B) JAMES, “THE LORD’S BROTHER”
II. JEROBOAM II 1. His Warlike Policy
(1) The Anonymous Prophet.
On the very day on which Jeroboam inaugurated the worship at the sanctuary at Bethel “a man of God out of Judah” appeared at Bethel and publicly denounced the service. The import of his message was that the royal altar should some day be desecrated by a ruler from the house of David. The prophet was saved from the wrath of the king only by a
miracle. “The altar also was rent, and the ashes poured out from the altar.”
This narrative of 1 Kings 13 is usually assumed to belong to a later time, but whatever the date of compilation, the general historicity of the account is little affected by it.
(2) The Prophet Ahijah.
At a later date, when Jeroboam had realized his ambition, but not the ideal which the prophet had set before him, Ahijah predicted the consequences of his evil policy. Jeroboam’s eldest son had fallen sick. He thought of Ahijah, now old and blind, and sent the queen in disguise to learn the issue of the sickness. The prophet bade her to announce to Jeroboam that the house of Jeroboam should be extirpated root and branch; that the people whom he had seduced to idolatry should be uprooted from the land and transported beyond the river; and, severest of all, that her son should die.
8. His Death:
Jeroboam died, in the 22nd year of his reign, having “bequeathed to posterity the reputation of an apostate and a succession of endless revolutions.”
S. K. Mosiman (2) Jeroboam II (<121423>2 Kings 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).
II. JEROBOAM II
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 (<121428>2 Kings 14:28). Hamath was taken, and thus were restored the eastern boundaries of the kingdom, as they were in the time of David (<131305>1 Chronicles 13:5).
From the time of Joshua “the entrance of Hamath” (<061305>
Joshua 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.
2. New Social Conditions:
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” (Amos 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” (<300511>
Amos 5:11). The ivory house which Ahab built in Samaria (<112239>1 Kings 22:39;
decorations only are meant) was imitated, and there were many “great houses” (<300315>Amos 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 (<300604>Amos 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
(<300206>Amos 2:6; 8:6).
3. Growth of Ceremonial Worship:
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
(<300521>Amos 5:21 ff). 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 (<300208>Amos 2:8).
There we are subsidiary temples and altars at Gilgal and Beersheba
(<300404>Amos 4:4; 5:5; 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.
4. Mission to Amos:
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. (<300709>Amos 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
(<300710>Amos 7:10-17).
5. Prophecy of Jonah:
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 (<121425>2 Kings 14:25) — the same whose mission to Nineveh forms the subject of the Book of Jonah (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” (<121305>2 Kings 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 (<121426>2 Kings 14:26,27).
Jeroboam was succeeded on his death by his weak son Zechariah (<121429>2 Kings 14:29).
W. Shaw Caldecott JEROHAM
<je-ro’-ham> ([µj;roy], yerocham], “may he be compassionate!”):
(1) An Ephraimite, the father of Elkanah, and grandfather of Samuel (<090101>1 Samuel 1:1; <130627>1 Chronicles 6:27,34 (Hebrew 12,19)): Jerahmeel is the name in Septuagint, Codex Vaticanus, in 1 Samuel and in Septuagint, L and manuscripts, in 1 Chronicles.
(2) A Benjamite (<130827>1 Chronicles 8:27), apparently = JEREMOTH, (2) (compare 8:14), and probably the same as he of <130908>
1 Chronicles 9:8.
(3) Ancestor of a priest in Jerusalem (<130912>1 Chronicles 9:12 = <161112>Nehemiah 11:12).
(4) A man of Gedor, father of two of David’s Benjamite recruits at Ziklag, though Gedor might be a town in Southern Judah (<131207>1 Chronicles 12:7 (Hebrew 8)).
(5) Father of Azarel, David’s tribal chief over Dan (<132722>1 Chronicles 27:22).
(6) Father of Azariah, one of the captains who supported Jehoiada in overthrowing Queen Athaliah (<142301>
2 Chronicles 23:1).
David Francis Roberts JERUBBAAL
<jer-u-ba’-al>, <je-rub’-a-al> ([l[“B”ruy], yerubba`al], “let Baal contend”): The name given to Gideon by his father, Joash, and the people in recognition of his destruction of the altar of Baal at Ophrah (<070632>Judges 6:32). For this name the form “Jerubbesheth” (<100121>
2 Samuel 1:21) was
substituted after the analogy of “Ishbosheth” and “Mephibosheth,” in which bosheth, the Hebrew word for “shame,” displaced the word ba`al, no doubt because the name resembled one given in honor of Baal.
See GIDEON.
JERUBBESHETH
<jer-ub-be’-sheth>, <je-rub’-e-sheth> ([tv,B,ruy], yerubbesheth], see JERUBBAAL, for meaning): It is found once (<101121>2 Samuel 11:21) for JERUBBAAL.
The word [tv,B, bosheth], “shameful thing,” was substituted by later editors of the text for [l[“B”, ba`al], “lord,” in the text of <240324>Jeremiah 3:24; <280910>
Hosea 9:10; in <100208>
2 Samuel 2:8, etc., we find Ish-bosheth = Eshbaal (Ishbaal) in <130833>1 Chronicles 8:33; 9:39. The reason for this was reluctant to pronounce the word Ba`al, which had by their time been associated with Canaanitic forms of worship. In <101121>2 Samuel 11:21 Septuagint, Lucian, has “Jeroboal,” which Septuagint, Codex Vaticanus, has corrupted to “Jeroboam.” Compare MERIBBAAL; MEPHIBOSHETH;
and see Ginsburg, New Massoretico-Critical Text of the Hebrew Bible, Intro, 400 ff. For a New Testament case compare <451104>Romans 11:4 and see Sanday and Headlam at the place.
See JERUBBAAL.
David Francis Roberts JERUEL
<je-roo’-el>, <jer’-oo-el> ([laeWry], yeru’el], “founded by El”): Jahaziel prophesied that King Jehoshaphat should meet the hordes of Moabites and Ammonites, after they had come up by the “ascent of Ziz,” “at the end of the valley (i.e. wady), before the wilderness of Jeruel” (<142016>2 Chronicles 20:16). The particular part of the wilderness intended, is unknown. Cheyne (Encyclopedia Biblica) thinks this may be an error for the Jezreel of Judah, mentioned in <061556>
Joshua 15:56, etc.
See JEZREEL.
JERUSALEM
<je-roo’-sa-lem>: