1 Kings 12:28 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

And made two calves of gold, &c.— The text is very plain respecting the reasons why Jeroboam set up these calves; and there can be no room to doubt that they were of the same kind with the calf set up by Aaron, concerning which we have spoken at large in our note on Exodus 32:4 to which we refer, subjoining what Bishop Warburton has said upon the subject: "The fondness which the Israelites had for the superstitions of Egypt, has been frequently before demonstrated. Nor did their fondness for Egypt at all abate, when they came under the iron rod of their [absolute] kings, the magistrate whom they so rebelliously demanded, and who, as they pretended, was to set all things right. On the contrary, this folly grew still more inflamed, and instead of one calf they would have two, 1 Kings 12:29 which Ezekiel hints at where he says, yet she multiplied her whoredoms, in calling to remembrance the days of her youth, wherein she played the harlot in the land of Egypt, Ezekiel 23:19. And so favourite a superstition were the calves of Bethel and Dan, that they still kept their ground against all those general reformations which divers of their better kings had made to purge the land of Israel from idolatry. It is true, their extreme fondness for Egyptian superstition was not the only cause of this inveterate adherence to the calves. There were two others. They flattered themselves that this specific idolatry was not altogether so gross an affront to the God of their fathers as many of the rest. Others of their idolatries consisted in worshipping strange gods in conjunction with the God of Israel; this of the calves, only in worshipping the God of Israel in an idolatrous manner; as appears from the history of their erection, 1 Kings 12:26-29. It is too much for you, says he, 1 Kings 12:28 to go up to Jerusalem. Who were the men disposed to go up? None, surely, but the worshippers of the God of Israel: consequently, the calves here offered, to save them a journey, must needs be given as the representative of that God; and, if these were so, then certainly the calf in Horeb was intended for the same purpose; since, at their several consecrations, the very same title was proclaimed of all three. Behold thy gods, O Israel, who brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. The other cause of the perpetual adherence of the kingdom of Israel to their golden calves, was, their being erected for a prevention of re-union with the kingdom of Judah. If this people (says this politic contriver, 1 Kings 12:27.) go up to do sacrifice in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, then shall the heart of this people turn, &c. The succeeding kings therefore, we may be sure, were as careful in preserving them, as he was in putting them up: so that, good or bad, the character common to them all was, that he departed not from the sin of Jeroboam, the sin of Nebat, who made Israel to sin; namely, in worshipping the calves in Dan and Beth-el. And those of them who appeared most zealous for the law of God, and utterly exterminated the idolatry of Baal, yet connived, at least, at this political worship of the calves; 2 Kings 10:28; 2 Kings 10:36. A farther reason for Jeroboam's adopting this symbol in preference to others, will appear from observing that it was peculiar to the Egyptians, and that he had sojourned in Egypt as a refugee during the latter part of the reign of Solomon." See chap. 1 Kings 11:40. Exodus 32; Exodus 4 and Div. Leg. vol. 3: p. 328.