Judah here, as in verse 21, does not refer to one person named Judah but rather to “the people who lived in the kingdom of Judah.”

Did what was evil in the sight of the LORD: See the comments on 1 Kgs 11.6.

The third person pronoun they in verses 22-24 refers to the people of Judah at the time of Rehoboam. But there is a different way of understanding these verses. The Septuagint reads third person singular verbs instead of plural verbs as in the Masoretic Text. This is the basis for the New Jerusalem Bible translation, which makes Rehoboam the subject of the verbs did and provoked. This translation of the text then raises the question of who the pronoun “they” in verse 23 refers to. According to New Jerusalem Bible, “they” in verse 23 refers to the ancestors mentioned at the end of verse 22. The traditional understanding of the text, however, is probably to be preferred.

Provoked him to jealousy: According to Deut 32.16, 21, the Israelites at the time of Moses had provoked God to jealousy by worshiping strange gods and idols. In the Old Testament God demands that the Israelites give absolute loyalty to him alone, and the fact that God is provoked … to jealousy must be understood in that context. The Hebrew verb rendered provoked … to jealousy is not the same as the one rendered “provoking … to anger” in verse 9; and the Good News Translation rendering “arouse his anger” is not the best translation of the Hebrew verb here. Neither is the Contemporary English Version rendering “made him even angrier” to be recommended. This verb means “to cause someone to become extremely jealous.” The person who is jealous may feel anger, but the major component of this verb is not anger but is rather jealousy.

Quoted with permission from Omanson, Roger L. and Ellington, John E. A Handbook on 1-2 Kings, Volume 1. (UBS Helps for Translators). New York: UBS, 2008. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .