And the man Jeroboam was a mighty man of valour,.... A man of great strength of body, and fortitude of mind:
and Solomon seeing the young man that he was industrious; in what he was set about in the above buildings and repairs:
he made him ruler over all the charge of the house of Joseph; the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, to be a prince or a deputy governor of them; or rather to collect the king's tax from them, or the revenues of that part of the country, see Proverbs 22:29.