HarperCollins Study Bible

by Harold W. Attridge

  Jeroboam’s Golden Calves

  25Then Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim, and resided there; he went out from there and built Penuel. 26Then Jeroboam said to himself, “Now the kingdom may well revert to the house of David. 27If this people continues to go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, the heart of this people will turn again to their master, King Rehoboam of Judah; they will kill me and return to King Rehoboam of Judah.” 28So the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold. He said to the people,b “You have gone up to Jerusalem long enough. Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.” 29He set one in Bethel, and the other he put in Dan. 30And this thing became a sin, for the people went to worship before the one at Bethel and before the other as far as Dan.c 31He also made housesd on high places, and appointed priests from among all the people, who were not Levites. 32Jeroboam appointed a festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth month like the festival that was in Judah, and he offered sacrifices on the altar; so he did 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. 33He went up to the altar that he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day in the eighth month, in the month that he alone had devised; he appointed a festival for the people of Israel, and he went up to the altar to offer incense.

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  a Gk Vg Compare 2 Chr 10.2: Heb lived in

  b Gk: Heb to them

  c Compare Gk: Heb went to the one as far as Dan

  d Gk Vg Compare 13.32: Heb a house

  12.1–19 As in the case of David’s elevation to kingship (1 Sam 16.1–13; 2 Sam 5.1–5), divine legitimation through a prophet here precedes popular election.

  12.1 Shechem, located about forty-one miles north of Jerusalem, between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. It had been an important religious center for the northern tribes (Josh 24; Deut 27), and Rehoboam’s journey may have been intended to placate northern religious and political interests.

  12.2–3 The Hebrew text of v. 2 (see text note a on 1 Samuel) seems to imply that Jeroboam remained in political exile in Egypt until the Northern tribes summon him to lead their negotiations with Rehoboam (v. 3). In the Greek text Jeroboam returns before he is summoned.

  12.4 Heavy yoke, the taxes and forced labor required by Solomon’s large court and numerous building projects (see 4.6–19; 5.13–18).

  12.6–7 Throughout the ancient Near East it was customary for new monarchs to grant concessions at the beginning of their reigns.

  12.11 Scorpions, if not simply metaphorical, perhaps a particularly painful kind of whip.

  12.15 For Ahijah’s oracle, see 11.29–39.

  12.16 Israel’s call to revolt is reminiscent of the words used by Northerners during the revolts of the Davidic period (2 Sam 20.1). Tents evokes Israel’s premonarchical past as well as the possibility of military activity.

  12.18 In spite of the threats of revolt, Rehoboam apparently tries to enforce his harsher policies in the North.

  12.20–24 Shemaiah’s oracle underscores the divine legitimation of Jeroboam’s rise to power.

  12.20–21 On the problem of the number of tribes that remained faithful to the Davidic house, see note on 11.31.

  12.25–33 From the standpoint of the narrator, the new king’s reign is problematic from the beginning, for his first royal acts violate most of the Deuteronomistic guidelines for proper worship.

  12.25 On the significance of Jeroboam’s choice of Shechem as the first capital, see note on 12.1. Penuel was east of the Jordan at a ford of the Jabbok River, where Jacob wrestled with God (cf. Gen 32.30–31).

  12.28 The two calves may have been bull images, traditional ancient Near Eastern symbols of power and fertility. In Canaan they were associated with both the god El, the head of the pantheon, and the storm god Baal. The worship of the bull or calf in Israel had ancient roots (see, e.g., Ex 32), and Jeroboam may have thought that he was reinstituting an older and more authentic form of the worship of the Lord. In any case, his actions violate Israel’s traditional prohibition against making images of the deity (Ex 20.4–6; Deut 4.15–19; 5.8–10), and the manufacture of two of these objects violates the Deuteronomic ban against worshiping more than one God (Deut 5.7; 6.4).

  12.29 Bethel, just north of Jerusalem and therefore on the southern boundary of the newly created Northern Kingdom. It had old associations with the worship of the Lord (Gen 28.10–22; Judg 20.18–28). Dan, the traditional marker of Israel’s northern border.

  12.31 High places. See note on 3.2. The houses were for the cultic activities that took place at the high places. Deuteronomy requires that all priests be Levites (Deut 18.1–8).

  12.32 Festival, the Festival of Tabernacles, a harvest festival usually held on the fifteenth day of the seventh month (Num 29.12–39).

  12.33 Jeroboam’s priestly activities are not part of a king’s proper duties according to Deuteronomy (Deut 17.14–20).

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  Chronology of the Kings of the Divided Monarchy

  Dates following the kings’ names are approximate years of their rule. The chronological data given in the books of 1 and 2 Kings pose insurmountable problems, however, for the construction of a firm chronology of the Divided Monarchy. The system adopted here is one of several approximations used by scholars.

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  1 KINGS 13

  A Man of God from Judah

  1While Jeroboam was standing by the altar to offer incense, a man of God came out of Judah by the word of the LORD to Bethel 2and proclaimed against the altar by the word of the LORD, and said, “O altar, altar, thus says the LORD: ‘A son shall be born to the house of David, Josiah by name; and he shall sacrifice on you the priests of the high places who offer incense on you, and human bones shall be burned on you.’” 3He gave a sign the same day, saying, “This is the sign that the LORD has spoken: ‘The altar shall be torn down, and the ashes that are on it shall be poured out.’” 4When the king heard what the man of God cried out against the altar at Bethel, Jeroboam stretched out his hand from the altar, saying, “Seize him!” But the hand that he stretched out against him withered so that he could not draw it back to himself. 5The altar also was torn down, and the ashes poured out from the altar, according to the sign that the man of God had given by the word of the LORD. 6The king said to the man of God, “Entreat now the favor of the LORD your God, and pray for me, so that my hand may be restored to me.” So the man of God entreated the LORD; and the king’s hand was restored to him, and became as it was before. 7Then the king said to the man of God, “Come home with me and dine, and I will give you a gift.” 8But the man of God said to the king, “If you give me half your kingdom, I will not go in with you; nor will I eat food or drink water in this place. 9For thus I was commanded by the word of the LORD: You shall not eat food, or drink water, or return by the way that you came.” 10So he went another way, and did not return by the way that he had come to Bethel.

  11Now there lived an old prophet in Bethel. One of his sons came and told him all that the man of God had done that day in Bethel; the words also that he had spoken to the king, they told to their father. 12Their father said to them, “Which way did he go?” And his sons showed him the way that the man of God who came from Judah had gone. 13Then he said to his sons, “Saddle a donkey for me.” So they saddled a donkey for him, and he mounted it. 14He went after the man of God, and found him sitting under an oak tree. He said to him, “Are you the man of God who came from Judah?” He answered, “I am.” 15Then he said to him, “Come home with me and eat some food.” 16But he said, “I cannot return with you, or go in with you; nor will I eat food or drink water with you in this place; 17for it was said to me by the word of the LORD: You shall not eat food or drink water there, or return by the way that you came.” 18Then the othera said to him, “I also am a prophet as you are, and an angel spoke to me by the word of the LORD: Bring him back with you into your ho
use so that he may eat food and drink water.” But he was deceiving him. 19Then the man of Godb went back with him, and ate food and drank water in his house.

  20As they were sitting at the table, the word of the LORD came to the prophet who had brought him back; 21and he proclaimed to the man of God who came from Judah, “Thus says the LORD: Because you have disobeyed the word of the LORD, and have not kept the commandment that the LORD your God commanded you, 22but have come back and have eaten food and drunk water in the place of which he said to you, ‘Eat no food, and drink no water,’ your body shall not come to your ancestral tomb.” 23After the man of Godc had eaten food and had drunk, they saddled for him a donkey belonging to the prophet who had brought him back. 24Then as he went away, a lion met him on the road and killed him. His body was thrown in the road, and the donkey stood beside it; the lion also stood beside the body. 25People passed by and saw the body thrown in the road, with the lion standing by the body. And they came and told it in the town where the old prophet lived.

  26When the prophet who had brought him back from the way heard of it, he said, “It is the man of God who disobeyed the word of the LORD; therefore the LORD has given him to the lion, which has torn him and killed him according to the word that the LORD spoke to him.” 27Then he said to his sons, “Saddle a donkey for me.” So they saddled one, 28and he went and found the body thrown in the road, with the donkey and the lion standing beside the body. The lion had not eaten the body or attacked the donkey. 29The prophet took up the body of the man of God, laid it on the donkey, and brought it back to the city,d to mourn and to bury him. 30He laid the body in his own grave; and they mourned over him, saying, “Alas, my brother!” 31After he had buried him, he said to his sons, “When I die, bury me in the grave in which the man of God is buried; lay my bones beside his bones. 32For the saying that he proclaimed by the word of the LORD against the altar in Bethel, and against all the houses of the high places that are in the cities of Samaria, shall surely come to pass.”

  33Even after this event Jeroboam did not turn from his evil way, but made priests for the high places again from among all the people; any who wanted to be priests he consecrated for the high places. 34This matter became sin to the house of Jeroboam, so as to cut it off and to destroy it from the face of the earth.

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  a Heb he

  b Heb he

  c Heb he

  d Gk: Heb he came to the town of the old prophet

  13.1–34 This chapter continues the narrative begun in 12.33 and makes explicit the condemnation of Jeroboam’s religious policies implied in the descriptions of 12.26–32. The bulk of ch. 13 is composed of two interrelated legends that focus on prophets and their activities. Both stories may have once circulated orally in prophetic circles. The first story (vv. 1–10) continues the theme of the prophetic condemnation of sinful rulers, a theme that will dominate the remainder of 1 Kings and extend as far as 2 Kings 13. The second story (vv. 11–32) deals with the problem of true and false prophecy and may have originally been intended as a warning to prophets about the conduct of their office. Both stories illustrate an important theological motif of this portion of Kings, the inevitable fulfillment of the word of a genuine prophet (cf. Deut 18.15–22).

  13.1 The unnamed Judean is given the title man of God, a designation used particularly in the Elijah-Elisha stories (1 Kings 17–2 Kings 10). The title may have originally been used to identify individuals able to use divine power in miraculous ways. On the significance of Jeroboam’s cultic installation at Bethel, see notes on 12.28; 12.29.

  13.2 The judgment oracle is directed against the altar itself and not against the king or the dynasty. Josiah finally desecrated the altar at Bethel about 620 BCE, roughly three hundred years after the prophecy was originally delivered (2 Kings 23.15–18). Sacrificing the priests and burning their bones on the altar would have defiled it, making it unfit for religious purposes.

  13.3 Because the fulfillment of a prophecy might be delayed for many years, prophets sometimes gave a sign to guarantee the truth of their oracles (Isa 7.11–17). The sign became a visible proof that the prophecy was true. Here the sign, the destruction of the altar, occurs immediately (v. 5).

  13.4 The withering of the king’s hand demonstrates the power of the prophet and the divine protection given to him.

  13.6 Prophets were often thought to be particularly effective in interceding with God (see, e.g., Gen 20.7; 1 Sam 7.5; 12.19). In this case the healing becomes another sign to demonstrate the truth of the prophet’s words.

  13.9 To eat or drink at Bethel would have suggested the prophet’s willingness to participate in the illegitimate cultic activities taking place there.

  13.11 Son, perhaps an indication of membership in a prophetic guild rather than actual kinship. The father would then have been the head of the guild.

  13.18 An angel spoke may be an implication that the old prophet did not receive the oracle directly from God, a situation that should have warned the man of God of the possibility that the oracle was false. Subtlety aside, readers are simply told that the old prophet lied.

  13.19 Even a genuine prophet cannot determine whether another prophet’s oracle is true or false.

  13.24 The lion’s peculiar behavior, killing the prophet but not the donkey and standing beside the body rather than eating it (cf. v. 28), is intended to dramatize the supernatural nature of the event.

  13.30 The burial of the man of God in the old prophet’s grave fulfills the judgment oracle in v. 22.

  13.31–32 The incident demonstrates to the old prophet the truth of the words of the man of God, and the old prophet symbolically identifies himself with his colleague’s message by requesting burial in the same grave.

  13.33 On Jeroboam’s nonlevitical priests, see note on 12.31.

  1 KINGS 14

  Judgment on the House of Jeroboam

  1At that time Abijah son of Jeroboam fell sick. 2Jeroboam said to his wife, “Go, disguise yourself, so that it will not be known that you are the wife of Jeroboam, and go to Shiloh; for the prophet Ahijah is there, who said of me that I should be king over this people. 3Take with you ten loaves, some cakes, and a jar of honey, and go to him; he will tell you what shall happen to the child.”

  4Jeroboam’s wife did so; she set out and went to Shiloh, and came to the house of Ahijah. Now Ahijah could not see, for his eyes were dim because of his age. 5But the LORD said to Ahijah, “The wife of Jeroboam is coming to inquire of you concerning her son; for he is sick. Thus and thus you shall say to her.”

  When she came, she pretended to be another woman. 6But when Ahijah heard the sound of her feet, as she came in at the door, he said, “Come in, wife of Jeroboam; why do you pretend to be another? For I am charged with heavy tidings for you. 7Go, tell Jeroboam, ‘Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Because I exalted you from among the people, made you leader over my people Israel, 8and tore the kingdom away from the house of David to give it to you; yet you have not been like my servant David, who kept my commandments and followed me with all his heart, doing only that which was right in my sight, 9but you have done evil above all those who were before you and have gone and made for yourself other gods, and cast images, provoking me to anger, and have thrust me behind your back; 10therefore, I will bring evil upon the house of Jeroboam. I will cut off from Jeroboam every male, both bond and free in Israel, and will consume the house of Jeroboam, just as one burns up dung until it is all gone. 11Anyone belonging to Jeroboam who dies in the city, the dogs shall eat; and anyone who dies in the open country, the birds of the air shall eat; for the LORD has spoken.’ 12Therefore set out, go to your house. When your feet enter the city, the child shall die. 13All Israel shall mourn for him and bury him; for he alone of Jeroboam’s family shall come to the grave, because in him there is found something pleasing to the LORD, the God of Israel, in the house of Jeroboam. 14Moreover the LORD will raise up for himself a king over Israel, who shall cut off the
house of Jeroboam today, even right now!a

  15“The LORD will strike Israel, as a reed is shaken in the water; he will root up Israel out of this good land that he gave to their ancestors, and scatter them beyond the Euphrates, because they have made their sacred poles,b provoking the LORD to anger. 16He will give Israel up because of the sins of Jeroboam, which he sinned and which he caused Israel to commit.”

  17Then Jeroboam’s wife got up and went away, and she came to Tirzah. As she came to the threshold of the house, the child died. 18All Israel buried him and mourned for him, according to the word of the LORD, which he spoke by his servant the prophet Ahijah.

  Death of Jeroboam

  19Now the rest of the acts of Jeroboam, how he warred and how he reigned, are written in the Book of the Annals of the Kings of Israel. 20The time that Jeroboam reigned was twenty-two years; then he slept with his ancestors, and his son Nadab succeeded him.

  Rehoboam Reigns over Judah

  21Now Rehoboam son of Solomon reigned in Judah. Rehoboam was forty-one years old when he began to reign, and he reigned seventeen years in Jerusalem, the city that the LORD had chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, to put his name there. His mother’s name was Naamah the Ammonite. 22Judah did what was evil in the sight of the LORD; they provoked him to jealousy with their sins that they committed, more than all that their ancestors had done. 23For they also built for themselves high places, pillars, and sacred polesc on every high hill and under every green tree; 24there were also male temple prostitutes in the land. They committed all the abominations of the nations that the LORD drove out before the people of Israel.