11:13-17 The apostasy that Jeroboam initiated in the north (see 1 Kgs 12:26-33) led those who sincerely wanted to worship the Lord to emigrate to the south. Rehoboam followed the Lord faithfully for three years, but he was unfaithful in the fourth year of his reign (2 Chr 12:1). God then immediately punished Rehoboam by sending Shishak to invade from Egypt (12:2-5).

11:15 Some scholars believe that Jeroboam set up the goat and calf idols as pedestals for the Lord, noting that the Canaanites believed that their gods stood on the backs of animals (cp. Exod 32:5, where the gold calf was used in “a festival to the Lord”). However, Jeroboam never specifically credited the Lord with rescuing Israel (1 Kgs 12:28), so others think he might have meant that other gods stood on the animals. Still others think Jeroboam might have adopted the practice of the Egyptians, portraying actual pagan deities in animal form (cp. Exod 32:4).

11:18-22 The numbers of Rehoboam’s wives and children are probably the total from his entire reign rather than those accumulated by his fifth year. Rehoboam loved his second wife more than his first, so he violated the right of primogeniture (inheritance belonging to the firstborn son, Deut 21:15-17) by making Abijah . . . the next king in what might have been co-regency. This action secured an orderly succession.