1 Kings 12:11

11 And now, whereas my father put a heavy yoke on you, I will add to your yoke; my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scourges!' "

1 Kings 12:11 Meaning and Commentary

1 Kings 12:11

And now, whereas my father did lade you with a heavy yoke,
&c.] Which was putting words into his mouth, owning the charge and accusation brought against his father, as he did, ( 1 Kings 12:14 ) , which was very unbecoming, if true; unless this is said according to the sense of the people:

I will add to your yoke;
make it heavier, lay more taxes on them:

my father hath chastised you with whips;
which was putting a lie into his mouth, and which he uttered, ( 1 Kings 12:14 ) for no instance of severity exercised on the people in general can be given during the whole reign of Solomon:

but I will chastise you with scorpions;
treat them more roughly, and with greater rigour: whips may mean smaller ones, these horse whips, as in the Targum; which gave an acute pain, like the sting of scorpions, or made a wound like one. Ben Gersom says, these were rods with thorns on them, which pierced and gave much pain. Weemse ^F8 thinks these are alluded to by thorns in the sides, ( Numbers 33:55 ) ( Judges 2:3 ) , for whipping with them was about the sides, and not along the back. Abarbinel calls them iron thorns, rods that had iron prongs or rowels to them, which tore the flesh extremely. Isidore ^F9 says, a rod that is smooth is called a rod, but, if knotty and prickled, it is rightly called a scorpion, because it makes a wound in the body arched or crooked. Pliny ^F11 ascribes the invention of this sort of scorpions to the Cretians.

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FOOTNOTES:

F8 Christian Synagogue, paragraph 6. diatrib. 2. p. 190.
F9 Origin. l. 5. c. 27. p. 39.
F11 Nat. Hist. l. 7. c. 56.

1 Kings 12:11 In-Context

9 And he said to them, "What advice do you give? How should we answer this people who have spoken to me, saying, 'Lighten the yoke which your father put on us'?"

10 Then the young men who had grown up with him spoke to him, saying, "Thus you should speak to this people who have spoken to you, saying, 'Your father made our yoke heavy, but you make it lighter on us'--thus you shall say to them: 'My little finger shall be thicker than my father's waist!

11 And now, whereas my father put a heavy yoke on you, I will add to your yoke; my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scourges!' "

12 So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam the third day, as the king had directed, saying, "Come back to me the third day."

13 Then the king answered the people roughly, and rejected the advice which the elders had given him;

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally scorpions