Bible Strands
1 Kings 12:32
And Jeroboam ordained a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the feast 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.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The narrator records Jeroboam’s formal establishment of a rival worship calendar immediately after he constructs unauthorized shrines and appoints non-Levitical priests. This occurs during the northern kingdom’s consolidation of power, as Jeroboam mirrors Judah’s religious schedule to legitimize his break from Davidic rule.
The words — The text emphasizes חָ֡ג (chag), meaning “festival” or “pilgrimage feast,” and וַ/יַּ֣עַשׂ (va/i.Ya.'as), meaning “and he appointed/made.” Jeroboam deliberately constructs a festival calendar to parallel Judah’s observances while redirecting sacrifice to his own altars.
The thread — This manufactured feast directly contrasts the divinely appointed calendar in Numbers 29:12 and Solomon’s gathering at the seventh-month feast in 1 Kings 8:2. The narrative places Jeroboam’s self-ordained eighth-month festival against the established biblical timeline to highlight his institutional rebellion.
Why it lands — The passage states that Jeroboam copied Judah’s feast structure while substituting unauthorized priests and golden calves. It asks the reader to distinguish between religious forms that obey divine instruction and those that replicate external patterns for political consolidation.
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 Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the feast that is in Judah, and he offered upon the altar. So did he in Beth–el, sacrificing unto the calves that he had made: and he placed in Beth–el the priests of the high places which he had made.
Cross-references
- Numbers 29:12 On the fifteenth day of the seventh month, you are to hold a sacred assembly; you must not do any regular work, and you shall observe a feast to the LORD for seven days.
- 1 Kings 8:2 And all the men of Israel came together to King Solomon at the feast in the seventh month, the month of Ethanim.
- 1 Kings 8:5 There, before the ark, King Solomon and the whole congregation of Israel who had assembled with him sacrificed so many sheep and oxen that they could not be counted or numbered.
- Amos 7:10 Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent word to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, “Amos has conspired against you in the midst of the house of Israel. The land cannot bear all his words,
- Leviticus 23:33 And the LORD said to Moses,
- Ezekiel 43:8 When they placed their threshold next to My threshold and their doorposts beside My doorposts, with only a wall between Me and them, they defiled My holy name by the abominations they committed. Therefore I have consumed them in My anger.
- Matthew 15:8 ‘These people honor Me with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me.