32 And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like the feast that was in Judah, and he offered upon the altar. So did he in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves that he had made; and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places that he had made.
Then Amaziah the priest of Bethel sent to Jeroboam king of Israel, saying, Amos hath conspired against thee in the midst of the house of Israel: the land is not able to bear all his words. For thus Amos saith: Jeroboam shall die by the sword, and Israel shall certainly go into captivity out of his land. And Amaziah said unto Amos, [Thou] seer, go, flee away into the land of Judah, and eat bread there, and prophesy there. But prophesy not again any more at Bethel; for it is the king's sanctuary, and it is the house of the kingdom.
And Jehovah spoke to Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, On the fifteenth day of this seventh month is the feast of booths seven days to Jehovah. On the first day there shall be a holy convocation: no manner of servile work shall ye do. Seven days ye shall present an offering by fire to Jehovah; on the eighth day shall be a holy convocation unto you; and ye shall present an offering by fire to Jehovah: it is a solemn assembly; no manner of servile work shall ye do. These are the set feasts of Jehovah, which ye shall proclaim as holy convocations, to present an offering by fire to Jehovah, a burnt-offering, and an oblation, a sacrifice, and drink-offerings, everything upon its day; besides the sabbaths of Jehovah, and besides your gifts, and besides all your vows, and besides all your voluntary offerings, which ye give to Jehovah. But on the fifteenth day of the seventh month, when ye have gathered in the produce of the land, ye shall celebrate the feast of Jehovah seven days: on the first day there shall be rest, and on the eighth day there shall be rest. And ye shall take on the first day the fruit of beautiful trees, palm branches and the boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook; and ye shall rejoice before Jehovah your God seven days. And ye shall celebrate it as a feast to Jehovah seven days in the year: [it is] an everlasting statute throughout your generations; in the seventh month shall ye celebrate it. In booths shall ye dwell seven days; all born in Israel shall dwell in booths; that your generations may know that I caused the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt: I am Jehovah your God. And Moses declared the set feasts of Jehovah to the children of Israel.
And on the fifteenth day of the seventh month ye shall have a holy convocation: no manner of servile work shall ye do; and ye shall celebrate a feast to Jehovah seven days; and ye shall present a burnt-offering, an offering by fire for a sweet odour to Jehovah: thirteen young bullocks, two rams, fourteen yearling lambs (they shall be without blemish); and their oblation of fine flour mingled with oil: three tenth parts for each bullock of the thirteen bullocks, two tenth parts for each ram of the two rams, and one tenth part for each lamb of the fourteen lambs; and one buck of the goats for a sin-offering, -- besides the continual burnt-offering, its oblation and its drink-offering. And on the second day, [ye shall present] twelve young bullocks, two rams, fourteen yearling lambs without blemish; and their oblation and their drink-offerings for the bullocks, for the rams, and for the lambs, by their number, according to the ordinance; and one buck of the goats for a sin-offering, -- besides the continual burnt-offering and its oblation, and their drink-offerings. And on the third day, eleven bullocks, two rams, fourteen yearling lambs without blemish; and their oblation and their drink-offerings for the bullocks, for the rams, and for the lambs, by their number, according to the ordinance; and one he-goat for a sin-offering, -- besides the continual burnt-offering and its oblation and its drink-offering. And on the fourth day, ten bullocks, two rams, fourteen yearling lambs without blemish; their oblation and their drink-offerings for the bullocks, for the rams, and for the lambs, by their number, according to the ordinance; and one buck of the goats for a sin-offering, -- besides the continual burnt-offering, its oblation and its drink-offering. And on the fifth day, nine bullocks, two rams, fourteen yearling lambs without blemish; and their oblation and their drink-offerings for the bullocks, for the rams, and for the lambs, by their number, according to the ordinance; and one he-goat for a sin-offering, -- besides the continual burnt-offering and its oblation and its drink-offering. And on the sixth day, eight bullocks, two rams, fourteen yearling lambs without blemish; and their oblation and their drink-offerings for the bullocks, for the rams, and for the lambs, by their number, according to the ordinance; and one he-goat for a sin-offering, -- besides the continual burnt-offering, its oblation and its drink-offerings. And on the seventh day, seven bullocks, two rams, fourteen yearling lambs without blemish; and their oblation and their drink-offerings for the bullocks, for the rams, and for the lambs, by their number, according to their ordinance; and one he-goat for a sin-offering, -- besides the continual burnt-offering, its oblation and its drink-offering. On the eighth day ye shall have a solemn assembly: no manner of servile work shall ye do. And ye shall present a burnt-offering, an offering by fire of a sweet odour to Jehovah: one bullock, one ram, seven yearling lambs without blemish; their oblation and their drink-offerings for the bullock, for the ram, and for the lambs, by their number, according to the ordinance; and one he-goat for a sin-offering, -- besides the continual burnt-offering and its oblation and its drink-offering. These shall ye offer to Jehovah in your set feasts, besides your vows, and your voluntary-offerings, for your burnt-offerings, and for your oblations, and for your drink-offerings, and for your peace-offerings. And Moses told the children of Israel according to all that Jehovah had commanded Moses.
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Commentary on 1 Kings 12 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
CHAPTER 12
1Ki 12:1-5. Refusing the Old Men's Counsel.
1. Rehoboam went to Shechem—He was the oldest, and perhaps the only son of Solomon, and had been, doubtless, designated by his father heir to the throne, as Solomon had been by David. The incident here related took place after the funeral obsequies of the late king and the period for public mourning had past. When all Israel came to make him king, it was not to exercise their old right of election (1Sa 10:19-21), for, after God's promise of the perpetual sovereignty to David's posterity, their duty was submission to the authority of the rightful heir; but their object was, when making him king, to renew the conditions and stipulations to which their constitutional kings were subject (1Sa 10:25). To the omission of such rehearsing which, under the peculiar circumstances in which Solomon was made king, they were disposed to ascribe the absolutism of his government.
Shechem—This ancient, venerable, and central town was the place of convocation; and it is evident, if not from the appointment of that place, at least from the tenor of their language, and the concerted presence of Jeroboam [1Ki 12:3], that the people were determined on revolt.
4. Thy father made our yoke grievous—The splendor of Solomon's court and the magnitude of his undertakings being such, that neither the tribute of dependent states, nor the presents of foreign princes, nor the profits of his commercial enterprises, were adequate to carry them on, he had been obliged, for obtaining the necessary revenue, to begin a system of heavy taxation. The people looked only to the burdens, not to the benefits they derived from Solomon's peaceful and prosperous reign—and the evils from which they demanded deliverance were civil oppressions, not idolatry, to which they appear to have been indifferent or approving.
5-8. he said … Depart yet for three days—It was prudent to take the people's demand into calm and deliberate consideration. Whether, had the advice of the sage and experienced counsellors been followed, any good result would have followed, it is impossible to say. It would at least have removed all pretext for the separation. [See on 2Ch 10:7.] But he preferred the counsel of his young companions (not in age, for they were all about forty-one, but inexperienced), who recommended prompt and decisive measures to quell the malcontents.
11. whips … scorpions—The latter [instruments], as contrasted with the former, are supposed to mean thongs thickly set with sharp iron points, used in the castigation of slaves.
15-18. the king hearkened not unto the people, for the cause was from the Lord—That was the overruling cause. Rehoboam's weakness (Ec 2:18, 19) and inexperience in public affairs has given rise to the probable conjecture, that, like many other princes in the East, he had been kept secluded in the harem till the period of his accession (Ec 4:14), his father being either afraid of his aspiring to the sovereignty, like the two sons of David, or, which is more probable, afraid of prematurely exposing his imbecility. The king's haughty and violent answer to a people already filled with a spirit of discontent and exasperation, indicated so great an incapacity to appreciate the gravity of the crisis, so utter a want of common sense, as to create a belief that he was struck with judicial blindness. It was received with mingled scorn and derision. The revolt was accomplished, and yet so quietly, that Rehoboam remained in Shechem, fancying himself the sovereign of a united kingdom, until his chief tax gatherer, who had been most imprudently sent to treat with the people, had been stoned to death. This opened his eyes, and he fled for security to Jerusalem.
1Ki 12:20-33. Jeroboam Made King over Them.
20-24. when all Israel heard that Jeroboam was come again—This verse closes the parenthetical narrative begun at 1Ki 12:2, and 1Ki 12:21-24 resume the history from 1Ki 12:1. Rehoboam determined to assert his authority by leading a large force into the disaffected provinces. But the revolt of the ten tribes was completed when the prophet Shemaiah ordered, in the Lord's name, an abandonment of any hostile measures against the revolutionists. The army, overawed by the divine prohibition, dispersed, and the king was obliged to submit.
25. Jeroboam built Shechem—destroyed by Abimelech (Jud 9:1-49). It was rebuilt, and perhaps fortified, by Jeroboam, as a royal residence.
built Penuel—a ruined city with a tower (Jud 8:9), east of Jordan, on the north bank of the Jabbok. It was an object of importance to restore this fortress (as it lay on the caravan road from Gilead to Damascus and Palmyra) and to secure his frontier on that quarter.
26-32. Jeroboam said in his heart, Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David—Having received the kingdom from God, he should have relied on the divine protection. But he did not. With a view to withdraw the people from the temple and destroy the sacred associations connected with Jerusalem, he made serious and unwarranted innovations on the religious observances of the country, on pretext of saving the people the trouble and expense of a distant journey. First, he erected two golden calves—the young bulls, Apis and Mnevis, as symbols (in the Egyptian fashion) of the true God, and the nearest, according to his fancy, to the figures of the cherubim. The one was placed at Dan, in the northern part of his kingdom; the other at Beth-el, the southern extremity, in sight of Jerusalem, and in which place he probably thought God was as likely to manifest Himself as at Jerusalem (Ge 32:1-32; 2Ki 2:2). The latter place was the most frequented—for the words (1Ki 12:30) should be rendered, "the people even to Dan went to worship before the one" (Jer 48:13; Am 4:4, 5; 5:5; Ho 5:8; 10:8). The innovation was a sin because it was setting up the worship of God by symbols and images and departing from the place where He had chosen to put His name. Secondly, he changed the feast of tabernacles from the fifteenth of the seventh to the fifteenth of the eighth month. The ostensible reason might be, that the ingathering or harvest was later in the northern parts of the kingdom; but the real reason was to eradicate the old association with this, the most welcome and joyous festival of the year.
31. made priests of the lowest of the people—literally, "out of all the people," the Levites refusing to act. He himself assumed to himself the functions of the high priest, at least, at the great festival, probably from seeing the king of Egypt conjoin the royal and sacred offices, and deeming the office of the high priest too great to be vested in a subject.