Bible Strands
1 Kings 12:31
Jeroboam also built shrines on the high places and appointed from every class of people priests who were not Levites.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator records Jeroboam’s establishment of state-controlled worship centers at Bethel and Dan immediately following the northern kingdom’s political secession.
The words — מִ/קְצ֣וֹת הָ/עָ֔ם (mi/k.Tzot ha./'Am) literally means "from the ends of the people," indicating Jeroboam selected priests from every social stratum rather than a designated lineage.
The thread — This structural rebellion against established priestly lines surfaces when 2 Kings 17:32 describes foreign settlers appointing their own priests for new shrines, and 2 Chronicles 13:9 contrasts Jeroboam’s actions with the prior expulsion of Aaronic and Levite priests.
Why it lands — The text demands that religious authority follow covenantal appointment rather than political convenience, making state-managed worship an immediate structural violation.
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 made an house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi.
Cross-references
- 1 Kings 13:32 for the message that he cried out by the word of the LORD against the altar in Bethel and against all the shrines on the high places in the cities of Samaria will surely come to pass.”
- 2 Kings 17:32 So the new residents worshiped the LORD, but they also appointed for themselves priests of all sorts to serve in the shrines of the high places.
- 2 Chronicles 13:9 But did you not drive out the priests of the LORD, the sons of Aaron, and the Levites? And did you not make priests for yourselves as do the peoples of other lands? Now whoever comes to consecrate himself with a young bull and seven rams can become a priest of things that are not gods.
- Numbers 3:10 So you shall appoint Aaron and his sons to carry out the duties of the priesthood; but any outsider who approaches the tabernacle must be put to death.”
- 2 Chronicles 11:14 For the Levites left their pasturelands and their possessions and went to Judah and Jerusalem, because Jeroboam and his sons had rejected them as priests of the LORD.
- Deuteronomy 24:15 You are to pay his wages each day before sunset, because he is poor and depends on them. Otherwise he may cry out to the LORD against you, and you will be guilty of sin.
- 1 Kings 13:24 As he went on his way, a lion met him on the road and killed him, and his body was left lying in the road, with the donkey and the lion standing beside it.
- Ezekiel 16:25 At the head of every street you built your lofty shrines and degraded your beauty. With increasing promiscuity, you spread your legs to all who passed by.
- Ezekiel 44:6 Tell the rebellious house of Israel that this is what the Lord GOD says: ‘I have had enough of all your abominations, O house of Israel.
- Hosea 12:11 Is there iniquity in Gilead? They will surely come to nothing. Do they sacrifice bulls in Gilgal? Indeed, their altars will be heaps of stones in the furrows of the field.