| Geneva Study Bible For out of {h} prison he cometh to reign; though also he that is {i} born in his kingdom becometh poor. (h) That is, from a poor and base estate or out of trouble and prison as Joseph did, Ge 41:14. (i) Meaning, that is born a king. Wesley's Notes 4:14 For he - The poor and wise child is often advanced to the highest dignity. Whereas - That old king is deprived of his kingdom. Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary 14. out of prison-Solomon uses this phrase of a supposed case; for example, Joseph raised from a dungeon to be lord of Egypt. His words are at the same time so framed by the Holy Ghost that they answer virtually to Jeroboam, who fled to escape a "prison" and death from Solomon, to Shishak of Egypt (1Ki 11:40). This unconscious presaging of his own doom, and that of Rehoboam, constitutes the irony. David's elevation from poverty and exile, under Saul (which may have been before Solomon's mind), had so far their counterpart in that of Jeroboam. whereas . becometh poor-rather, "though he (the youth) was born poor in his kingdom" (in the land where afterwards he was to reign). Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary 4:13-16 People are never long easy and satisfied; they are fond of changes. This is no new thing. Princes see themselves slighted by those they have studied to oblige; this is vanity and vexation of spirit. But the willing servants of the Lord Jesus, our King, rejoice in him alone, and they will love Him more and more to all eternity. | 
