Chapter 21.—Of the Kings After
Solomon, Both in Judah and Israel.
The other kings of the Hebrews
after Solomon are scarcely found to have prophesied, through
certain enigmatic words or actions of theirs, what may pertain to
Christ and the Church, either in Judah or Israel; for so were the
parts of that people styled, when, on account of Solomon’s
offence, from the time of
Rehoboam his son, who succeeded
him in the kingdom, it was divided by God as a punishment. The
ten tribes, indeed, which Jeroboam the servant of Solomon received,
being appointed the king in Samaria, were distinctively called
Israel, although this had been the name of that whole people; but
the two tribes, namely, of Judah and Benjamin, which for David’s
sake, lest the kingdom should be wholly wrenched from his race,
remained subject to the city of Jerusalem, were called Judah,
because that was the tribe whence David sprang. But Benjamin, the
other tribe which, as was said, belonged to the same kingdom, was
that whence Saul sprang before David. But these two tribes
together, as was said, were called Judah, and were distinguished by
this name from Israel which was the distinctive title of the ten
tribes under their own king. For the tribe of Levi, because it
was the priestly one, bound to the servitude of God, not of the
kings, was reckoned the thirteenth. For Joseph, one of the twelve
sons of Israel, did not, like the others, form one tribe, but two,
Ephraim and Manasseh. Yet the tribe of Levi also belonged more to
the kingdom of Jerusalem, where was the temple of God whom it
served. On the division of the people, therefore, Rehoboam, son
of Solomon, reigned in Jerusalem as the first king of Judah, and
Jeroboam, servant of Solomon, in Samaria as king of Israel. And
when Rehoboam wished as a tyrant to pursue that separated part with
war, the people were prohibited from fighting with their brethren
by God, who told them through a prophet that He had done this;
whence it appeared that in this matter there had been no sin either
of the king or people of Israel, but the accomplished will of God
the avenger. When this was known, both parts settled down
peaceably, for the division made was not religious but
political.