Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Kings 11:34
Howbeit I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand: but I will make him prince all the days of his life for David my servant’s sake, whom I chose, because he kept my commandments and my statutes:
Translate – Howbeit I will not take ought of the kingdom out of his hand. The context requires this sense.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
The whole kingdom, to wit, of Israel, that which I have designed for thee. Or rather, I will not take any thing, or part of the kingdom. For the Hebrew phrase lo col, which properly signifies not all, or not the whole, doth usually signify not any thing, as Deu 8:9, thou shalt not want every thing, i.e. not any thing. So also Gen 4:15; 23:6; 39:23; Psa 49:17; 143:2, &c. The whole kingdom out of his hand; he shall possess it whilst he lives, as it follows; and therefore thou shalt not yet attempt to invade it.
Because he kept my commandments and my statutes; whereby he showeth that he doth not judge of men by some particular acts, but by their general purpose and course of life.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
Howbeit, I will not take the kingdom out of his hand,…. Not any part of it, 1Ki 11:12,
but I will make him prince all the days of his life; that is, he shall continue to hold the government of all the tribes so long as he lives:
for David my servant’s sake, whom I chose, because he kept my commandments and my statutes; see 1Ki 11:12, or was well pleased with, as the Targum; for keeping the commands of God from right principles, and with right views, is well pleasing to him.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
“ However that may be I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand, but I will make him prince all the days of his life, for David my servant’s sake whom I chose, who kept my commandments and my statutes,”
However, because of His promise to David His chosen king, and for David’s sake, and because David had been obedient to His commandments and statutes, He would not take the whole kingdom away from Solomon. Indeed He would make him ‘prince/ruler’ all the days of his life. There is here both a degrading and a consolidating of Solomon’s position. While outwardly king over all Israel, it is no longer a permanent dynastic position, but one dependent on the will of the people and the mind of YHWH.
1Ki 11:35-36
“ But I will take the kingdom out of his son’s hand, and will give it to you, even ten tribes. And to his son will I give one tribe, that David my servant may have a lamp always before me in Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen for myself to put my name there.”
And while it was YHWH’s intention to take the majority of the kingdom out of the hands of the house of Solomon, ‘even ten tribes’ (ten regularly means ‘a good number’), He would not take the whole kingdom out of his son’s hands. He would give him one tribe, in contrast to the ten tribes that He would give to Jeroboam. This clearly had to mean one tribe as well as Judah, in order to make up the twelve. Thus He saw Judah as already irrevocably belonging to David’s house. (These two tribes would then be known as ‘Judah’ (1Ki 12:20) which became the accepted designation of the southern kingdom).
And the reason for this was so that David might always have a lamp before Him in Jerusalem, the city which YHWH ‘had chosen for Himself’ in response to David’s choice of it. Had David’s house only ruled over Judah, Jerusalem, which was on the border between Judah and Benjamin, and partly belonged to each tribe, would have been in an impossible position. Thus in order to preserve it both Judah and Benjamin were required to unite as one kingdom.
The phrase, ‘that David my servant may have a lamp always before me in Jerusalem’, the idea behind which is repeated in 1Ki 15:4; 2Ki 8:19, may possibly have in mind 2Sa 21:17 where David was seen as the lamp of Israel because as the chosen king he was seen as the nation’s very life, and the means of God’s light shining on them. It had been David’s, and the people’s, longing that his house might always be such a light, and God now confirms that it will be so. Compare how in Lam 4:20 the Davidic king was also seen as ‘the breath of our nostrils’. He was seen as essential to their whole wellbeing.
But in the end the lamp indicated a living representative of the house of David, just as the seven-branched lampstand in the Tabernacle visibly represented YHWH among His people. There would be a Davidic representative while the kingdom lasted.
Having ‘chosen Jerusalem’ because it had been David’s choice to make it His Sanctuary, God now confirmed His choice of Jerusalem as the place where His Name would dwell (compare 1Ki 11:11 which was the first mention of such an idea concerning Jerusalem). We should note that this ‘choice’ of Jerusalem is always linked with the name of David. It was the fact of the presence of the Davidic throne and of the Ark in Jerusalem that made Jerusalem YHWH’s choice. (Thus once Jerusalem rejected Jesus it ceased to be the city of God’s choice).
Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett
1Ki 11:34 Howbeit I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand: but I will make him prince all the days of his life for David my servant’s sake, whom I chose, because he kept my commandments and my statutes:
Ver. 34. Howbeit I will not. ] See on 1Ki 11:13 .
But I will make him prince all the days, &c.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Howbeit: 1Ki 11:12, 1Ki 11:13, 1Ki 11:31, Job 11:6, Psa 103:10, Hab 3:2
for David: Isa 55:3
Reciprocal: Deu 17:20 – right hand 2Sa 7:15 – as I took 1Ki 3:3 – walking 1Ki 12:16 – now see 2Ch 10:16 – David Psa 89:19 – exalted Psa 132:10 – thy servant
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
1Ki 11:34. I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hands Solomon held even the ten tribes as long as he lived. But I will make him prince all the days of his life This was an admonition to Jeroboam not to molest Solomon in his life-time, by raising a rebellion against him; and also to walk in Gods ways as David did, and not fall into idolatry; for which sin God resolved to punish Solomon so severely as to rend the greatest part of his kingdom from his posterity. For David my servants sake Not for his own sake; he had forfeited his crown to the justice of God; but for his fathers sake. Children that do not tread in their parents steps, says Henry, yet often fare the better in this world for their good parents piety.