Jeroboam ordained a feast on the eighth month, &c. The feast of tabernacles; which by the law was to be celebrated on the fifteenth day of the seventh month. His chief intention in this change, no doubt, was to alienate the people from the rites observed at Jerusalem. “Some suppose, with Mr. Locke, that as this feast was appointed by God to be observed after the gathering in of the fruits, which might be sooner ripe about Jerusalem than in the northern parts of the country; so Jeroboam might pretend that the eighth month would be a better time for it than the seventh, because then they would everywhere be gathered.” Add to this, he might possibly have two other reasons for making this alteration: 1st, Lest he should seem directly to oppose the God of Israel, who had in a special manner commanded all the people to go up to Jerusalem on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, if he should require their attendance to celebrate the feast elsewhere at the same time: and, 2d, That by appointing his feast to be kept a month after that at Jerusalem was past, he might give those of the people of Judah an opportunity of attending it, whose curiosity might lead them so to do; and thereby might ensure the presence of a greater concourse of people to honour his institution. On the fifteenth day And so forward till the seven days were ended. Like that in Judah From whence he took his pattern, to show that he worshipped the same God, and professed the same religion, for substance, which they did, however he differed in circumstances. He offered upon the altar With his own hands, as appears from 1 Kings 13:1-4, which he did to give the more countenance to his newly-devised solemnity. And it is no marvel, that he, who assumed a power to make priests, should undertake to do the priests' work with his own hands. So he (Jeroboam) did in Beth - el Sacrificing there also, as well as in Dan, to the calves that he had made Or, to Jehovah, as he pretended, under the image of these calves. And he placed in Beth-el the priests of the high places Having built a house or temple there also, as well as in Dan, and set up many altars in it where these priests officiated, as was done in other high places.
Related Commentaries of 1 Kings 12:32
1 Kings 12:32
32 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 offeredc upon the altar. So did he in Bethel, sacrificing unto the calves that he had made: and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made.