1 Kings 12:32

The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Contextual Overview

²⁵Then Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. And from there he went out and built Penuel. ²⁶Jeroboam said in his heart, "Now the kingdom might revert to the house of David. ²⁷If 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." ²⁸After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves and said to the people, "Going to Jerusalem is too much for you. Here, O Israel, are your gods, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt." ²⁹One calf he set up in Bethel, and the other in Dan. ³⁰And this thing became a sin; the people walked as far as Dan to worship before one of the calves. ³¹Jeroboam also built shrines on the high places and appointed from every class of people priests who were not Levites. ³²And Jeroboam ordained a festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the festival 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.³³On 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 festival for the Israelites, offered sacrifices on the altar, and burned incense.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

like unto: 1 Kings 8:2, 1 Kings 8:5, Leviticus 23:33, Leviticus 23:34-44, Numbers 29:12-40, Ezekiel 43:8, Matthew 15:8, Matthew 15:9

offered upon the altar: or, went up to the altar, sacrificing. or, to sacrifice. he placed. Amos 7:10-13

Reciprocal: Exodus 32:4 - calf Exodus 32:5 - a feast 1 Kings 12:33 - offered upon the altar 1 Kings 13:1 - Jeroboam Psalms 94:20 - frameth Jeremiah 2:20 - when upon Daniel 3:2 - sent Hosea 2:11 - her feast Amos 7:13 - for Amos 8:14 - sin

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the feast that is in Judah,.... The feast of tabernacles, which was on the fifteenth day of the seventh month; this was done chiefly for the sake of an alteration; though Abarbinel thinks, because the fruits of the land were not so soon ripe nor so soon gathered, in the northern parts of the land, as nearer Jerusalem, he judged this month the fittest for the feast of ingathering the fruits; and he might hope to get more people to come to his feast, when all were gathered in:

and he offered upon the altar (so he did in Bethel), sacrificing unto the calves that he had made: this he did by his priests, or rather he himself did it, see 1 Kings 13:4, this shows that Jeroboam made these calves for worship, and did sacrifice to them, at least as representations of God. Abarbinel, to make this agree with his hypothesis, gives this sense of the clause, that he did not sacrifice to the calves, but to God, because of them, that his kingdom, which they were a sign of, might be continued; and there being but one calf in a place, he could not be said to sacrifice to them both, but to God, because of both; or else he thinks this must be done after the people had turned aside to them, and not when Jeroboam made them. The clause in the parenthesis, "so he did in Bethel", intimates that he did the same in Bethel as in Dan, of which what is said before is spoken; that is, that he made an house of high places in Bethel also, made priests out of all the people, such as were not of the tribe of Levi, appointed the feast of the fifteenth day of the eighth month to be observed there also, and he himself offered on the altar there:

and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made: to officiate there.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

A feast - Intended as a substitute for the Feast of tabernacles (marginal reference “c”). It may also have assumed the character of a feast of dedication, held at the same time, after the example of Solomon 1 Kings 8:2. His object in changing the month from the seventh to the eighth, and yet keeping the day of the month, is not clear. Perhaps it was on account of the later vintage of the more northern regions. It is remarkable that Josephus places the scene in the “seventh” month. He therefore, was not aware that the people of Israel kept the feast of tabernacles a month later than their brethren of Judah. The expression “he offered upon the altar” (see the margin and Exodus 20:26) shows that Jeroboam himself officiated as priest, and offered this sacrifice - at Bethel, not at Dan; where it is possible that the priests descended from Jonathan, the son of Gershom and grandson of Moses, undertook the services (Judges 18:30 note).

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 1 Kings 12:32. Ordained a feast — The Jews held their feast of tabernacles on the fifteenth day of the seventh month; Jeroboam, who would meet the prejudices of the people as far as he could, appointed a similar feast on the fifteenth of the eighth month; thus appearing to hold the thing while he subverted the ordinance.