📖WEB · 1 Kings 11:31
What does 1 Kings 11:31 mean?
"He said to Jeroboam, “Take ten pieces; for Yahweh, the God of Israel, says, ‘Behold, I will tear the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and will give ten tribes to you"
— 1 Kings 11:31 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
The man Jeroboam was a mighty man of valor; and Solomon saw the young man that he was industrious, and he put him in charge of all the labor of the house of Joseph.
At that time, when Jeroboam went out of Jerusalem, the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite found him on the way; now Ahijah had clad himself with a new garment; and they two were alone in the field.
Ahijah laid hold of the new garment that was on him, and tore it in twelve pieces.
He said to Jeroboam, “Take ten pieces; for Yahweh, the God of Israel, says, ‘Behold, I will tear the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and will give ten tribes to you
(but he shall have one tribe, for my servant David’s sake and for Jerusalem’s sake, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel);
because that they have forsaken me, and have worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of Moab, and Milcom the god of the children of Ammon. They have not walked in my ways, to do that which is right in my eyes, and to keep my statutes and my ordinances, as David his father did.
“‘However I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand; but I will make him prince all the days of his life, for David my servant’s sake whom I chose, who kept my commandments and my statutes;
Explanation
1 Kings 11:31 records the words of the prophet Ahijah the Shilonite as he meets Jeroboam son of Nebat on a road outside Jerusalem. Ahijah performs a dramatic prophetic act: he takes his own new cloak and tears it into twelve pieces, then instructs Jeroboam to take ten of those pieces for himself. The torn garment is a visual sign, a common device among Hebrew prophets, symbolizing that the kingdom of Israel itself is about to be torn apart. The message is direct and unmistakable: God himself, Yahweh, is the one declaring that he will tear the kingdom away from Solomon and give ten of the twelve tribes to Jeroboam.
To understand this verse, it helps to know the background given earlier in 1 Kings 11. Solomon, despite his wisdom and the glory of his reign, had turned away from full devotion to Yahweh in his later years. He married many foreign wives who turned his heart toward other gods, and he built high places for idols like Chemosh and Molech. Because of this unfaithfulness, God declared that he would judge Solomon's household, though for the sake of David, Solomon's father, the judgment would not fall during Solomon's own lifetime, and one tribe would be preserved for David's line for the sake of Jerusalem and the covenant promises. Jeroboam, meanwhile, was a capable young official whom
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