And he ordained him priests for the high places, and for the devils, and for the calves which he had made.
He ordained him priests. The persons he appointed to the priesthood were low and worthless creatures (see the notes at 1 Kings 12:31; 1 Kings 13:33); any were consecrated who brought a bullock and seven rams (Exodus 29:37; 2 Chronicles 13:9). Thus Jeroboam transferred not only the kingdom from the house of David, but the priesthood from the house of Aaron.
For the high places. Those favourite places of religious worship were encouraged throughout the country.
For the devils - a term sometimes used for idols in general (Leviticus 17:7), but here applied distinctively to х las`iyriym (H8163) (cf. Leviticus 4:24; Leviticus 16:9; Isaiah 13:21; Isaiah 34:14)] the goat-deities, which were probably worshipped chiefly in the northern parts of his kingdom, where the pagan Canaanites still abounded.
And for the calves, х laa`agaaliym (H5695)] - figures of the ox-gods Apis and Mnevis, with which Jeroboam's residence in Egypt had familiarized him (see the notes at 1 Kings 12:26-33); or the expression may be considered, as Hengstenberg takes it ('Pentateuch,' 1:, p. 201), equivalent to 'the calves he had made, which are devils'-i.e, of the same quality with the former adoration of the goat in the wilderness, which Moses stigmatizes as whoredom-a heinous transgression.