1 Kings 12 · a question people ask
Were Jeroboam's calves the golden calf of Exodus all over again?
The words are nearly the same, and the chapter doesn't join the two. In Exodus the people said of the calf Aaron made, "These are your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt" (Exodus 32:4), and the LORD repeated their words to Moses (Exodus 32:8). Jeroboam said of his, "Look and behold your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt!" (12:28). In Hebrew the last six words are the same in all three verses, eloheikha yisra'el asher he'elukha me'erets mitsrayim; Exodus begins with elleh, "These", and 12:28 with hinneh, "behold". In all three the verb brought you up is plural, and the WEB gives "gods" (tap calves). Some things differ, and the text shows them too. Exodus has one calf (Exodus 32:4), 1 Kings "two calves of gold" (12:28), one "in Bethel" and the other "in Dan" (12:29). Aaron called the next day "a feast to the LORD" (Exodus 32:5); Jeroboam "ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like the feast that is in Judah" (12:32). When Nehemiah 9 tells the calf of Exodus, it has "This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt" (Nehemiah 9:18), and there the verb is singular. 1 Kings doesn't say whether Jeroboam meant his calves to stand for the LORD or for other gods, and these notes don't guess. It says, "This thing became a sin" (12:30). The LORD's word to Jeroboam by Ahijah says he has "gone and made for yourself other gods, molten images" (14:9), and 2 Chronicles speaks of "the golden calves which Jeroboam made you for gods" (2 Chronicles 13:8).
The verses
“He received what they handed him, fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made it a molded calf. Then they said, “These are your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made a proclamation, and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD.””
“They have turned away quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molded calf, and have worshiped it, and have sacrificed to it, and said, ‘These are your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.’””
“So the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold; and he said to them, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Look and behold your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” He set the one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. This thing became a sin, for the people went even as far as Dan to worship before the one there.”
“Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like the feast that is in Judah, and he went up to the altar. He did so 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.”