2 Chronicles 11:14 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

For Jeroboam and his sons cast them off They would not suffer them to instruct the Israelites in the worship of God, nor to go up to Jerusalem to worship in their courses: and these priests would not join with them in the worship of the calves, as they were commanded by Jeroboam to do; and therefore they willingly forsook all their patrimonies and possessions for God's sake. No secular advantages whatsoever should detain us there, where we are in danger of making shipwreck of faith and a good conscience. It was a mercy to these priests and Levites that they had a place of refuge to flee to; and that, when Jeroboam cast them off, there were those so near that would receive and bid them welcome; and that they were not forced to flee into the lands of the heathen. And it was an evidence that they loved their work better than their maintenance, in that they left their suburbs and possessions in the country, where they might have lived at ease upon their own property, because they were restrained from serving God there, and in that, casting themselves upon God's providence, and the charity of their brethren, they came where they might have the full enjoyment of God's ordinances, according to his own institution. They judged that poverty, in the way of duty, was to be chosen, rather than plenty, in the way of sin; and that it was better to live upon alms, or die in a prison, with a good conscience, than roll in wealth and pleasure with a prostituted one. At the same time, it was the wisdom and praise of Rehoboam and his people, that they bid them welcome, though they probably incommoded themselves to make room for them. Conscientious refugees bring a blessing along with them to the countries that entertain them, as they leave a curse behind them with those that expel them.