1 Kings 12:26-33

26 Jeroboam said in his heart, “Now the kingdom might revert to the house of David.

27 If these people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, their hearts will return to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah; then they will kill me and return to Rehoboam king of Judah.”

28 After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves and said to the people, ^[a] “Going up to Jerusalem is too much for you. Here, O Israel, are your gods, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”

29 One calf he set up in Bethel, and the other in Dan.

30 And this thing became a sin; the people walked as far as Dan to worship before one of the calves. ^[b]

31 Jeroboam also built shrines on the high places and appointed from every class of people priests who were not Levites.

32 And Jeroboam ordained a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, ^[c] like the feast that was in Judah, and he offered sacrifices on the altar; he made this offering in Bethel to sacrifice to the calves he had set up, and he installed priests in Bethel for the high places he had set up.

33 On the fifteenth day of the eighth month, a month of his own choosing, Jeroboam offered sacrifices on the altar he had set up in Bethel. So he ordained a feast for the Israelites, offered sacrifices on the altar, and burned incense.

1 Kings 12:26-33 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.

Footnotes

• [a]. Hebrew to them
• [b]. Likely reading of the original Hebrew text; MT the people walked to the one as far as Dan; LXX the people went to the one at Bethel and to the other as far as Dan
• [c]. This feast was exactly one month after the annual Feast of Tabernacles in Judah; see Leviticus 23:34.