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1 Kings 12 · a question people ask

Ten tribes for Jeroboam and one for David's house: where does Benjamin fit?

In the text

1 Kings gives the verses and doesn't add them up. Ahijah tore his garment "in twelve pieces" (11:30) and told Jeroboam, "Take ten pieces" (11:31), for the LORD would "give ten tribes to you" (11:31), "but he shall have one tribe, for my servant David’s sake and for Jerusalem’s sake" (11:32). In this chapter, "There was no one who followed David’s house, except for the tribe of Judah only" (12:20). Yet the next verse says Rehoboam "assembled all the house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin" (12:21), and the LORD's word is spoken "to all the house of Judah and Benjamin" (12:23). A verse earlier the chapter says, "But as for the children of Israel who lived in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them" (12:17). 1 Kings doesn't say how the twelve pieces, the ten, the one and Benjamin fit together, and these notes leave the verses side by side.

The verses

“Ahijah took the new garment that was on him, and tore it in twelve pieces. He said to Jeroboam, “Take ten pieces; for the LORD, 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),”
1 Kings 11:30-32 · World English Bible
“But as for the children of Israel who lived in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them.”
1 Kings 12:17 · World English Bible
“When all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they sent and called him to the congregation, and made him king over all Israel. There was no one who followed David’s house, except for the tribe of Judah only. When Rehoboam had come to Jerusalem, he assembled all the house of Judah and the tribe of Benjamin, a hundred and eighty thousand chosen men who were warriors, to fight against the house of Israel, to bring the kingdom again to Rehoboam the son of Solomon.”
1 Kings 12:20-21 · World English Bible
““Speak to Rehoboam the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the rest of the people, saying,”
1 Kings 12:23 · World English Bible

From Favor's study of 1 Kings 12

1 Kings 12: A servant to this people

The people asked relief from "hard service" (12:4), in Hebrew the same two words used of Israel's slavery in Egypt (Exodus 1:14). And Jeroboam's words over his calves, "which brought you up out of the land of Egypt" (12:28), are the words said over the golden calf (Exodus 32:4).

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Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Every answer cites the verses it rests on. What we believe · All Bible questions