1 Kings 11:13

1Ki 11:13 Howbeit I will not rend away all the kingdom; [but] will give one tribe to thy son for David my servant’s sake, and for Jerusalem’s sake which I have chosen.

Ver. 13. I will not rend away all.] Here is a second mitigation of the sentence. See 1Ki 11:12. The Lord is gracious and full of compassion: he quickly repenteth him of the evil, and leaveth a blessing behind him.

One tribe.] Benjamin is reckoned as part of Judah, because within him. {Jos 19:1; Jos 19:9}

For David my servant’s sake.] Five times in this chapter is David honoured with this title, and therein God’s dear respects unto him expressed: but all of mere mercy. How this message wrought upon Solomon is uncertain. Some hold that hereupon he repented; others judge otherwise, and that (1.) Because he replied nothing; (2.) Because that after this he sought to slay Jeroboam, to prevent the rending away of his kingdom threatened, as Saul did to slay David.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Because the tribes of Judah and Benjamin had their possessions mixed, they are here taken as one tribe.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

I will give one tribe to thy son--There were left to Rehoboam the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Levi (Ch2 11:12-13); and multitudes of Israelites, who, after the schism of the kingdom, established their residence within the territory of Judah to enjoy the privileges of the true religion (Kg1 12:17). These are all reckoned as one tribe.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 13. Will give one tribe - for David my servant's sake] The line of the Messiah must be preserved. The prevailing lion must come out of the tribe of Judah: not only the tribe must be preserved, but the regal line and the regal right. All this must be done for the true David's sake: and this was undoubtedly what God had in view by thus miraculously preserving the tribe of Judah and the royal line, in the midst of so general a defection.

And for Jerusalem's sake] As David was a type of the Messiah, so was Jerusalem a type of the true Church: therefore the OLD Jerusalem must be preserved in the hands of the tribe of Judah, till the true David should establish the NEW Jerusalem in the same land, and in the same city. And what a series of providences did it require to do all these things!

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

13. but will give one tribe] The reference is to the tribe of Judah from which the southern kingdom took its name. Benjamin which went with Judah was so small as to be hardly worth accounting of, and Simeon was also absorbed in Judah. The same form of words is used below (1Ki_11:32) in the account of Ahijah’s action, though it is expressly said in a previous verse ‘Take thee ten pieces.’ One reason for the close union of Benjamin with Judah was that the territorial division between the two tribes was such as to make the Temple the common property of both. The city of the Jebusite, which David conquered, and all the ground north of the valley of Hinnom was in the tribe of Benjamin.

for Jerusalem’s sake, which I have chosen] In Deu_12:5 it is signified that God will choose some place out of all the tribes ‘to place His name there,’ and in 1Ki_14:21 Jerusalem is expressly called ‘the city which the Lord did choose out of all the tribes of Israel to put His name there.’ Hence the place was an object of Jehovah’s unchanging regard.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And the Lord stirred up an adversary unto Solomon, Hadad the Edomite,.... Though he did not take his kingdom from him for his sin, he chastised him with the rod of men, as he said he would; suffering one, and then another, to rise up and disturb his peace in his old age, see Sa2 7:14.

he was of the king's seed in Edom; of the blood royal.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

One tribe - i. e., (marginal reference) the tribe of Judah. Benjamin was looked upon as absorbed in Judah, so as not to be really a tribe in the same sense as the others. Still, in memory of the fact that the existing tribe of Judah was a double one 1Ki 12:2 l, the prophet Ahijah tore his garment into twelve parts, and kept back two from Jeroboam 1Ki 11:30-31.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

One tribe. Besides that of Juda, his own native tribe. (Challoner) --- That of Benjamin had been so reduced, that it scarcely deserved the name of a tribe. It was also invariably connected with the adjoining tribe of Juda; as many of the other tribes, after the captivities of Assyria and Babylon, went by the common title of Jews. (Tirinus) --- The Levites, and many of the Israelites, came to inhabit in the land of Juda, for the sake of the true religion, chap. xii. 17., and 2 Paralipomenon xi. 13, 16. Jeroboam banished the tribe of Levi from his dominions, that he might more easily introduce a change of religion among his subjects. The two kingdoms were thus almost equal in strength. (Calmet) --- Chosen for the abode of holiness, and the seat of government. (Salien) --- One tribe....and Jerusalem; which latter may denote the tribe of Benjamin. (Worthington)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

How but one tribe, when he had both Judah and Benjamin, 2Ch 11:12?

Answ. Either Benjamin is swallowed up in Judah, because it was comparatively very small, and their habitation much intermixed with that of Judah: or one, to wit, of that kingdom which he here threatens to rend away from him, i.e. of the kingdom of Israel, and that was Benjamin; one beside Judah, which was his own tribe: or but one, because Benjamin was not entirely his, but part of it adhered to Jeroboam, as Beth-el, 1Ki 12:29, and Ephrain, 2Ch 13:19, both which were towns of Benjamin, Jos 18:22. Or if God promised to give one, and gave him two, I suppose that was no great injury to him.

For Jerusalem’s sake; not, surely, for its merits; but because he had chosen it, as it follows, to be the seat of his temple and worship; it being God’s usual method

to give to him that hath, and to continue and multiply favours to them whom he hath begun to favour.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

13. One tribe — The tribe of Judah, to which David belonged, and into which the tribe of Benjamin seems to have been absorbed. 1Ki_12:21.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Howbeit I win not rend away all the kingdom; but will give one tribe viz., Judah. (1Ki_12:20, "the tribe of Judah only "Even the reservation of one tribe is called a gift" (Wordsworth) to thy son for David my servant"s sake, and for Jerusalem"s sake which I have chosen. But for this provision, Jerusalem would have ceased to be the religious capital. When the sceptre departed from Judah, we may be sure that the "envy of Ephraim" would have demanded that the city of their solemnities should be placed elsewhere at Shiloh, which for 400 years had been God"s "bright sanctuary," or at Bethel, which from far earlier times had been a holy place. (See on 1Ki_12:29, 1Ki_12:32)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

One tribe - Benjamin was not entirely his, but part of it adhered to Jeroboam, as Bethel, chap. xii, 29, and Hephron, 2 Chron. xiii, 19, both which were towns of Benjamin.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.