1 Kings 12:30

Verse

Berean Standard Bible

And this thing became a sin; the people walked as far as Dan to worship before one of the calves.

American Standard Version (1901)

And this thing became a sin; for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan.

Bible in Basic English

And this became a sin in Israel; for the people went to give worship to the one at Beth-el, and to the other at Dan.

Free Bible Version

This action brought about sin, because the people went as far north as Dan to worship the idol there.

Geneva Bible 1599

And this thing turned to sinne: for the people went (because of the one) euen to Dan.

King James (Authorized) Version

And this thing became a sin: for the people went to worship before the one, even unto Dan.

Translation for Translators

So what Jeroboam did caused the people to sin. Some of them went and worshiped the calf at Bethel, and others went and worshiped the other calf at Dan.

Unlocked Literal Bible

So this act became a sin. The people went to one or the other, all the way to Dan.

Noah Webster Bible

And this thing became a sin: for the people went to worship before the one, even to Dan.

World English Bible

This thing became a sin, for the people went even as far as Dan to worship before the one there.

Young's Literal Translation

and this thing becometh a sin, and the people go before the one — unto Dan.

Context

Jeroboam’s Idolatry

²⁹One calf he set up in Bethel, and the other in Dan. ³⁰And this thing became a sin; the people walked as far as Dan to worship before one of the calves.

Summary

This verse describes King Jeroboam's decision to set up two golden calves in Bethel and Dan as alternative places of worship to prevent the people of Israel from going to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices. Jeroboam feared that if the people continued to worship in Jerusalem, they might turn their allegiance back to King Rehoboam of Judah. This act of setting up idols violated God's commandments and led the people into idolatry, ultimately resulting in their spiritual downfall and separation from the true worship of God.

Commentary

John Gill

John Gill Bible Commentary

And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like unto the feast that is in Judah,.... 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 Kg1 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.