1 Kings 12:25-33

Jeroboam I and the shrines

25 Jeroboam fortified Shechem at Mount Ephraim and lived there. From there he also fortified Penuel.

26 Jeroboam thought to himself, The kingdom is in danger of reverting to the house of David.

27 If these people continue to sacrifice at the LORD's temple in Jerusalem, they will again become loyal to their master Rehoboam, Judah's king, and they will kill me so they can return to Judah's King Rehoboam.

28 So the king asked for advice and then made two gold calves. He said to the people, "It's too far for you to go all the way up to Jerusalem. Look, Israel! Here are your gods who brought you out from the land of Egypt."

29 He put one calf in Bethel, and the other he placed in Dan.

30 This act was sinful. The people went to worship before the one calf at Bethel and before the other one as far as Dan.

31 Jeroboam made shrines on the high places and appointed priests from all sorts of people, but none were Levites.

32 Jeroboam set a date for a celebration on the fifteenth day of the eighth month. It was just like the celebration in Judah. He sacrificed on the altar. At Bethel he sacrificed to the calves he had made. There also he installed the priests for the shrines he had made.

33 On the fifteenth day of the eighth month—the time he alone had decided—Jeroboam went up to the altar he had built in Bethel. He made a celebration for the Israelites and offered sacrifices on the altar by burning them up.

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.

Footnotes

• [a]. Cf LXX; MT lacks before the one at Bethel.
• [b]. October–November
• [c]. Or offered sacrifices
• [d]. Or went up on the altar to burn incense