Bible Strands
2 Chronicles 10:16
When all Israel saw that the king had refused to listen to them, they answered the king: “What portion do we have in David, and what inheritance in the son of Jesse? To your tents, O Israel! Look now to your own house, O David!” So all the Israelites went home,
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The northern tribes address King Rehoboam immediately after he refuses to reduce the heavy labor taxes imposed by his father. The collective Israelite populace speaks to the monarch, then turns to one another to execute their departure.
The words — The verb שָמַע (sha.Ma') translates literally as "he had listened," marking the king's active refusal to heed their appeal. The phrase כִּי לֹא־ שָמַע הַמֶּלֶךְ (ki lo sha ha-melekh) functions as the direct causal clause triggering the subsequent mass exodus.
The thread — This formal severance parallels the tribal revolt in 2 Samuel 20:1 and confirms the permanent division recorded in 2 Chronicles 10:19. The pattern of abandoning a ruling house repeats the tribal neglect of Gideon's family in Judges 8:35.
Why it lands — The text records a factual political rupture before noting its theological framing as divine fulfillment. It requires the reader to observe how institutional refusal directly produces collective abandonment and lasting division.
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 when all Israel saw that the king would not hearken unto them, the people answered the king, saying, What portion have we in David? and we have none inheritance in the son of Jesse: every man to your tents, O Israel: and now, David, see to thine own house. So all Israel went to their tents.
Cross-references
- 2 Samuel 20:1 Now a worthless man named Sheba son of Bichri, a Benjamite, happened to be there, and he blew the ram’s horn and shouted: “We have no share in David, no inheritance in Jesse’s son. Every man to his tent, O Israel!”
- 2 Chronicles 10:19 So to this day Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David.
- Judges 8:35 They did not show kindness to the house of Jerubbaal (that is, Gideon) for all the good things he had done for Israel.
- 1 Samuel 20:27 But on the day after the New Moon, the second day, David’s place was still empty, and Saul asked his son Jonathan, “Why hasn’t the son of Jesse come to the meal either yesterday or today?”
- 1 Samuel 20:30 Then Saul’s anger burned against Jonathan, and he said to him, “You son of a perverse and rebellious woman! Do I not know that you have chosen the son of Jesse to your own shame and to the shame of the mother who bore you?
- 1 Samuel 22:7 Then Saul said to his servants, “Listen, men of Benjamin! Is the son of Jesse giving all of you fields and vineyards and making you commanders of thousands or hundreds?
- 1 Samuel 22:9 But Doeg the Edomite, who had stationed himself with Saul’s servants, answered: “I saw the son of Jesse come to Ahimelech son of Ahitub at Nob.
- 1 Samuel 22:13 And Saul asked him, “Why have you and the son of Jesse conspired against me? You gave him bread and a sword and inquired of God for him so that he could rise up against me to lie in wait, as he is doing today.”
- 2 Samuel 7:15 But My loving devotion will never be removed from him as I removed it from Saul, whom I removed from before you.
- 2 Samuel 15:13 Then a messenger came to David and reported, “The hearts of the men of Israel are with Absalom.”