1 Kings 15:6

And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days of his life.

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(6) And there was war.—In this verse (omitted in the Vatican MS. of the LXX.) the repetition of the notice of Rehoboam, in spite of some artificial explanations, seems inexplicable. Probably there is error in the text.

Benson Commentary

1 Kings 15:6. This was mentioned before, (1 Kings 14:30,) and therefore may seem to come in here improperly, because the historian is not speaking of Rehoboam, but of his son Abijam. Bochart thinks that Rehoboam stands here for the son of Rehoboam. But the meaning of these words seems rather to be, that though God was pleased, for David’s sake, to continue a lamp, that is, a successor, to him in Jerusalem; yet these successors were vexed with continual wars, as appeared both in the reign of Rehoboam and of Abijam, and did not enjoy their kingdom peaceably.

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

The writer repeats what he had said in 1 Kings 14:30, in order to remind the reader that Abijam inherited this war from his father. Abijam's war is described in marginal reference That the author of Kings gives none of its details is agreeable to his common practice in mere military matters. Thus he gives no details of Shishak's expedition, and omits Zerah's expedition altogether.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

4. for David's sake did the Lord his God give him a lamp—"A lamp" in one's house is an Oriental phrase for continuance of family name and prosperity. Abijam was not rejected only in consequence of the divine promise to David (see on [314]1Ki 11:13-36).

Matthew Poole's Commentary

Which was said 1 Kings 14:30, and may be here repeated, to signify the cause and original of the war between Abijam and Jeroboam, which is implied here, and particularly described 2Ch 13. Abijam continued the war which Rehoboam had begun, and pushed it on to a decisive battle. But the place may be thus rendered, Yet there was war, &c., i.e. although God was pleased to show so much respect to David, as for his sake to continue the succession to the kingdom in his posterity, yet he thought fit to manifest his displeasure against David’s successors for their sins, and to mix their honour and happiness with wars and troubles.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days of his life. Not the days of Rehoboam, though that was true, and is observed, 1 Kings 14:30, but all the days of Abijam, before he came to the throne, and in which, when a young man, he was concerned, and which still continued between him and Jeroboam; though some think he is called by his father's name, as Rehoboam is called David, 1 Kings 12:16.

Geneva Study Bible

And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days of his life.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

6. And [R.V. Now] there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam &c.] The whole of this verse is omitted by the LXX. and it seems altogether out of place in a notice of the reign of Abijam, and has been already inserted [1 Kings 14:30] in the history of Rehoboam, while the parallel statement in reference to Abijam comes in the next verse.

Pulpit Commentary

Verse 6. - And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all the days of his life. [Practically identical with 1 Kings 14:30, where see note. Thenius thinks the insertion of the words were due to the carelessness of some copyist, and Bahr admits that our present text is possibly not the original one. For Rehoboam, some MSS., with the Syriac and Arabic, read Abijah, but this is clearly an emendation, which in turn begets another repetition (ver. 7), and there is really no need either to alter or suspect the text. Such repetitions are quite in accordance with Eastern usage, and Rehoboam here stands for the house of Rehoboam, or the cause and kingdom which Rehoboam represented. The object of mentioning his name can hardly be "to remind the reader that Abijam inherited this war from his father" (Rawlinson), for it was only on Rehoboam's death that the slumbering hostility blazed out into actual war. That there was warfare between Abi-jam and Jeroboam we know not only from ver. 7, but from 2 Chronicles 13:3-20 also. 1 Kings 15:6

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

"And there was war between Rehoboam and Jeroboam all his life;" i.e., the state of hostility which had already existed between Rehoboam and Jeroboam continued "all the days of his life," or so long as Abijam lived and reigned. If we take חיּיו כּל־ימי in this manner (not כּל־ימיהם, 1 Kings 15:16), the statement loses the strangeness which it has at first sight, and harmonizes very well with that in 1 Kings 15:7, that there was also war between Abijam and Jeroboam. Under Abijam it assumed the form of a serious war, in which Jeroboam sustained a great defeat (see 2 Chronicles 13:3-20). - The other notices concerning Abijam in 1 Kings 15:7, 1 Kings 15:8 are the same as in the case of Rehoboam in 1 Kings 14:29, 1 Kings 14:31.