“She conceived, and bore a son, and said: God has removed my disgrace” (Genesis 30:23). “She conceived, and bore a son, and said: God has removed my disgrace” – Rabbi Levi bar Zechariah said: Until the woman bears a child, the sin is attributed to her, after she bears a child; it is attributed to her child. Who ate this item? It is your son.
Who broke this item? It is only your son. “God has removed my disgrace” – in the incident of the concubine in Giva, “cursed is one who gives a wife to Benjamin” (Judges 21:18).7The story of the concubine of Giva is in Judges chapters 19–21. Judges 21:13–23 specifically relates to the oath, and the solution that enabled those who were left from Benjamin to remarry.
“God has removed my disgrace” – “Yerovam did not gain strength again in the days of Aviya; and the Lord afflicted him, and he died” (II Chronicles 13:20). Rabbi Shmuel bar Naḥman said: Do you think that it was Yerovam who was afflicted? It was no one other than Aviya who was afflicted.8He was punished for causing disgrace to the descendants of Rachel. Yerovam was from the tribe of Ephraim (the son of Joseph).
Why was he afflicted? Rabbi Abba bar Kahana said: It is because he mutilated the identifying features of Israel’s faces, as it is written: “The expression of their faces testifies against them” (Isaiah 3:9). Rabbi Levi said: Because he positioned guards over them for three days until their form decayed, as we learned: One may testify only about the countenance of the face with the nose, even if there are distinguishing marks on his body and his belongings…and one may testify only up to three days.9See Yevamot 120a. If a dead man cannot be identified, his wife cannot remarry.
Rabbi Yoḥanan said: It is because he humiliated them publicly, as it is stated: “Now you presume to withstand the kingdom of the Lord…and with you are the golden calves that Yerovam made for you for gods” (II Chronicles 13:8). Reish Lakish said: Because he denigrated Aḥiya the Shilonite, as it is stated: “Idle and wicked men gathered around him” (II Chronicles 13:7) – he called Aḥiya the Shilonite wicked.
The Rabbis said: It is because idol worship came into his possession and he did not nullify it, as it is stated: “And captured cities from him: Beit El and its environs” (II Chronicles 13:19), and it is written: “He placed one [golden calf] in Beit El…” (I Kings 12:29). The matters can be derived a fortiori: If a king, because he mistreated a king like him, was afflicted, a commoner who mistreats a commoner, all the more so.