Lectionary Calendar
Wednesday, August 27th, 2025
the Week of Proper 16 / Ordinary 21
Attention!
Take your personal ministry to the Next Level by helping StudyLight build churches and supporting pastors in Uganda.
Click here to join the effort!

Read the Bible

Good News Translation

1 Kings 12:30

And so the people sinned, going to worship in Bethel and in Dan.

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.
Easy-to-Read Version
What a terrible sin this was, because the Israelites started going to the cities of Dan and Bethel to worship the calves.
George Lamsa Translation
And this thing became a sin; for the people went to worship before the one, even unto 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 King Jeroboam of Israel fortified the town of Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there for a while. Then he left and fortified the town of Penuel. 26He said to himself, "As things are now, if my people go to Jerusalem and offer sacrifices to the Lord in the Temple there, they will transfer their allegiance to King Rehoboam of Judah and will kill me." 28 After thinking it over, he made two bull-calves of gold and said to his people, "You have been going long enough to Jerusalem to worship. People of Israel, here are your gods who brought you out of Egypt!" 29 He placed one of the gold bull-calves in Bethel and the other in Dan. 30 And so the people sinned, going to worship in Bethel and in Dan. 31 Jeroboam also built places of worship on hilltops, and he chose priests from families who were not of the tribe of Levi. 32 Jeroboam also instituted a religious festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the festival in Judah. On the altar in Bethel he offered sacrifices to the gold bull-calves he had made, and he placed there in Bethel the priests serving at the places of worship he had built. 33 And on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, the day that he himself had set, he went to Bethel and offered a sacrifice on the altar in celebration of the festival he had instituted for the people of Israel.

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