1 Kings Chapter 15

From: Notes and Comments 2

Narrator: Chris Genthree

1 Kings 15 • 2 min. read • grade level: 9

There is certainly confusion here, as verse 6 comes in after Abijam. It is some question to me if Maachah was Absalom's daughter or granddaughter. If Absalom's daughter, allowing only five years from Absalom's death, she must have been six years old at David's death; the common chronology gives eight. Rehoboam was a year old when Solomon began to reign, so that she was five or seven years older than Rehoboam if Absalom's daughter, supposing her born within a year before his death-the shortest possible almost. Solomon reigned forty years, this makes her forty-six or forty-eight at Rehoboam's accession. It is possible she may have been Absalom's granddaughter, as in Chronicles it is not said his mother was Maachah. If 2 Chron. 11:20, 21, 22,²⁰And after her he took Maachah the daughter of Absalom; which bare him Abijah, and Attai, and Ziza, and Shelomith. ²¹And Rehoboam loved Maachah the daughter of Absalom above all his wives and his concubines: (for he took eighteen wives, and threescore concubines; and begat twenty and eight sons, and threescore daughters.) ²²And Rehoboam made Abijah the son of Maachah the chief, to be ruler among his brethren: for he thought to make him king. (2 Chronicles 11:20‑22) be directly connected, it is clearly so. The mother's place was, and is a kind of official one in the East, not the wife's.

There remains 2 Chron. 13:2,²He reigned three years in Jerusalem. His mother's name also was Michaiah the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah. And there was war between Abijah and Jeroboam. (2 Chronicles 13:2) which, if not a mere misreading, must be compared with chapter 11:20-22; and, if the same Abijah, raises further the question of Absalom or Abishalom-is Absalom the son of David? The fact of Kings 15:2 and 10, shows that something is to be sought out, some key I mean to it. The author of Kings and Chronicles cannot contradict themselves, nor each other, in the same passage, and both on the same point.

I think it is evident that it was not Absalom's daughter—it might be his granddaughter but it is very doubtful. Maachah may have been Abijah's grandmother. But there seems little doubt Abijah's mother was of Benjamin; it may be she was called Michaiah, and Maachah as the change of name is the commonest thing possible. Uriel and Abishalom were both known. One Uriel, I suppose, her father, the other a well-known ancestor. So Abihail, 2 Chron. 11:18,¹⁸And Rehoboam took him Mahalath the daughter of Jerimoth the son of David to wife, and Abihail the daughter of Eliab the son of Jesse; (2 Chronicles 11:18) is evidently only a descendant of Eliab's. It is thus possible, though I doubt it, that Maachah may have been a granddaughter of Absalom, and daughter of Uriel. What adds to the probability of this is that Absalom was son of Maachah, so that the name may have been kept in the family; 1 Chron. 3:2²The third, Absalom the son of Maachah the daughter of Talmai king of Geshur: the fourth, Adonijah the son of Haggith: (1 Chronicles 3:2). Uriel was a Benjamite, and called his daughter Michaiah; Maachah was given in Judah where David's family connection was naturally kept up.