SEV Biblia, Chapter 12:32
Entonces instituyó Jeroboam solemnidad en el mes octavo, a los quince del mes, conforme a la solemnidad que se celebraba en Judá; y sacrificó sobre un altar. Así hizo en Bet-el, sacrificando a los becerros que había hecho. Ordenó también en Bet-el sacerdotes de los altos que él había fabricado.
Clarke's Bible Commentary - 1 Kings 12:32
Verse 32. Ordained a feast] The Jews held their feast of tabernacles on the fifteenth day of the seventh month; Jeroboam, who would meet the prejudices of the people as far as he could, appointed a similar feast on the fifteenth of the eighth month; thus appearing to hold the thing while he subverted the ordinance.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 32. And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the feast that is in Judah , etc.] The feast of tabernacles, which was on the fifteenth day of the seventh month; this was done chiefly for the sake of an alteration; though Abarbinel thinks, because the fruits of the land were not so soon ripe nor so soon gathered, in the northern parts of the land, as nearer Jerusalem, he judged this month the fittest for the feast of ingathering the fruits; and he might hope to get more people to come to his feast, when all were gathered in: and he offered upon the altar (so he did in Bethel), sacrificing unto the calves that he had made : this he did by his priests, or rather he himself did it, (see 1 Kings 13:4), this shows that Jeroboam made these calves for worship, and did sacrifice to them, at least as representations of God. Abarbinel, to make this agree with his hypothesis, gives this sense of the clause, that he did not sacrifice to the calves, but to God, because of them, that his kingdom, which they were a sign of, might be continued; and there being but one calf in a place, he could not be said to sacrifice to them both, but to God, because of both; or else he thinks this must be done after the people had turned aside to them, and not when Jeroboam made them. The clause in the parenthesis, “so he did in Bethel”, intimates that he did the same in Bethel as in Dan, of which what is said before is spoken; that is, that he made an house of high places in Bethel also, made priests out of all the people, such as were not of the tribe of Levi, appointed the feast of the fifteenth day of the eighth month to be observed there also, and he himself offered on the altar there: and he placed in Bethel the priests of the high places which he had made : to officiate there.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 25-33 - Jeroboam distrusted the providence of God; he would contrive ways an means, and sinful ones too, for his own safety. A practical disbelie of God's all-sufficiency is at the bottom of all our departures from him. Though it is probable he meant his worship for Jehovah the God of Israel, it was contrary to the Divine law, and dishonourable to the Divine majesty to be thus represented. The people might be less shocke at worshipping the God of Israel under an image, than if they had a once been asked to worship Baal; but it made way for that idolatry Blessed Lord, give us grace to reverence thy temple, thine ordinances thine house of prayer, thy sabbaths, and never more, like Jeroboam, to set up in our hearts any idol of abomination. Be thou to us every thin precious; do thou reign and rule in our hearts, the hope of glory __________________________________________________________________
Original Hebrew
ויעשׂ 6213 ירבעם 3379 חג 2282 בחדשׁ 2320 השׁמיני 8066 בחמשׁה 2568 עשׂר 6240 יום 3117 לחדשׁ 2320 כחג 2282 אשׁר 834 ביהודה 3063 ויעל 5927 על 5921 המזבח 4196 כן 3651 עשׂה 6213 בבית אל 1008 לזבח 2076 לעגלים 5695 אשׁר 834 עשׂה 6213 והעמיד 5975 בבית אל 1008 את 853 כהני 3548 הבמות 1116 אשׁר 834 עשׂה׃ 6213
