Maacah (wife of Rehoboam)
Maacah (Hebrew: מעכה, Maʻaḵā; "Name means::oppression") was the wife of King Rehoboam, the son of Solomon. King Rehoboam was the king who reigned when Israel divided into two kingdoms. Maacah is mentioned in 1 Kings 15:2 as the mother of Abijam (called Abijah in 2_Chronicles 11:20 ) the son of Rehoboam, and thus, Rehoboam's wife as well as Queen Mother during the time of her son Abijam's reign and during her grandson's reign.
Though Rehoboam had 18 wives and sixty concubines, 2 Chronicles 11:21 says he loved Maacah, the daughter of Abishalom, more than all the others. Probably here "daughter of Absalom" should have the sense of granddaughter since in 2 Samuel 14:27 , Absalom was said to have had only one daughter, Tamar, and 2 Samuel 18:18 says Absalom left no son (so his three sons must not have survived).[1] This fits well with 2 Chronicles 13:2 , where her name is spelled Micaiah, and she is said to be the daughter of Uriel of Gibeah. This would mean that Maacah was the daughter of Tamar (and the granddaughter of Absalom) and Tamar's husband Uriel. Often, "son of" or "daughter of" can refer to grandson or granddaughter or other descendants such as when Jesus, in Luke 13:16 refers to a woman born thousands of years after Abraham as a "daughter of Abraham".
Rehoboam's first wife was Mahalath, the daughter of Jerimoth, the son of David, but his love for Maacah may be intended to explain why he made his son Abijah king in his place. In 2 Chronicles 11:22 , Abijah was appointed chief prince. It seems that Maacah continued in her position of Queen Mother even into the reign of her grandson Asa, because 2 Chronicles 15:16 records that she was removed from this position because she had ordered the construction of an Asherah pole. It was important to the people of Judah to see that even someone in the King's family had no right to worship idols.
16 Even Maacah, his mother, King Asa removed from being queen mother because she had made a detestable image for Asherah. Asa cut down her image, crushed it, and burned it at the brook Kidron.
References
- ↑ Commentary on the Old Testament in Ten volumes by C. F. Keil and F. Delitzsch, Volume III, The Books of the Chronicles by C. F. Keil, Translated from the German by Andrew Harper, B.D. p. 346, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, Grand Rapids, Michigan
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