1 Kings 12:23-33

23 "Speak to Rehoboam the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and to all the house of Judah and Benjamin and to the ¹rest of the people, saying,

24 'Thus says the LORD, "You must not go up and fight against your relatives the sons of Israel; return every man to his house, ²for this thing has come from Me.""' So they listened to the word of the LORD, and returned and went their way according to the word of the LORD.

Jeroboam's Idolatry

25 Then ³Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and lived there. And he went out from there and built ⁴Penuel.

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

27 "⁵If this people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, then the heart of this people will return to their lord, even to Rehoboam king of Judah; and they will kill me and return to Rehoboam king of Judah."

28 So the king consulted, and ⁶made two golden ⁷calves, and he said to them, "It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem; ⁸behold your gods, O Israel, that brought you up from the land of Egypt."

29 He set ⁹one in ¹⁰Bethel, and the other he put in ¹¹Dan.

30 Now ¹²this thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one as far as Dan.

31 And ¹³he made houses on high places, and ¹⁴made priests from among all the people who were not of the sons of Levi.

32 Jeroboam instituted a feast in the eighth month on the fifteenth * day of the month, ¹⁵like the feast which is in Judah, and he went up to the altar; thus he did in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves which he had made. And he stationed in Bethel ¹⁶the priests of the high places which he had made.

33 Then he went up to the altar which he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth * day in the eighth month, even in the month which he had ¹⁷devised in his own heart; and he instituted a feast for the sons of Israel and went up to the altar ¹⁸to burn incense.

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1 Kings 12:23-33 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 18

1. 1 Kings 12:17
2. 1 Kings 12:15
3. Genesis 12:6; Judges 9:45-49
4. Genesis 32:30, 31; Judges 8:8, 17
5. Deut 12:5-7, 14
6. 2 Kings 10:29; 2 Kings 17:16; Hosea 8:4-7
7. Hosea 10:5
8. Exodus 32:4, 8
9. Hosea 10:5
10. Genesis 28:19
11. Judges 18:26-31
12. 1 Kings 13:34; 2 Kings 17:21
13. 1 Kings 13:32
14. 1 Kings 13:33; 2 Kings 17:32; 2 Chronicles 11:15; 2 Chronicles 13:9
15. Leviticus 23:33, 34; Numbers 29:12; 1 Kings 8:2, 5
16. Amos 7:10-13
17. Numbers 15:39
18. 1 Kings 13:1

Footnotes 12

[a]. Lit "brothers"
[b]. Lit "in it"
[c]. Lit "took counsel"
[d]. Or "extremities of"
[e]. Lit "made"
[f]. Or "offered upon"
[g]. Or "offered upon"
[h]. Lit "made"
[i]. Lit "from"
[j]. Lit "made"
[k]. Or "offered upon"
[l]. Or "sacrifices"