Wherefore the king hearkened not unto the people; for the cause was from the LORD, that he might perform his saying, which the LORD spake by Ahijah the Shilonite unto Jeroboam the son of Nebat.
The cause was from the Lord. That was the overruling cause. Rehoboam's weakness (Ecclesiastes 2:18-19) and inexperience in public affairs has given rise to the probable conjecture, that like many other princes in the East, he had been kept secluded in the harem until the period of his accession (Ecclesiastes 4:14), his father being either afraid of his aspiring to the sovereignty, like the two sons David or, which is more probable, afraid of prematurely exposing his imbecility. The king's haughty and violent answer to "the people" (1 Kings 12:13) -
i.e, the representatives of the people-a people already filled with a spirit of discontent and exasperation-indicated so great an incapacity to appreciate the gravity of the crisis, so utter a want of common-sense, as to create a belief that he was struck with judicial blindness. It was received with mingled scorn and derision. The prospective connection between the tribes of Israel and their youthful monarch ended before it had well been formed. The revolt was accomplished, and yet so quietly, that Rehoboam remained in Shechem, fancying himself the sovereign of a united kingdom, until his chief taxgatherer, who had been most imprudently sent to treat with the people, had been stoned to death. This opened has eyes, and he fled for security to Jerusalem. In such a fearful commotion of the political elements, it required a mind of no common prudence and energy to steer the helm on the agitated billows, and Rehoboam was not the pilot to weather the storm.