John Gill's Bible Commentary Ver. 1. Now in the eighteenth year of King Jeroboam the son of Nebat reigned Abijam over Judah .] That is, began to reign; and by this it appears that Rehoboam was in the eighteenth year of his reign when he died, for he and Jeroboam began their reign at the same time.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 1-8 - Abijam's heart was not perfect with the Lord his God; he wante sincerity; he began well, but he fell off, and walked in all the sin of his father, following his bad example, though he had seen the ba consequences of it. David's family was continued as a lamp in Jerusalem, to maintain the true worship of God there, when the light of Divine truth was extinguished in all other places. The Lord has stil taken care of his cause, while those who ought to have been serviceabl thereto have lived and perished in their sins. The Son of David wil still continue a light to his church, to establish it in truth an righteousness to the end of time. There are two kinds of fulfilling the law, one legal, the other by the gospel. Legal is, when men do all things required in the law, and that by themselves. None ever thu fulfilled the law but Christ, and Adam before his fall. The gospe manner of fulfilling the law is, to believe in Christ who fulfilled the law for us, and to endeavour in the whole man to obey God in all his precepts. And this is accepted of God, as to all those that are in Christ. Thus David and others are said to fulfil the law.
Original Hebrew ובשׁנת8141 שׁמנה8083 עשׂרה6240 למלך4428 ירבעם3379 בן1121 נבט5028 מלך4427 אבים38 על5921 יהודה׃3063
