1 Kings 12:25-33

Jeroboam's Golden Calves

25 Then Jeroboam ¹built Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. And he went out from there and ²built Penuel.

26 And Jeroboam said in his heart, "Now the kingdom will turn back to the house of David.

27 If this people ³go up to offer sacrifices in the temple of the LORD at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will turn again to their lord, to Rehoboam king of Judah, and they will kill me and return to Rehoboam king of Judah."

28 So the king took counsel and ⁴made two calves of gold. And he said to the people, "You have gone up to Jerusalem long enough. ⁵Behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt."

29 And he set one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan.

30 Then ⁶this thing became a sin, for the people went as far as Dan to be before one.^[a]

31 He also made ⁷temples on high places and ⁸appointed priests from among all the people, who were not of the Levites.

32 And Jeroboam appointed a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month like ⁹the feast that was in Judah, and he offered sacrifices on the altar. So he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he made. And he placed in Bethel ¹⁰the priests of the high places that he had made.

33 He went up to the altar that he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day in the eighth month, in the month that he had devised from his own heart. And he instituted a feast for the people of Israel and went up to the altar ¹¹to make offerings.

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1 Kings 12:25-33 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO 1 KINGS 12

This chapter relates Rehoboam's going to Shechem to be made king, and Jeroboam's return from Egypt, 1Ki 12:1,2, the people's request to Rehoboam to be eased of their taxes, as the condition of making him king, 1Ki 12:3,4, his answer to them, after three days, having had the advice both of the old and young men, which latter he followed, and gave in a rough answer, 1Ki 12:5-15, upon which ten tribes revolted from him, and two abode by him, 1Ki 12:16-20, wherefore he meditated a war against the ten tribes, but was forbid by the Lord to engage in it, 1Ki 12:21-24 and Jeroboam, in order to establish his kingdom, and preserve the people from a revolt to the house of David, because of the temple worship at Jerusalem, devised a scheme of idolatrous worship in his own territories, 1Ki 12:25-33.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 11

1. [Judges 9:45]
2. [Judges 8:17]
3. Deuteronomy 12:5, 6
4. 2 Kings 10:29; 2 Kings 17:16; 2 Chronicles 11:15; 2 Chronicles 13:8; Hosea 8:5, 6; Hosea 10:5; Hosea 13:2; [1 Kings 14:9]
5. [Exodus 32:4, 8]
6. 1 Kings 13:34; 2 Kings 17:21
7. 1 Kings 13:32
8. 1 Kings 13:33; 2 Kings 17:32; 2 Chronicles 11:14, 15; 2 Chronicles 13:9
9. Leviticus 23:33, 34; Numbers 29:12
10. 1 Kings 13:2; [Amos 7:13]
11. 1 Kings 13:1

Footnotes 1

[a]. Septuagint went to the one at Bethel and to the other as far as Dan

The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.