Lectionary Calendar
Tuesday, June 17th, 2025
the Week of Proper 6 / Ordinary 11
Attention!
StudyLight.org has pledged to help build churches in Uganda. Help us with that pledge and support pastors in the heart of Africa.
Click here to join the effort!

Read the Bible

Easy-to-Read Version

1 Kings 12:30

What a terrible sin this was, because the Israelites started going to the cities of Dan and Bethel to worship the calves.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Beth-El;   Calf;   Church and State;   Jeroboam;   Religion;   Rulers;   Statecraft;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Calves of Jeroboam;   Idolatry;   Offence;   Rebellion against God;   Sins, National;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Rehoboam;   Shechem;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Bethel;   Dan;   Israel;   Jeroboam;   Jerusalem;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Ethics;   King, Kingship;   Kings, First and Second, Theology of;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Bethel;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Aholah;   Old Testament;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Bethel;   Golden Calf;   High Place;   Idol;   Jeroboam;   Transportation and Travel;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Aaron;   Calf, Golden;   Israel;   Rehoboam,;   Solomon;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Bethel ;   Calf, Golden;   The Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary - Beth-aven;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Calf;   Smith Bible Dictionary - Idolatry,;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Jeroboam;  

Encyclopedias:

- Condensed Biblical Cyclopedia - Kingdom of Israel;   International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Altar;   Apostasy;   Calf, Golden;   Jeroboam;   Temple;   Kitto Biblical Cyclopedia - Bethel;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
This led to sin; the people walked in procession before one of the calves all the way to Dan.
Hebrew Names Version
This thing became a sin; for the people went [to worship] before the one, even to Dan.
King James Version
And this thing became a sin: for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan.
English Standard Version
Then this thing became a sin, for the people went as far as Dan to be before one.
New Century Version
This became a very great sin, because the people traveled as far as Dan to worship the calf there.
New English Translation
This caused Israel to sin; the people went to Bethel and Dan to worship the calves.
Amplified Bible
Now this thing became a sin [for Israel]; because the people went to worship before the one [or the other of them] as far as Dan.
New American Standard Bible
Now this thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one as far as Dan.
Geneva Bible (1587)
And this thing turned to sinne: for the people went (because of the one) euen to Dan.
Legacy Standard Bible
Now this thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one as far as Dan.
Complete Jewish Bible
and the affair became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one [in Beit-El and] all the way to Dan [to worship the other].
Darby Translation
And this thing became a sin; and the people went [to worship] before the one, as far as Dan.
George Lamsa Translation
And this thing became a sin; for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan.
Good News Translation
And so the people sinned, going to worship in Bethel and in Dan.
Lexham English Bible
This thing became a sin, and the people walked before the one as far as Dan.
Literal Translation
And this thing became a sin, for the people went before the one, to Dan.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
And this dede turned to synne, for the people wente before the one vnto Dan.
American Standard Version
And this thing became a sin; for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan.
Bible in Basic English
And this became a sin in Israel; for the people went to give worship to the one at Beth-el, and to the other at Dan.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
And this thing turned to sinne: for the people went (because of the one) as farre as Dan.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
And this thing became a sin; for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan.
King James Version (1611)
And this thing became a sinne: for the people went to worship before the one, euen vnto Dan.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And this thing became a sin; and the people went before one as far as Dan, and left the house of the Lord.
English Revised Version
And this thing became a sin: for the people went [to worship] before the one, even unto Dan.
Berean Standard Bible
And this thing became a sin; the people walked as far as Dan to worship before one of the calves.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And this word was maad to Israel in to synne; for the puple yede til in to Dan, to worschipe the calf.
Young's Literal Translation
and this thing becometh a sin, and the people go before the one -- unto Dan.
Update Bible Version
And this thing became a sin; for the people went [to worship] before the one, even to Dan.
Webster's Bible Translation
And this thing became a sin: for the people went [to worship] before the one, [even] to Dan.
World English Bible
This thing became a sin; for the people went [to worship] before the one, even to Dan.
New King James Version
Now this thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one as far as Dan.
New Living Translation
But this became a great sin, for the people worshiped the idols, traveling as far north as Dan to worship the one there.
New Life Bible
Now this thing became a sin. For the people went to worship in front of them, even as far as Dan.
New Revised Standard
And this thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one at Bethel and before the other as far as Dan.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
And this thing became a sin, - and the people went before the one, as far as Dan.
Douay-Rheims Bible
And this thing became an occasion of sin: for the people went to adore the calf as far as Dan.
Revised Standard Version
And this thing became a sin, for the people went to the one at Bethel and to the other as far as Dan.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
Now this thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one as far as Dan.

Contextual Overview

25 Jeroboam rebuilt the city of Shechem, in the hill country of Ephraim, and lived there. Later he went to the city of Penuel and rebuilt it. 26Jeroboam said to himself, "If the people keep going to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices at the Lord 's Temple, someday they will want to be ruled by their old masters. They will want to be ruled by King Rehoboam of Judah. And then they will kill me." 28 So the king asked his advisors what to do. They gave him their advice, and King Jeroboam made two golden calves. He said to the people, "You don't have to go to Jerusalem to worship anymore. Israel, these are the gods that brought you out of Egypt." 29 King Jeroboam put one golden calf in Bethel and the other one in the city of Dan. 30 What a terrible sin this was, because the Israelites started going to the cities of Dan and Bethel to worship the calves. 31 Jeroboam also built temples at the high places and chose priests from among the different tribes of Israel. (He did not choose priests only from the tribe of Levi.) 32 Then King Jeroboam started a new festival that was like the festival in Judah, but it was on the 15th day of the eighth month. At this time the king offered sacrifices on the altar at Bethel. He and the priests he chose offered the sacrifices to the calves that he had set up at the high places he had made. 33 So King Jeroboam chose his own time for a festival for the Israelites, the 15th day of the eighth month. And during that time he offered sacrifices and burned incense on the altar he had built at Bethel.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

became a sin: 1 Kings 13:34, 2 Kings 10:31, 2 Kings 17:21

Reciprocal: Judges 18:29 - Dan 1 Kings 14:16 - who did sin 2 Chronicles 17:4 - not after Acts 4:19 - to hearken

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And this thing became a sin,.... The cause and occasion of the sin of idolatry; it led them by degrees to leave off the worship of God, and to worship these calves as gods:

for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan; which was the furthest off, such was their great zeal for idolatrous worship; or they went thither before that at Bethel was set up; and even they at Bethel would go as far as Dan to worship, such was their veneration for both the calves. Abarbinel is of opinion that these calves were not made by Jeroboam for idolatrous uses, only the altar later mentioned; and that he never worshipped before them, nor sacrificed to them, nor even built the altar before them; but that these were set up as signs, and in memory of his kingdom, like the pillars in Solomon's temple; that he chose the calf or ox as emblems of his family, the family of Joseph, Deuteronomy 33:17 two to represent Ephraim and Manasseh; golden ones, to denote the majesty and perpetuity of his kingdom; and he set these, the one at Bethel, at the entrance of it, and the other at Dan, at the further borders of it; and that he did not call those gods, but the only true God, as he that brought Israel out of Egypt; only signified by that expression, that he was everywhere, there as well as at Jerusalem; but that the Israelites, who were taken with sensible objects, on visiting these out of curiosity, it became a snare to them, and they fell into the worship of them; just as Gideon's ephod, and Moses' brasen serpent, were unto them.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

This thing became a sin - i. e., this act of Jeroboam’s became an occasion of sin to the people. The author perhaps wrote the following words thus: “The people went to worship before the one to Bethel and before the other to Dan.”


 
adsfree-icon
Ads FreeProfile