1 Kings 11:37

1Ki 11:37 And I will take thee, and thou shalt reign according to all that thy soul desireth, and shalt be king over Israel.

Ver. 37. And thou shalt reign.] This the bramble held a goodly business, not so the vine and fig tree. {Jdg 9:8-15}

According to all that thy soul desireth.] God oft gratifieth the wicked for a mischief to them; filling their bellies with his hid treasure, {Psa 17:14} which they must afterwards vomit up again with pain enough. {Job 20:15}

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.

1Ki 11:37. I will take thee — From the condition wherein thou art, and place thee on a throne, as here follows. Thou shalt reign according to all thy soul desireth — According to thy utmost wishes and desires. It appears from this that he was a very aspiring and ambitious man, fond of power and pre-eminence; and it is not unlikely but he might at this time be plotting against Solomon, and contriving to rise to the throne. The Jews say, that when he was employed by Solomon in repairing and building Millo, as the expenses attending the work were very great, he took opportunities of reflecting upon Solomon as oppressive to his people, and of suggesting that which he thought would alienate them from his government, and infuse a spirit of sedition and revolt. He complained heavily, especially to his brethren of the tribe of Ephraim, “of the hard labour to which they were forced to submit, and the taxes they were obliged to pay; and to represent the whole affair as a work of vanity, merely to gratify a proud foreign woman, and a silly, doting king; for Solomon filled up a part of the valley of Millo to build a palace for Pharaoh’s daughter. By these insinuations, it is thought, Jeroboam wrought in the people a disaffection to Solomon and his government.” See Calmet’s Dict. under the word MILLO.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Hebrew, in all that thy soul.

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

Verse 37. According to all that thy soul desireth] It appears from this that Jeroboam had affected the kingdom, and was seeking for an opportunity to seize on the government. God now tells him, by his prophet, what he shall have, and what he shall not have, in order to prevent him from attempting to seize on the whole kingdom, to the prejudice of the spiritual seed of David.

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

37. according to all that thy soul desireth] Or (as margin R.V.) ‘over all &c.’ The prophet was, as it appears, aware of Jeroboam’s ambition. Events were leading up to the coming separation of the kingdoms, and there may have been many opportunities for Jeroboam to disclose his desires and aims.

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.

Solomon sought therefore to kill Jeroboam,.... Which is another instance of his folly, to seek to detest the counsel of God, when he himself was assured by the Lord the kingdom should be rent, and given to his servant, Kg1 11:11 and especially if he was informed of what passed between Ahijah and Jeroboam, as it should seem by this he was; either through Ahijah's making no secret of it, or through Jeroboam not being able to keep his own counsel, or through the report of the servants what they saw done, Kg1 11:29, which Solomon would easily understand:

and Jeroboam arose and fled into Egypt; the common sanctuary of persons in distress in those days:

unto Shishak king of Egypt; either the father in law or the brother in law of Solomon, or one of another family, on whom the kingdom devolved; and who might not have any good respect for Solomon, and therefore Jeroboam thought himself safe with him: this is the only king of Egypt, in Scripture, that is called by his own name, and not Pharaoh; he is generally supposed to be the same with the Sesostris of Herodotus (t), and the Vexoris or Vexosis of Justin (u); and the rather he may be meant, since, according to Herodotus (w), he was the only king of Egypt that ruled over the Ethiopians: and Strabo says (x) he was the first that subdued Ethiopia and the country of the Troglodytes; also Diodorus Siculus affirms (y), that he fought with the Ethiopians dwelling to the south, and obliged them to pay tribute; out of which countries Shishak brought many with him in his expedition against Jerusalem, Ch2 12:2.

and was in Egypt until the death of Solomon; not daring to return till that time, and then he did.

(t) Euterpe, sive, l. 2. c. 102. (u) E Trogo, l. 1. c. 1. (w) Ut supra, (Euterpe, sive, l. 2.) c. 110. (x) Geograph. l. 16. p. 529. (y) Bibliothec. l. 1. p. 50.

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

Desireth. It seems he was already disposed to revolt. (Calmet)

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).

I will take thee, and place thee in the throne, as it follows.

According to all that thy soul desireth; he secretly taxeth him for his ambitious and aspiring mind.

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

37. According to all that thy soul desireth — From this we may infer that Jeroboam already had an eye to the throne, and his soul yearned for regal power. His office of ruler of the house of Joseph (1Ki_11:28) had begotten within him lofty aspirations.

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

And I will take thee, and thou shalt reign according to all that thy soul desireth We are not justified in concluding from these words that Jeroboam then had ambitious designs upon the throne (Keil). They rather mean, "as king, all thy desires shall be gratified" (cf. Deu_12:20 Deu_14:26; 1Sa_2:16; 2Sa_3:21) Bahr paraphrases "thou shalt have the dominion thou now strivest for," but we have absolutely no proof that Jeroboam at that time had ever meditated rebellion. It is quite possible that the idea was inspired by this interview, and shalt be king over Israel.

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

General Information:

Ahijah continues to tell Jeroboam what Yahweh has said.

I will take you

Here the word "I" refers to Yahweh and the word "you" refers to Jeroboam.

what is right in my eyes

The word "eyes" here is a metonym for someone's opinion or idea. This is a commonly used idiom. See how you translated this phrase in 1 Kings 11:33. (See: Metonymy and Idiom)

build you a sure house

The clause "build a house" is a metaphor for establishing descendants from that time on. AT: "establish for you a lasting kingdom" (See: Metaphor)

translationWords

fulfill

king

house

punish

descend

eternity

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.