Page:Light and truth.djvu/173

Rh predicted in remarkable terms, (1 Chron. xxii. 9, 10;) and especially remarkable, as the prediction is supposed to have ultimate and more comprehensive reference to the Messiah and his reign. Soon after the birth of Solomon, the prophet Nathan was sent by divine authority to give him the name of Jedidiah, signifying beloved of the Lord.

, (1 Kings xiv. 21,) son and successor of Solomon, ascended the throne of Judah at the age of forty-one, and reigned seventeen years. At the commencement of his career, he had an opportunity to conciliate the prejudices and discontents which had been excited by the closing acts of his father's reign; but rejecting the wise counsel of the aged, and adopting the precipitate counsel of the young, he inflamed his subjects by the most insolent and tyrannical reply to their petitions and representations, (2 Chron. x. 1—14) and hastened a division of the kingdom. Ten of the tribes revolted, leaving Judah and Benjamin alone in their allegiance to Rehoboam. The latter proposed at once to employ force for the purpose of reducing the rebels, but was divinely admonished to forbear. (1 Kings xii. 24.) Continual wars prevailed, however, between the two parties. (2 Chron. xii. 15.) In about three years after the division of the kingdom, the tribes of Judah followed the tribes of Israel in their idolatrous practices; and for this they suffered the invasion of Shishak, king of Egypt, who desolated the country, and threatened the utter destruction of their city ; but upon their repentance, the scourge was stayed, though they suffered immense loss, and were made tributary to the invader. (2 Chron. xii. 2—12. We are told that a history of Rehoboam's reign was written by Shemaiah and Iddo, (2 Chron. xii. 15,) but it has not been preserved. A distinguished modern antiquary has furnished evidence that on the remains of edifices believed to have been erected by this very Shishak, he has discovered several effigies of captive kings, and among them one of Rehoboam, the son and successor of Solomon.