mighty, &c.] The more fit to be the head of a faction.
was industrious] Heb. did work.
ruler] Thus he might the sooner know the complaints of people, and more readily draw them after him.
charge] Heb. burden.
Joseph] Ephraim and Manasseh. It is probable, that Solomon, to maintain the state of his seven hundred wives, and three hundred concubines, laid great taxes on his people (chap. 12. 4.) which made them complain; and that, upon their complaint, Jereboam might expostulate the case with the king, and the king thereupon eye Jeroboam, as Saul eyed David, 1 Samuel 18:9.