The division of the kingdom into Judah and Israel, which took place
soon after the death of Solomon, had cast its shadow before. When
Solomon, on the day after his marriage with the Egyptian princess,
disturbed the regular course of the Temple service by sleeping late
with his head on the pillow under which lay the key of the Temple,
Jeroboam with eighty thousand Ephraimites approached the king and
publicly called him to account for is negligence. God administered a
reproof to Jeroboam; "Why dost thou reproach a prince of Israel? As
thou livest, thou shalt have a taste of his rulership, and thou wilt
see thou are not equal to its responsibilities." (1)
On another occasion a clash occurred between Jeroboam and Solomon. The
latter ordered his men to close the openings David had made in the city
wall to facilitate the approach of the pilgrims to Jerusalem. This
forced them all the walk through the gates and pay toll. The tax thus
collected Solomon gave to his wife, the daughter of Pharaoh, as
pin-money. Indignant at this, Jeroboam questioned the king about it in
public. In other ways, too, he failed to pay Solomon the respect due to
royal position, as his father before him, Sheba the son of Bichri, had
rebelled against David, misled by signs and tokens which he had falsely
interpreted as pointing to his own elevation to royal dignity, when in
reality they concerned themselves with his son. (2)
It was when Jeroboam was preparing to depart from Jerusalem forever, in
order to escape the dangers to which Solomon's displeasure exposed him,
(3) that Ahijah of Shilo met him with the Divine tidings of his
elevation to the kingship. The prophet Ahijah, of the tribe of Levi,
was venerable, not only by reason of his hoary age, his birth
occurred at least sixty years before the exodus from Egypt, (4) but
because his piety was so profound that a saint of the exalted standing
of Simon ben Yohai associated Ahijah with himself. Simon once
exclaimed: "My merits and Ahijah together suffice to atone for the
iniquity of all sinners from the time of Abraham until the advent of
the Messiah." (5)