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30 This led to sin, because the people frequented these calves in Bethel and in Dan. 31 He also built temples on the high places and made priests from among the common people who were not Levites.

Divine Disapproval.[a] 32 Jeroboam established a feast in the eighth month on the fifteenth day of the month like the pilgrimage feast in Judah, and he went up to the altar. He did this in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves he had made. He stationed in Bethel the priests of the high places he had built.

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Footnotes

  1. 12:32–13:10 This unit of the Jeroboam story corresponds to 12:21–25. Before Jeroboam’s cultic innovations, a man of God from Judah proclaimed the Lord’s approval of the political separation of the kingdoms. After Jeroboam’s cultic innovations, a man of God from Judah proclaims the Lord’s disapproval of Israel’s religious separatism. The unit begins with a long, detailed introduction about the dedication festival Jeroboam holds at Bethel (12:32–33); then follows the scene of the ceremony disrupted by the oracle of the man of God (13:1–10).

30 And this thing became a sin;(A) the people came to worship the one at Bethel and went as far as Dan to worship the other.[a]

31 Jeroboam built shrines(B) on high places and appointed priests(C) from all sorts of people, even though they were not Levites. 32 He instituted a festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth(D) month, like the festival held in Judah, and offered sacrifices on the altar. This he did in Bethel,(E) sacrificing to the calves he had made. And at Bethel he also installed priests at the high places he had made.

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Footnotes

  1. 1 Kings 12:30 Probable reading of the original Hebrew text; Masoretic Text people went to the one as far as Dan