and tenderhearted, and could not withstand them. 8And now ye think to withstand the kingdom of the LORD in the hand of the sons of David; and ye be a great multitude, and there are with you the golden calves which Jeroboam made you for gods. 9Have ye not driven out the priests of the LORD, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites, and have made you priests after the manner of the peoples of other lands? so that whosoever cometh to consecrate himself with a young bullock and seven rams, the same may be a priest of them that are no gods. 10But as for us, the LORD is our God, and we have not forsaken him; and we have priests ministering unto the LORD, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites in their work: 11and they burn unto the LORD every morning and
statement made is inconsistent with xii. 13, where it is said that Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he began to reign. It is possible, however, that the word is used metaphorically to describe one who was young (as indeed his conduct showed) in experience of government; so Solomon (1 Kin. iii. 7) calls himself a little child, by which he meant simply to express his consciousness of the smallness of his own ability when compared with the greatness of the task which lay before him, cp. 1 Chr. xxix. 1. A similar difficulty arises in regard to the age of Solomon, see Ency. Brit. s.v. Solomon.
tenderhearted] i.e., according to Heb. phraseology, weak in understanding, the heart being considered to be the seat of the mind. Or we may translate the Heb. phrase as in Deut. xx. 8, fainthearted.
9. driven out] see note on xi. 14.
after the manner of the peoples of other lands] i.e. who, unlike Israel, had no special class from which alone their priests were taken. Possibly, following the LXX., we should read from the people of the land (i.e. anyone who chose to apply, whether a Levite or not), cp. 1 Kin. xii. 31, xiii. 33.
to consecrate himself] Lit. to fill his hand. Moses is directed (Ex. xxix. 1 ff.) to ordain Aaron and his sons priests by three ceremonies: (1) by anointing them, (2) by filling their hands, i.e. by presenting them with victims upon which they laid their hands, (3) by hallowing them, i.e. by sprinkling some of the blood of the victim upon them.
a young bullock and seven rams] Aaronic priests were consecrated with a young bullock and two rams (Ex. xxix. 1).
10. in their work] sc. ministering unto the LORD, as above. Part of the ideal of the Priestly Code was that the Levites should be restricted to the duty of helping the priests, and should be prevented from executing priestly functions themselves. With this ideal the Chronicler plainly sympathised, but it could not always be realised.
11. every morning and every evening] Ex. xxix. 38—42.
