Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of 1 Kings 12:28

Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves [of] gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

28. two calves of gold ] The Israelites in Egypt had been familiarized with the ox as an object of worship, and it would therefore not be unknown among their descendants. Hence their readiness to recognize such an image as a symbol of the divinity when they were in the wilderness (Exo 32:4; Exo 32:8). The sin was the same on this occasion as on that. God had commanded that no image should be made as a symbol of Him. The calves were therefore an abomination, (directly contrary to Exo 20:4), even though when bowing before them the people professed to worship Him who led their fathers out of Egypt.

The LXX says ‘he went and made’ , and instead of ‘and said unto them,’ in the next clause, which reads a little awkwardly, gives ‘and said unto the people.’

It is too much for you to go up ] The sense intended is probably given in the margin of R.V. ‘Ye have gone up long enough.’ To the mind of the Jew there might be a reason for ceasing altogether to go to Jerusalem, now that the kingdoms were divided, but no excuse from the fatigue of the journey. Jeroboam’s argument was ‘You have chosen a new king, choose also new places for worship.’ Cf. Eze 44:6, where the sense is ‘Have done with your abominations.’

behold thy gods ] Words very like those of the people in the wilderness (Exo 32:4) over their golden calf. But the sense is rather: ‘Behold thy God.’ Under this symbol of the young bull, see and recognise thy God, Jehovah. The young bull was the symbol of creative power.

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

The calves of gold were probably representations of the cherubic form, imitations of the two cherubim which guarded the ark of the covenant in the holy of holies. But being unauthorized copies, set up in places which God had not chosen, and without any divine sanction, the sacred writers call them calves. They were not mere human figures with wings, but had at any rate the head of a calf or ox. (Hence, some attribute this calf-worship entirely to Assyrian and Phoenician influence.) Jeroboam, in setting them up, was probably not so much influenced by the Apis-worship of Egypt, as:

(1) by a conviction that the Israelites could not be brought to attach themselves to any worship which did not present them with sensible objects to venerate;

(2) by the circumstance that he did not possess any of the old objects of reverence, which had been concentrated at Jerusalem; and

(3) by the fact that he could plead for his calves the authority of so great a name as Aaron (marginal reference).

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible

Verse 28. Made two calves of gold] He invented a political religion, instituted feasts in his own times different from those appointed by the Lord, gave the people certain objects of devotion, and pretended to think it would be both inconvenient and oppressive to them to have to go up to Jerusalem to worship. This was not the last time that religion was made a state engine to serve political purposes. It is strange that in pointing out his calves to the people, he should use the same words that Aaron used when he made the golden calf in the wilderness, when they must have heard what terrible judgments fell upon their forefathers for this idolatry.

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible

Made two calves of gold, in imitation of Aarons golden calf, and of the Egyptians, from whom he was lately come. And this he the rather presumed to do, because he knew the people of Israel were generally very prone to superstition and idolatry, as their whole history showeth; and that Solomons example and countenance given to false worships had exceedingly strengthened those inclinations; and therefore they were in a great measure prepared for such an attempt; especially when his proposition tended to their own case, and safety, and profit, which he knew was much dearer to them, as well as to himself, than their religion.

It is too much for you; too great a trouble and charge, and neither necessary nor safe for them, as things now stood.

Behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt; not as if he did himself believe, or thought to persuade the people to believe, that these calves were properly and truly that very God of Israel who brought them out of Egypt; (which was so monstrously absurd and ridiculous, that no Israelite in his right wits could believe it;) and had been so far from attaining his end, and satisfying his people, that this would have made him both hateful and contemptible to them: but his meaning was, that these images were visible representations, in and by which he designed to worship the true God of Israel; as appears, partly, from that parallel place, Exo 32:4, See Poole “Exo 32:4“; partly, because the priests and worshippers of the calves are said to worship Jehovah, and, upon that account, are distinguished from those belonging to Baal, 1Ki 18:21; 22:6,7; and partly, from Jeroboams design in this work, which was to quiet the peoples minds, and remove their scruples about going to Jerusalem to worship their God in that place, as they were commanded; which he doth, by signifying to them that he did not intend any alteration in the substance of their religion, nor to draw them from the worship of the true God to the worship of Ashtoreth, or Milcom, or any of those Baals which were set up by Solomon; but to worship that selfsame God whom they worshipped in Jerusalem, even the true God, and the God of their fathers, who brought them out of Egypt, but only to vary a circumstance; and that as they worshipped God at Jerusalem by and before one visible sign, even the ark, and the sacred cherubims there; so his subjects should worship God by another visible sign, even that of the calves, in other places: and as for the change of the place, he might suggest to them that God was present in all places where men with honest minds did call upon him; that before the temple was built, the best of kings, and prophets, and people did pray and sacrifice to God in divers high places, without any scruple, notwithstanding that restraint of God to one place, Deu 12:5, &c.; that God would dispense with them also in that matter, because going to Jerusalem was very dangerous to them at this time, and God would have mercy rather than sacrifice; and God had been pleased to dispense with his own ordinances in cases of necessity or great inconvenience, as he did with circumcision for forty years in the wilderness.

Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole

Whereupon the king took counsel,…. Of some of his principal men, that had as little religion as himself, and were only concerned for the civil state; and the result of their consultation was as follows:

and made two calves of gold; in imitation of that which was made by Aaron, and encouraged by his example and success; and having been in Egypt some time, he might have learned the calf or ox worship there, and might take his pattern from thence, and have two as they had; the one they called Apis, which was worshipped at Memphis, and another called Mnevis, worshipped at Hierapolis, as many learned men have observed; these were she calves, according to the Septuagint and Josephus q:

and said unto them; not his counsellors, but the people of the land:

it is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem; pretending he sought their ease, by contriving a method to prevent their long fatiguing journeys, to go up with their sacrifices, firstfruits, c. and the Jews r say the firstfruits ceased from going up to Jerusalem on the twenty third of Sivan, which answers to part of May and part of June, on which day they kept a fast on that account:

behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt using the same words Aaron did on a like occasion; not that he thought these were really gods, and had divinity in them; nor could he hope or expect that the people would believe they had; but that these were representations of the true God, who had brought them out of Egypt; and that it might as well be supposed that God would cause his Shechinah to dwell in them as between the cherubim over the ark.

q Ut supra, (Antiqu. l. 8. c. 8.) sect. 4. r Schulchan Aruch, par. 1. c. 580. sect. 2.

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible

(28) Calves of gold.The choice of this symbol of the Divine Natureturning, as the Psalmist says with indignant scorn, the glory of God into the similitude of a calf that eateth hay (Psa. 106:20)was probably due to a combination of causes. First, the very repetition of Aarons words (Exo. 32:8) indicates that it was a revival of that ancient idolatry in the wilderness. Probably, like it, it was suggested by the animal worship of Egypt, with which Jeroboam had been recently familiar, and which (as is well known) varied from mere symbolism to gross creature worship. Next, the bull, as the emblem of Ephraim, would naturally become a religious cognisance of the new kingdom. Lastly, there is some reason to believe that the figure of the cherubim was that of winged bulls, and the form of the ox was undoubtedly used in the Temple, as for example, under the brazen sea. It has been thought that the calves were reproductions of the sacred cherubim,made, however, symbols, not of the natural powers obeying the Divine word, but of the Deity itself.

It is, of course, to be understood that this idolatry, against which the prohibition of many sanctuaries was meant to guard, was a breach, not of the First Commandment, but of the Secondthat making of a similitude of the true God, so emphatically forbidden again and again in the Law. (See, for example, Deu. 4:15-18.) Like all such veneration of images, it probably degenerated. From looking on the image as a mere symbol it would come to attach to it a local presence of the Deity and an intrinsic sacredness; and so would lead on, perhaps to a veiled polytheism, certainly to a superstitious and carnal conception of the Godhead.

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)

28. Took counsel But not of God. Compare Isa 30:1.

Two calves of gold Jeroboam’s residence in Egypt had made him familiar with the calf-worship so largely practised there, and this, doubtless, had much to do with the erection of these golden shrines: besides, the people had already become accustomed to the sight of the figures of oxen in their religions ceremonial by their presence as supporters of the molten sea at the temple of Jerusalem. And as it had now become needful to provide some substitute for the ark and its cherubim, it was natural to adopt the semblance of an animal with whose presence they were already familiarized. These calves were not set up to be worshipped as idols, any more than were the ark and other sacred shrines at Jerusalem, but were designed to be symbols of Jehovah. They were made, like the golden calf at Sinai, of wood or other material overlaid with gold, and probably resembled the Egyptian Mne, or Mnevis, which was worshipped at On, or the bull Apis, whose form was similar.

It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem An appeal to the fleshly love of ease. He has nothing against the worship at Jerusalem; that is all right for those that dwell there; but he assumes to show his people an easier and better way. There have never been wanting those who are very ready to take the easiest apparent road to heaven, nor have there been wanting ministers to point it out.

Behold thy gods Rather, Behold thy God. He would no more establish polytheism than would Aaron. He quotes the very words of Aaron, (see Exo 32:4,) as if to say, This is no new religion, no new system of worship; but was used of old by our fathers under the sanction of Aaron.

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

1Ki 12:28. 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 Exo 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, 1Ki 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, Eze 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, 1Ki 12:26-29. It is too much for you, says he, 1Ki 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, 1Ki 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; 2Ki 10:28; 2Ki 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. 1Ki 11:40. Exodus 32; Exodus 4 and Div. Leg. vol. 3: p. 328.

Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke

1Ki 12:28 Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves [of] gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

Ver. 28. Whereupon the king took counsel, ] viz., Of his politicians, who are none of the best patriots, because they make religion serve policy, which is the way to ruin all, as is to be seen in the histories of Constantius, Heraclius, Michael Paleologus (who first made the Greek Church acknowledge the Pope’s supremacy), Caesar Borgia, our Richard III, Henry IV of France, and many others. Jeroboam graviorem duxit iacturam regionis quam religionis; atque si omnino religio violanda sit, existimat regni causa violandam.

And made two calves. ] He had sojourned in Egypt, where he had seen calf worship, in honour of Apis, and haply joined in it to please Shishak, whose daughter he is also said by some to have married, as thinking to strengthen himself against Rehoboam by that affinity. a

It is too much for you. ] Behold a more compendious way of worship: Colite Deum, ut par est; Religiosum oportet esse, sed non religentem: provide for your own ease and better accommodation.

a Ibique uxore accepta ex stirpe regia. – Sulp. Sever.

Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)