Bible Strands
1 Kings 12:29
One calf he set up in Bethel, and the other in Dan.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The narrator records King Jeroboam’s actions immediately after his public address to the northern tribes, designating Bethel and Dan as the new worship sites. This occurs at the moment the northern kingdom formally severs its religious ties to Jerusalem.
The words — וַיָּשֶׂם (va.ya.sem) means “and he set,” and נָתַן (na.tan) means “he put.” Both verbs describe the deliberate physical placement of the two calves.
The thread — Bethel appears in Genesis 28:19 as a renamed location and in Genesis 12:8 as a tent site near Ai, while Judges 18:27 documents the transfer of idols and a priest to a northern city. These passages establish Bethel and Dan as recurring northern geographic anchors for religious activity.
Why it lands — The text requires the reader to track how political decisions directly alter worship geography. It asks the reader to note the concrete relocation of cultic objects without assuming theological justification.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And he set the one in Beth–el, and the other put he in Dan.
Cross-references
- Genesis 28:19 and he called that place Bethel, though previously the city had been named Luz.
- Judges 18:27 After they had taken Micah’s idols and his priest, they went to Laish, to a quiet and unsuspecting people, and they struck them with their swords and burned down the city.
- Genesis 12:8 From there Abram moved on to the hill country east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel to the west and Ai to the east. There he built an altar to the LORD, and he called on the name of the LORD.
- Genesis 14:14 And when Abram heard that his relative had been captured, he mobilized the 318 trained men born in his household, and they set out in pursuit as far as Dan.
- Genesis 35:1 Then God said to Jacob, “Arise, go up to Bethel, and settle there. Build an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau.”
- Deuteronomy 34:1 Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which faces Jericho. And the LORD showed him the whole land—from Gilead as far as Dan,
- Judges 20:1 Then all the Israelites from Dan to Beersheba and from the land of Gilead came out, and the congregation assembled as one man before the LORD at Mizpah.
- 2 Kings 10:29 but he did not turn away from the sins that Jeroboam son of Nebat had caused Israel to commit—the worship of the golden calves at Bethel and Dan.
- Jeremiah 8:16 The snorting of enemy horses is heard from Dan. At the sound of the neighing of mighty steeds, the whole land quakes. They come to devour the land and everything in it, the city and all who dwell in it.
- Hosea 4:15 Though you prostitute yourself, O Israel, may Judah avoid such guilt! Do not journey to Gilgal, do not go up to Beth-aven, and do not swear on oath, ‘As surely as the LORD lives!’