Hebrew word · H3379
יָֽרָבְעָם
yarave'am
Jeroboam
A personal name, possibly meaning 'may the people multiply' or 'the people contend'. The meaning is uncertain. In Kings the full name 'Jeroboam son of Nebat' becomes a stock phrase.
Appears 104 times in 95 verses of the Hebrew Old Testament. ·
What it means
A king of the Kingdom of Israel, living at the time of United Monarchyand Divided Monarchy, first mentioned at 1Ki.11.26;
son of: Nebat (H5028) and Zeruah (H6871);
father of: Abijah (H0029H), Nadab (H5070H)
§ Jeroboam = "the people will contend"
1) the first king of the northern kingdom of Israel when the kingdom split at the death of Solomon and the 10 tribes split off from Judah and Benjamin and the kingdom under Solomon's son Rehoboam; idolatry was introduced at the beginning of his reign
2) the 8th king of the northern kingdom of Israel, son of Joash, and 4th in the dynasty of Jehu; during his reign the Syrian invaders were repelled and the kingdom restored to its former borders but the idolatry of the kingdom was maintained
Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).
In depth
- Range of meaning
A personal name, possibly meaning 'may the people multiply' or 'the people contend'. The meaning is uncertain. In Kings the full name 'Jeroboam son of Nebat' becomes a stock phrase.
- Against the English
Translations simply give the name. What English readers miss is how strong the reference is: it calls up the whole story of Israel's founding sin.
- Used elsewhere in the period
Jeroboam set up golden calves at Bethel and Dan (1 Kgs 12:28–30). Kings repeatedly judges northern kings by whether they 'walked in the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, who made Israel sin'. Ahijah the Shilonite announced that his house would be 'cut off', with dogs and birds eating the dead (1 Kgs 14:10–11). This came true when Baasha killed his whole family (1 Kgs 15:29).
Where it appears
1 Kings · 55
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2 Kings · 24
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1 Chronicles · 1
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2 Chronicles · 19
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Hosea · 1
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Amos · 4
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Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.