Bible Strands
1 Kings 12:1
Then Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had gone there to make him king.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Rehoboam travels to Shechem at the precise moment the northern tribes have assembled there to formally establish him as their monarch. This movement occurs immediately before Jeroboam, who remains in Egypt, learns of the gathering.
The words — The Hebrew verb וַ/יֵּ֥לֶךְ (va/i.Ye.lekh) records his physical departure, while כִּי (ki) establishes the causal reason that all Israel had already arrived to make him king.
The thread — The text notes this assembly in parallel in 2 Chronicles 10:1, recalls Shechem's earlier role in Judges 9:6, and traces the city's biblical footprint back to Genesis 12:6.
Why it lands — The verse states a new king's arrival at a politically charged location where tribal allegiance is being negotiated, requiring a reader to track how leadership transitions depend on the physical presence of the people.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And Rehoboam went to Shechem: for all Israel were come to Shechem to make him king.
Cross-references
- Judges 9:6 Then all the leaders of Shechem and Beth-millo gathered beside the oak at the pillar in Shechem and proceeded to make Abimelech their king.
- 2 Chronicles 10:1 Then Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had gone there to make him king.
- Genesis 12:6 Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the Oak of Moreh at Shechem. And at that time the Canaanites were in the land.
- Genesis 33:18 After Jacob had come from Paddan-aram, he arrived safely at the city of Shechem in the land of Canaan, and he camped just outside the city.
- Joshua 20:7 So they set apart Kedesh in Galilee in the hill country of Naphtali, Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the hill country of Judah.
- Joshua 24:1 Then Joshua assembled all the tribes of Israel at Shechem. He summoned the elders, leaders, judges, and officers of Israel, and they presented themselves before God.
- Joshua 24:32 And the bones of Joseph, which the Israelites had brought up out of Egypt, were buried at Shechem in the plot of land that Jacob had purchased from the sons of Hamor, Shechem’s father, for a hundred pieces of silver. So it became an inheritance for Joseph’s descendants.
- Judges 9:1 Now Abimelech son of Jerubbaal went to his mother’s brothers at Shechem and said to them and to all the clan of his mother,
- 1 Kings 11:43 And Solomon rested with his fathers and was buried in the city of his father David. And his son Rehoboam reigned in his place.
- Psalms 60:6 God has spoken from His sanctuary: “I will triumph! I will parcel out Shechem and apportion the Valley of Succoth.