Melachim Alef 12:31

31 And he made a bais for the [idolatrous] high places, and made kohanim of the lowest of the people, which were not of the Bnei Levi.

Melachim Alef 12:31 Meaning and Commentary

1 Kings 12:31

And he made an house of high places
Or "altars" ^F19, built a temple at Dan, and set up several altars in it for sacrifice, both for burnt offerings, and for incense, as at Jerusalem:

and made priests of the lowest of the people;
this clause seems not so well rendered; for this would have been very unpopular, and brought his new form of worship into contempt, to make the dregs of the people priests, which was not only a very sacred office, but of great honour; it was usual in some nations for kings to be priests also ^F20, and Jeroboam himself exercised this office, ( 1 Kings 12:33 ) ( 13:1 ) and therefore would never put the meanest of the people into it, but rather those of higher rank: the words may be literally rendered, "from the extremities" or "ends of the people" ^F21; meaning not merely from the extremist parts of his country, but rather out of the whole of the people; out of all sorts of them, out of any of them, without any distinction of tribe: for so it follows,

which were not of the sons of Levi;
and as by this means he enriched himself, by taking the cities that belonged to the priests and Levites, which they were obliged to leave, and from whence he drove them, ( 2 Chronicles 11:14 ) so he pleased the people by laying open the priesthood common to them, and freeing them from the payment of tithes, and the like.

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FOOTNOTES:

F19 (twmb) "altarium", Vatablus.
F20 Rex Anius Virgil. l. 3. Vid. Servium in ib.
F21 (Meh twuqm) "de extremitatibus populi", Vatablus, Piscator.

Melachim Alef 12:31 In-Context

29 He set the one in Beit-El, the other put he in Dan.

30 And this thing became chattat (sin); for the people went to worship before the one, even as far as Dan.

31 And he made a bais for the [idolatrous] high places, and made kohanim of the lowest of the people, which were not of the Bnei Levi.

32 And Yarov`am ordained a chag in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the chag that is in Yehudah, and he offered upon the mizbe’ach. So did he in Beit-El, sacrificing unto the agalim (calves) that he had made; and he installed in Beit-El the kohanim of the [idolatrous] high places which he had made.

33 So he offered upon the mizbe’ach which he had made in Beit-El the fifteenth day of the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised of his own lev; and ordained a chag unto the Bnei Yisroel; and he offered upon the mizbe’ach, and burned ketoret.