo 2:6; Amo 8:6).

With all this, and as part of the social organization, religion of a kind flourished. Ritual took the place of righteousness; and in a memorable passage, Amos denounces the substitution of the one for the other (Amo 5:21). The worship took place in the sanctuaries of the golden calves, where the votaries prostrated themselves before the altar clothed in garments taken in cruel pledge, and drank sacrificial wine bought with the money of those who were fined for non-attendance there (Amo 2:8). There we are subsidiary temples and altars at Gilgal and Beersheba (Amo 4:4; Amo 5:5; Amo 8:14). Both of these places had associations with the early history of the nation, and would be attended by worshippers from Judah as well as from Israel.

Toward the close of his reign, it would appear that Jeroboam had determined upon adding greater splendor and dignity to the central shrine, in correspondence with the increased wealth of the nation. Amos, about the same time, received a commission to go to Bethel and testify against the whole proceedings there. He was to pronounce that these sanctuaries should be laid waste, and that Yahweh would raise the sword against the house of Jeroboam. (Amo 7:9). On hearing his denunciation, made probably as he stood beside the altar, Amaziah, the priest of Bethel, sent a messenger to the king at Samaria, to tell him of the “conspiracy” of Amos, and that the land was not able to bear all his words. The messenger bore the report that Amos had declared “Jeroboam shall die by the sword,” which Amos had not done. When the messenger had gone, priest and prophet had a heated controversy, and new threatenings were uttered (Amo 7:10-17).

The large extension of territory acquired for Israel by Jeroboam is declared to have been the realization of a prophecy uttered earlier by Jonah, the son of Amittai (2Ki 14:25) - the same whose mission to Nineveh forms the subject of the Book of Jonah (Jon 1:1). It is also indicated that the relief which had now come was the only alternative to the utter extinction of Israel. But Yahweh sent Israel a “saviour” (2Ki 13:5), associated by some with the Assyrian king Ramman-nirari III, who crushed Damascus, an left Syria an easy prey, first to Jehoash, then to Jeroboam. (see JEHOASH), but whom the historian seems to connect with Jeroboam himself (2Ki 14:26, 2Ki 14:27).

Jeroboam was succeeded on his death by his weak son Zechariah (2Ki 14:29).

Taken from: International Standard Bible Encyclopedia by James Orr, M.A., D.D., General Editor