📖WEB · 1 Kings 11:32
What does 1 Kings 11:32 mean?
"(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);"
— 1 Kings 11:32 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
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;
but I will take the kingdom out of his son’s hand, and will give it to you, even ten tribes.
Explanation
This verse is part of a larger prophecy in which God explains why the kingdom of Israel will be divided. Speaking through the prophet Ahijah to Jeroboam, God declares that because of Solomon's unfaithfulness—his turning to idols in his later years—the majority of the kingdom will be torn away from Solomon's dynasty and given to Jeroboam. Yet this verse specifies a crucial exception: one tribe will remain under the rule of Solomon's son. The verse is essentially a parenthetical clarification, explaining that the judgment on Solomon's house will not be total.
The context is found in 1 Kings 11, which recounts Solomon's decline. Despite his wisdom and the glory of his reign, Solomon married many foreign wives who turned his heart toward other gods, and he built high places for idols like Chemosh and Molech. As a result, God raises up adversaries against Solomon and, through Ahijah, announces that the kingdom will be split after Solomon's death. Ahijah dramatically tears his own garment into twelve pieces, giving ten to Jeroboam as a sign that ten tribes will follow him, while the house of
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