1 Kings 15:3

And he walked in all the sins of his father, which he had done before him: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(3) Walked in all the sins of his father.—This adoption of the idolatries of Rehoboam did not prevent Abijam (see 2Chronicles 13:4-12) from representing himself as the champion of the Temple and the priesthood against the rival worship of Jeroboam, and dedicating treasures—perhaps the spoils of his victory—in the house of the Lord. From the qualified phrase “his heart was not perfect before God,” however, it may be inferred that, like Solomon and Rehoboam, he professed to worship Jehovah only as the supreme God of his Pantheon; and it is a curious irony of circumstance that he should be recorded as inveighing against the degradation of His worship in Israel, while he himself countenanced or connived at the worse sin of the worship of rival gods in Judah.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

15:1-8 Abijam's heart was not perfect with the Lord his God; he wanted sincerity; he began well, but he fell off, and walked in all the sins of his father, following his bad example, though he had seen the bad consequences of it. David's family was continued as a lamp in Jerusalem, to maintain the true worship of God there, when the light of Divine truth was extinguished in all other places. The Lord has still taken care of his cause, while those who ought to have been serviceable thereto have lived and perished in their sins. The Son of David will still continue a light to his church, to establish it in truth and righteousness to the end of time. There are two kinds of fulfilling the law, one legal, the other by the gospel. Legal is, when men do all things required in the law, and that by themselves. None ever thus fulfilled the law but Christ, and Adam before his fall. The gospel manner of fulfilling the law is, to believe in Christ who fulfilled the law for us, and to endeavour in the whole man to obey God in all his precepts. And this is accepted of God, as to all those that are in Christ. Thus David and others are said to fulfil the law.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

He walked in all the sins of his father - Yet Abijam prepared precious offerings for the temple service 1 Kings 15:15, probably to replace vessels which Shishak had carried off, and in his war with Jeroboam professed himself a faithful servant of Yahweh 2 Chronicles 13:10-12.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

3. his heart was not perfect with the Lord … , as the heart of David his father—(Compare 1Ki 11:4; 14:22). He was not positively bad at first, for it appears that he had done something to restore the pillaged treasures of the temple (1Ki 15:15). This phrase contains a comparative reference to David's heart. His doing that which was right in the eyes of the Lord (1Ki 15:5) is frequently used in speaking of the kings of Judah, and means only that they did or did not do that which, in the general course and tendency of their government, was acceptable to God. It furnishes no evidence as to the lawfulness or piety of one specific act.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

In all the sins of his father; which his father lived in; either, first, Before his humiliation. Or rather, secondly, After his deliverance from Shishak, when, though he did not openly renounce the worship of God, he seems to have relapsed into his former sins; which otherwise would not have been remembered against him; as David’s name and memory is never loaded with the shame of his sins, because he truly repented of them.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And he walked in all the sins of his father, which he had done before him,.... Having such bad examples as both parents to copy after; it chiefly respects idolatrous practices, see 1 Kings 14:23,

and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God; he did profess the true God, and worshipped him, but not wholly, and only, and sincerely; he worshipped other gods besides him: and so his heart was not

as the heart of David his father; who was a sole and sincere worshipper of God, never departed from him and his service.

Geneva Study Bible

And he walked in all the sins of his father, which he had done before him: and his heart was not perfect with the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

3. And he walked in all the sins of his father] The LXX. omits ‘all.’ For an account of the sins of Rehoboam see above 1 Kings 14:22-24.

as the heart of David his father] The LXX. omits ‘David.’ The word ‘perfect’ as here applied to David, does not mean that he did not offend, but that he aimed at keeping the law of God, and was deeply penitent for his sin when he fell into it. It was this prompt repentance, and return to what was right, which made David to differ from most of the kings who came after him.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 3. - And he walked in all the sins of his father, which he had done before him [sins, i.e., from the theocratic standpoint. See 1 Kings 14:22, 25. It does not appear that either Abijah or Rehoboam was a vicious man, and from his pious language on Mount Zemaraim (2 Chronicles 13:10-12) we should certainly have thought that Abijah was a god-fearing prince. But ver. 13 proves that he had sanctioned idolatry, and this was no doubt his principal sin, as the next words explain]: and his heart was not perfect with the Lord and his God, as the heart of David his father [the words used of Solomon. 1 Kings 2:4]. 1 Kings 15:3

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Abijam walked as king in the footsteps of his father. Although he made presents to the temple (1 Kings 15:15), his heart was not שׁלם, wholly or undividedly given to the Lord, like the heart of David (cf., 1 Kings 11:4); but (כּי, after a previous negative) for David's sake Jehovah had left him a light in Jerusalem, to set up his son after him and to let Jerusalem stand, because (אשׁר) David had done right in the eyes of God, etc., i.e., so that it was only for David's sake that Jehovah did not reject him, and allowed the throne to pass to his son. For the fact itself compare 1 Kings 11:13, 1 Kings 11:36; and for the words, "except in the matter of Uriah the Hittite," see 2 Samuel 11 and 12.