(25) В¶ Then Jeroboam built Shechem in mount Ephraim, and dwelt therein; and went out from thence, and built Penuel. (26) And Jeroboam said in his heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David: (27) If this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their lord, even unto Rehoboam king of Judah, and they shall kill me, and go again to Rehoboam king of Judah. (28) Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. (29) And he set the one in Bethel, and the other put he in Dan. (30) And this thing became a sin: for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan. (31) 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. (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 offered 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. (33) So he offered upon the altar which he had made in Bethel the fifteenth day of the eighth month, even in the month which he had devised of his own heart; and ordained a feast unto the children of Israel: and he offered upon the altar, and burnt incense.
The awful character of Jeroboam, which the Holy Ghost in after ages marked with such peculiar spots of infamy, can hardly be contemplated but with horror. His daring impiety in setting up those golden calves, seems to have been intended, not only to lead the minds of the then generation from the Lord; but also by way of approbation of the idolatry of their fathers in Horeb, which Moses recorded, and the psalmist so pathetically mourned over. Exodus 32:4; Psalms 106:19-20. His contempt of the priesthood also was manifested in taking for priests of the lowest of the people. His contempt of the temple itself in setting up a place of his own. And his contempt of the solemn seasons which the Lord had enjoined in altering the very day of the month. And add to all, his invading the sacred office in himself, consecrating his creatures, in the priestly office. So that among all the characters we meet with in history of daring, unblushing impiety, Jeroboam stands foremost. And especially, if we recollect how all the appointments in the service of the temple were considered as shadows of a better dispensation, and had an eye to Christ, here his conduct riseth to the highest possible pitch of blasphemy as well as profaneness! But if in those remote ages the Lord regarded with such anger the despisers who treated the symbols of his sanctuary with disregard; what an awful state are those gospel despisers in, who set up the idols of their own imaginations in their hearts, and refuse both him that spake from earth, and now speaketh from heaven. From all hardness of heart, and contempt of thy word and commandment, good Lord deliver us!