Yarob’am said to himself, ‘The kingship will now go back to the household of David: if this people go up to make sacrifices in Yahweh’s house in Yerushalaim, this people’s mind will turn back to their lord, to Rehab’am king of Yehudah. They’ll kill me and turn back to Rehab’am king of Yehudah.’
So the king took counsel and made two gold bullocks. He said to them, ‘It’s too much for you to go up to Yerushalaim. Yisra’el, here are your gods who brought you up from the country of Misrayim.’ He placed the one in Bet-el and the other he put in Dan, and this thing became a wrongdoing; the people went before the one as far as Dan. And he made the house at the shrines and made priests from the sections of the people who were not from the Levites.
Yarob’am made a festival in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, like the festival that was in Yehudah, and went up on to the altar. He acted in this way at Bet-el, sacrificing to the bullocks that he had made. So he put in place at Bet El the priests of the shrines that he had made.
After this thing Yarob’am did not turn back from his bad ways but again made priests for the shrines from all sections of the people. Anyone who wanted commissioned himself and became priests of the shrines. This thing was the wrongdoing of Yarob’am’s household so as both to efface and to annihilate it from upon the face of the ground.
Goldingay, John; The Bible for Everyone . SPCK. Kindle Edition.
Be thou a bright flame before me,
Be thou a guiding star above me
Be thou a smooth path below me
Be thou a kindly shepherd behind me
Today – tonight -forever
Amen.
St Columba