And Rehoboam the son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty and one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city which the LORD did choose out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there. And his mother's name was Naamah an Ammonitess.
Reigned in Judah - the southern kingdom.
Rehoboam was forty and one years old - (see the notes at 2 Chronicles 13:7.) Its particular designation as "the city which the Lord did choose out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there," seems given here, both as a reflection on the apostasy of the ten tribes, and as a proof of the aggravated wickedness of introducing idolatry its attendant vices there.
His mother's name was Naamah an Ammonitess, х Na`ªmaah (H5279), pleasant; haa-`Amoniyt (H5985), the Ammonitess; Septuagint, hee Amoonitis]. Her pagan extraction, and her influence as queen-mother, are stated to account for Rehoboam's tendency to depart from the true religion. Led by the warning of the prophet (1 Kings 12:23), as well as by the large immigration of Israelites into his kingdom (1 Kings 12:17; 2 Chronicles 11:16), he continued for the first three years of his reign a faithful patron of true religion (2 Chronicles 11:17). But afterward he began and carried on a general apostasy; idolatry became the prevailing form of worship, and the religious state of the kingdom in his reign is described by the high places х baamowt (H1116); Septuagint, hupseela (cf. 2 Kings 17:9-10)], the idolatrous statues [matseebowt, pillars, idol-images (2 Kings 3:2; 2 Kings 10:26; 2 Kings 18:4; 2 Kings 23:14); Septuagint, steelas].