Albert Barnes Commentary 1 Kings 15

Three years – More precisely, the reign was not much longer than two years (compare 1 Kings 15:1 and 1 Kings 15:9). In Jewish reckoning, however, any part of a year can be counted as a full year.

His mother’s name was Maachah – Or Michaiah, as noted in the marginal reference.

The daughter of Abishalom – Absalom appears to have had only one daughter, Tamar (2 Samuel 14:27), so Maachah must have been his granddaughter, not his daughter. Her father was Uriel of Gibeah (see the margin), whom Tamar married. Maachah was named after her great-grandmother (2 Samuel 3:3).

He walked in all the sins of his father—yet Abijam prepared precious offerings for the temple service (1 Kings 15:15), probably to replace vessels which Shishak had carried off, and in his war with Jeroboam, he professed himself a faithful servant of Yahweh (2 Chronicles 13:10–12).

To set up his son - The idolatry of Abijam deserved the same punishment as that of Jeroboam (1 Kings 14:10–14), Baasha (1 Kings 16:2–4), or Zimri (1 Kings 16:19): the cutting off of his seed and the transfer of the crown to another family. That these consequences did not follow in the kingdom of Judah was because of the faithfulness of David, which brought a blessing on his posterity.

Few things are more remarkable and more difficult to explain by human reasoning alone than the stability of the succession in Judah and its excessive instability in the sister kingdom. One family in Judah held the throne from first to last for nearly four centuries, while in Israel there were nine changes of dynasty within two hundred and fifty years.

The writer repeats what he had said in 1 Kings 14:30 to remind the reader that Abijam inherited this war from his father.

The details of Abijam’s war are described in the marginal reference. That the author of Kings gives none of its details is consistent with his common practice in purely military matters. For instance, he gives no details of Shishak’s expedition and omits Zerah’s expedition altogether.

Mother’s name - Rather, “grandmother’s.” The Jews call any male ancestor, however remote, a father, and any female ancestor a mother (Compare to 1 Kings 15:2; Genesis 3:20). This Maachah was the favorite wife of Rehoboam (2 Chronicles 11:21) and the mother of Abijam. The way in which she is mentioned here strongly favors the idea that the position of queen-mother was a definite one at the court and could only be held by one person at a time.