Jeroboam of Israel: 931-910 BC

An Egyptian Conspiracy?  ∙  The Consolidation of the Kingdom  ∙  A New Priesthood  ∙  The Golden Calves at Dan and Bethel  ∙  A Disturbing Prophecy at the Bethel Inauguration  ∙  The Demise of ‘The Man of God’  ∙  A Sick Prince and A Broken Dynasty  ∙  The Prophesied Judgment of Northern Israel

When Jeroboam became king over the 'ten lost tribes of Israel,' he made his capital in Shechem, the most prominent northern Israelite city, and fortified it. He likely chose Shechem not only because it was central ground for the discontented northern tribes but also because it had historical significance: it was where the Mosaic Covenant was renewed after the first stage of Joshua’s conquest of Canaan. Shechem was also a strategic location: it lie thirty miles north of Jerusalem in a narrow pass between Mounts Ebal and Gerizim, it had an available water source and rich agricultural resources, and it dominated all commercial and military travel through the Ephraimite region. Archaeologists have uncovered casemate walls and towers that may have been built by Jeroboam; they’ve also found destruction layers that may indicate the incursions of Pharaoh Shoshenq I. 

an artist's rendition of Shechem ca 200 BC when it was
a Canaanite city

It’s interesting that the biblical narrative doesn’t report Shoshenq’s rampages through Israel; it’s doubly interesting that Jeroboam made no effort to oppose it. When the Egyptian forces entered Israel, Jeroboam moved the seat of government to Penuel (a.k.a. Peniel) in Gilead, five miles across the Jordan and on the Jabbok; this distance wasn’t far enough, as Penuel appears on Shoshenq’s list of ravaged Israelite cities (along with fifty to sixty others). Jeroboam’s side-stepping of Shoshenq’s forces may imply that part of his deal with Shoshenq for Egyptian support in his bid for the throne was that he wouldn’t oppose Shoshenq’s planned campaign in Israel. The Egyptian description of Shoshenq’s campaign indicates that the Pharaoh’s forces moved northward toward Shechem, then down the Wadi Farah into the Jordan Valley, and farther into the hills of Gilead. The northern part of Shoshenq’s campaign included attacks on cities in the Jezreel Valley and the Sharon Plain. Once the Egyptians left, Jeroboam shifted the capital back to Shechem; but he later resided in Tirzah, which was east of the watershed at the head of the Wadi Farah. Tirzah was a secure location on the remote eastern side of the central mountains, and in time it would become the official capital until King Omri purchased the hill of Samaria and relocated the capital to his newly-built city. Tirzah had good elevation, a consistent water supply from two springs that fed the Wadi Farah, and it dominated the local trade route. Archaeologists have uncovered central planning in Tirzah as well as new palace constructions from the days of Jeroboam.

an example of an informal 'high place'

Jeroboam's first order of business as the first king of the newly-created splinter kingdom of Israel was to consolidate his power. Two main issues needed to be resolved: the independent streaks of the ten assorted tribes (who had a history of being ever at odds and constantly at variance with one another) and the religious allure of the Jerusalem Temple. To placate the autonomous bent of the tribes, he certified the continuous use of traditional, local shrines or ‘high places.’ These weren’t necessarily pagan in nature; though Mosaic Law opposed erecting local shrines to Yahweh, it was still practiced. By authorizing local shrines and high places, he was giving tribes a ‘free hand’ in their religious observances; were he to constrict them, he would lose a lot of support. These shrines and ‘high places’ consisted of both outdoor shrines and indoor shrines. Outdoor shrines were common among the Canaanites, and they were considered abhorrent by devout Hebrews because they promoted a ‘popular’ brand of religion that combined elements of Canaanite worship with the worship of Yahweh. These ‘high places in the hills’ often consisted of an altar, a sacred pole or tree, and a sacred stone pillar. Some of these ‘high places’ may have been open-air altars, the mention of ‘houses’ in 2 Kings 17.9-11 and 2 Chronicles 1.3 indicates that some may have been more elaborate cultic installations in tribal urban centers. These indoor facilities likely housed sacred furniture, an altar, and precincts large enough to accommodate a priesthood. Jeroboam also authorized goat idols, which likely refers to satyr-like demons who were believed to haunt the open fields and inhospitable places. They’re referenced only a few times in the Old Testament and have no known parallels in the ancient Near East.

Placating the independent streaks of the assorted tribes was one thing; getting people to break from the Jerusalem Temple was quite another. Hebrew practice dictated that people travel to Jerusalem three times a year for major festivals and that the proper worship of Yahweh included worshipping in the Temple. If Israel’s worship of Yahweh were to be constricted to the Temple, that would erode the loyalty of his subjects; the more devout worshippers would be tempted to migrate to Judah. He needed to devise a way to upkeep the worship of Yahweh while divorcing that worship from the Jerusalem Temple. Jeroboam ‘consulted’ for a solution; the Hebrew word used can mean ‘take advice’ or ‘consult with demons.’ Some have theorized that, in his desire to consolidate his kingdom, he consulted with demonic forces that showed Jeroboam the way forward. Jeroboam’s changes would prepare the Israelites for the coming religious conversion to Baal worship. Jeroboam inaugurated two major changes to Israelite worship: a new priesthood and a new type of Yahweh worship that revolved around a pair of Golden Calves.

According to Mosaic Law, the tribe of Levites were tasked with serving as the priests of Yahweh. The Levites were known for being devoted to Yahweh, and they chafed against Jeroboam’s changes. Jeroboam knew that Levites carried a lot of clout with the people; if he allowed them to stay in power, they would, of course, oppose his religious innovations, and their authority could erode the loyalty of his subjects. Thus Jeroboam decreed that priests could be made ‘of all classes of people,’ rejecting the priestly prerogatives of the Levites. By appointing a non-Levitical priesthood, Jeroboam could insure that his policies (including the shrines at Bethel and Dan, the Golden Calves, the use of high places, and a new religious calendar) would be carried out without question. Those priests appointed by Jeroboam would be beholden to their king; in this way, their loyalty wouldn’t be with the Jerusalem Temple but with Jeroboam. In no way is it shocking that most of the Levites scattered throughout the ten tribes of Israel migrated south to Judah, where they bolstered (for a time) Judah’s religious practices under King Rehoboam. Jeroboam also ordered a great festival to be held on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, one month after the appointed time for the feast of tabernacles (he probably enacted this change because northern Israel’s harvest time was a month later than that of Judah’s, and calendar dates for festivals were often used as barometers to differentiate one religion from another). Jeroboam clinched the priesthood by making himself the High Priest, offering sacrifices and incense on special occasions before the Golden Calves he made.

one of Jeroboam's Golden Calves

And now we get to the crux of Jeroboam’s religious innovations: those pesky Golden Calves. He ordered the construction of two Golden Calves (likely made of wood and covered in a thin veer of gold) as a substitute for the Temple. He placed one of the Calves in the north at the city of Dan, and he placed the other in the south at the city of Bethel. Dan had become the site of the shrine for the tribe of Dan in Judges 18, and it was at Bethel that the patriarch Jacob received his theophany in Genesis 28. In Genesis 35 an altar to Yahweh was built in Bethel. By establishing worship centers at Dan and Bethel, which were located at the extremities of the newly-minted Israel, Jeroboam effectively defined the limits of the territory under his control. By placing a sanctuary at Bethel, which was located on the Ridge Route only eleven miles north of Jerusalem, he in effect ‘detoured’ any Israelite worshippers who might have been heading to the Jerusalem Temple. Dan, situated to the north on the border with Phoenicia and Syria (Aram), probably served as a site for treaty negotiations as well as a border outpost. It was a somewhat isolated settlement in the foothills of Mount Hermon. Excavations at Dan have uncovered Jeroboam’s ‘High Place’ built for the Golden Calf; the sanctuary was 195 by 145 feet and contained a large altar in an open-air courtyard. One large horn from the main altar has been uncovered as well as a small horned altar. 

remains of the shrine at Dan

Jeroboam’s propaganda for the Golden Calves was twofold: first, it was too much of a hassle for Israelites to travel to Jerusalem, so why not just worship at whichever Israelite shrine was closest to your home? Second, he linked the Golden Calves to the calf erected by Aaron at Mount Sinai in Exodus 32.4-8. He passed off his innovations as a restoration of something old, resurrecting Aaron’s old lie: ‘These Golden Calves brought us out of Egypt!’ It’s interesting to note that he presents the Calves as ‘the gods [plural] who brought us out of Egypt.’ The monotheism of the Shema wasn’t taken seriously. It’s important to note, however, that Jeroboam didn’t claim that the Golden Calves at Bethel and Dan were images of the invisible Yahweh; the Hebrews never represented Yahweh zoomorphically. Jeroboam probably intended to present the Calves as the animals upon which Yahweh rode. Just as the Ark functioned as a ‘throne’ or ‘pedestal’ upholding the glory of God, so, too, did the Calves. Jeroboam hoped the Calves would be a powerful religious symbol in the same vein as the Ark (which may have been why he may have carried the Calves, or representations of them, into battle at Mount Zemaraim during the reign of Abijah of Judah). To present the Calves as Yahweh’s mounts wouldn’t be much of a stretch; it’s a motif seen throughout the ancient Near East. Many Canaanite and Ugaritic gods are portrayed in ancient artwork standing on the body of a bull; the Mesopotamian moon gods Sin and Nannar were presented with a bull or portrayed as a rampant ‘ferocious bull’; and in Syria, the bull became common as a ‘pedestal animal’ for their gods. In presenting the Calves as the ‘pedestals’ of Yahweh, Jeroboam may have been drawing on pagan motifs; but some scholars believe that he was borrowing an idea from the Temple itself: it’s been argued that the biblical cherubim, which were so prominent in the decorations of the Temple, were winged bulls. Perhaps Solomon’s cherubim had a close resemblance to Jeroboam’s Golden Calves. The use of the bull, however, had its drawbacks: bulls and calves were associated with the Canaanite god Baal and the fertility cult. The Canaanite god El is often referred to as ‘Bull El,’ and there was a tale of the mating of Baal and Anat which produced a steer. These close similarities between the Golden Calves and Canaanite worship made the blending of the two religions almost inevitable, and it isn’t surprising that, in time, the Calves came to be identified with Yahweh Himself in popular religious understanding (this is why Hosea regarded the Calves as idols in Hosea 13.2). Jeroboam may have couched the Golden Calves in terms of worshipping Yahweh, but they were reminiscent of Canaanite idolatry, and the Canaanite population of Israel saw it as much. All pretense to worshiping Yahweh with the Calves floundered when Jeroboam built pagan goat shrines and commissioned pagan priests to satisfy the Canaanite population in order to secure their valuable political support. 

Scholars love to discuss the origins of Jeroboam’s Golden Calves. Did he dream them up in lieu of the cherubim of Solomon’s Temple or of Aaron’s Golden Calf on the slopes of Mount Sinai? Did he, in fact, try to merge Canaanite practices and theology with the worship of Yahweh to create a hybrid religion? Some have even argued that the Golden Calves represent Jeroboam’s private religious leanings: bearing in mind he spent nearly two decades in Egypt, perhaps Egyptian religion – in which cows and their kin are so prominent – became a centerpiece of his own religious tastes? The Egyptians worshipped the whole bovine family in the cow, the calf, and the bull. Their god Hathor was the cow-goddess and the daughter of the sun-god Re and symbolic mother to Pharaoh. The Egyptians worshipped the bull as Apis (the Ptah of Memphis); Mnevis (the sun-god of Heliopolis); and Ptah, the creator god. We simply don’t know where Jeroboam got the idea for the Golden Calves, though we certainly know why he felt the need to come up with an alternate religion divorced from Jerusalem and her Temple. This new religion – that of the Golden Calves – set the spiritual tone for Israel, and the Israelites’ emphatic adoption of it sealed their fate. 

As the king goes, so the nation goes.

As Jeroboam went pagan, so, too, did Israel.

As Jeroboam would be judged for his sins, so, too, would Israel.

As Jeroboam’s dynasty would be cut short, so, too, would Israel come to an end.

(But, alas, we’re getting ahead of ourselves!)

*  *  *

a 'man of God' ruins the inauguration of the Golden Calf at Bethel

Jeroboam put oomph and energy into jump-starting Israel’s new religion, and he was ecstatic to inaugurate the worship of the Golden Calves at Bethel. The ceremony was going along quite well until an unidentified prophet from Judah (called ‘the man of God’ in the biblical text and identified by some as the prophet Iddo) caused quite a ruckus. Yahweh wasn’t going to let anyone involved in the Golden Calves debacle think they were in the right. As Jeroboam, officiating as High Priest, made sacrifices on the altar, the ceremony was interrupted as the man of God shoved his way to the fore and opposed Jeroboam directly, prophesying that a coming king, Josiah, would also make sacrifices on the altar – but his sacrifices would be the bones of pagan priests (this would be fulfilled by Josiah in 2 Kings 23.20). Dead men’s bones would be burned on the altar, destroying the altar’s supposed ritual purity. To give credibility to his prophecy, the man of God offered an immediate sign of confirmation: the Bethel altar to the Golden Calf would be rent and the ashes (or fat of the sacrificial victim) would be poured out. Jeroboam flew off in a violent rage at the prophet’s presumption and disruption of his beloved proceedings, and he thrust his arm out at the prophet, ordering his bodyguards to seize him – and at that very moment his arm was stricken with paralysis (likely cataplexy, a shock to the nervous system that causes rigidity) and the altar was smitten by God and broke apart (many of the altars found by archaeologists were made of limestone, a soft stone that was easy to quarry and readily available; impurities or inadequate curing time could be among the causes for the stone to crack when exposed to heat). In this manner Yahweh demonstrated to everyone gathered that (a) the sacrifice being offered was unacceptable, (b) the altar would be overthrown, and (c) Jeroboam wasn’t as cracked up as he made himself to be. 

Jeroboam, stricken by paralysis and mortified at the dismemberment of his altar, pleaded with the prophet to heal his arm. The man of God did so. The king – perhaps out of gratitude, or maybe from ulterior motives – invited the prophet to be refreshed at his palace in Tirzah. The prophet refused, stating that he’d been given explicit instructions from Yahweh not to seek shelter or food or drink in the land of Israel. Such activities were a sign of close fellowship; at the very least, when two enemies engaged in such activities, they were setting aside their hostility for the moment – and Yahweh wanted it clear that he was at odds with Israel and her new cult, and he wasn’t going to give an inch: there would be no moment when Yahweh wasn’t opposed to going on. For this reason the prophet was commanded to leave Israel without enjoying a single iota of hospitality or fellowship. Israel was, essentially, cut off. Thus the man of God left, leaving Jeroboam ashen-faced and no doubt enraged (it was practically a high crime to refuse to dine with the king when asked). Two men in the Bethel shrine watched him go. These men were the sons of an older unnamed prophet who still lived in Israel (most devout worshippers of Yahweh had migrated to Judah; thus this older prophet’s devotion to God may have been lacking, but not to the point that he participated in the corrupt ceremony at Bethel – though the same could not be said for his sons). The two men told their father what had happened during the inauguration ceremony, and the older prophet ascertained the route of the man of God, mounted his donkey, and rode hard after him.

The bible doesn’t tell us why the old prophet chased after the man of God. Perhaps he was seeking prophetic fellowship, or he was hoping to persuade the man of God to reverse the pronouncement he’d made against the Bethel cult. Some theorize that he was acting on behalf of Jeroboam: if the man of God could be lured back to Bethel to break bread, that action might break the curse he’d placed on Bethel by refusing to dine with the king. If the man of God broke Yahweh’s rules by breaking bread with the old prophet, and subsequently survived, then Bethel could breathe easy: the threats he’d made needn’t be taken seriously. Eventually the old prophet caught up with the man of God when he was resting under an oak tree along the road to Judah. The old prophet invited the man of God to come back to his home at Bethel and break bread; the man of God refused, as he was under explicit instruction not to do so. The old prophet then fabricated a story about an angelic visitation in which he was instructed to bring the man of God back to Bethel. Surprisingly, the man of God believed the lie! It’s been argued that a communication through a celestial messenger may have been regarded as a higher form of revelation than a subjective communication to the mind of a prophet – perhaps the man of God saw the angelic messenger as a higher form of revelation that should be obeyed above the prompting of the Spirit. As for the old prophet, he may have claimed an angelic visitation to avoid telling a deliberate lie in the name of Yahweh, an act which might call down immediate wrath on his head.

The man of God returned to Bethel with the old prophet, and in the old prophet’s home they broke bread. During the meal, the old prophet received a genuine message from God: the Spirit compelled him to cry out against the man of God. Thus the one who had denounced the king was now being denounced by Yahweh. The punishment for the man of God’s disobedience was severe: ‘Your body shall not come to the grave of your fathers.’ This was a humiliating and shameful end, as it was a matter of family honor and pride to be buried with your relatives. The man of God, both horrified and humbled, abandoned the meal, saddled a donkey (he’d previously been walking; now he was eager to get out of Dodge!), and made a beeline for Judah. His haste didn’t help him: on the road he was waylaid by a lion and mauled to death (lions were present in Israel up until the late Middle Ages). That this was no accident was evident by the fact that the donkey and the lion remained steadfast as gargoyles overshadowing the bloodied corpse. People traveling the highway reported the strange scene when they reached Bethel; the old prophet, who knew who the victim had to be, hurried to the scene, took the body, and buried the man of God in his own grave. 

Yahweh’s punishment on the man of God may seem overly severe, but we must bear in mind that Yahweh’s pronouncement on the Bethel cult was no less severe. The man of God’s tasks was of prime importance: he had to make it clear that Yahweh was wholly opposed to the new religion of Israel. When the prophet broke bread in Bethel, he was, in effect, repudiating his own commission: he was signaling that the Bethel cult might not be such a big deal after all. This simply wouldn’t do. Yahweh loathed the new religion, and he wouldn’t let anyone think otherwise: if he didn’t punish the man of God, then the legitimacy of the prophetic pronouncement would be called into question. By striking the man of God dead, Yahweh was ensuring that all who knew of the Bethel prophecy, the breaking of bread, and the man of God’s consequent death would also know that the predictions regarding the Bethel altar and other religious sanctuaries in the north would come to pass. 

*  *  *

Jeroboam was no doubt discomfited by the man of God’s pronouncements against the Golden Calves, but it wasn’t long before his attention was pulled back closer to home: his prized and precious son, the crown prince Abijah (not to be confused with Abijah of Judah), became deathly sick. Jeroboam wanted a prognosis on his son’s condition, and he thought it’d be a good idea to look up the prophet Ahijah of Shiloh. Ahijah was the one who’d prophesied his becoming king over northern Israel. It’s possible that Jeroboam thought he had some clout with the prophet, given their history, but he doubtless knew that genuine prophets weren’t the sort to make political alliances. More likely Jeroboam knew that Ahijah remained in Israelite territory in Shiloh (he hadn’t gone to Judah with most of those devoted to Yahweh, perhaps because he was frail in old age and practically blind), and the king wanted to hear truth. He knew, despite his public façade, that the prophets catering to the Golden Calves weren’t up to snuff. In godless superstition he likely believed that whatever a prophet said would come to pass even if he were tricked into saying it, so he engineered a ploy: he’d send his wife to Ahijah, but she’d be disguised in common clothing and would offer him a poor gift of ten loaves of bread, some cakes, and a leather bottle of honey. Ahijah, deceived into thinking she was but a poor commoner, would hopefully give a sympathetic pronouncement. It’s also possible that the queen went ‘in disguise’ to protect herself from Jeroboam’s enemies or brigands on the road who might seize her and hold her for a pretty ransom. Based on him disguising his wife, it seems Jeroboam suspected he held little weight with Ahijah; after all, he knew his religious changes would be met with extreme distaste, and that could end in an unfavorable prediction. Given the recent episode at the Bethel inauguration, he wasn’t having the best of luck with prophets. Nonetheless he hoped his ploy would work, and the queen made the difficult thirty-mile trek to Shiloh from Tirzah; but Yahweh had told Ahijah of her coming, so he wasn’t tricked – and he had some harsh words for Jeroboam.

Jeroboam's wife visits Ahijah the Shilonite

Ahijah stated Yahweh’s charges against Jeroboam: God had raised the lowly Jeroboam to the throne. The king was God’s vice-regent ruling over God’s people. God had torn away a large part of the kingdom from the House of David and given it to Jeroboam, but the northern king hadn’t walked the paths of spiritual fidelity that David had walked. Jeroboam had committed a more grievous sin than any of his predecessors, whether kings or judges. In defiance of the Decalogue (the Ten Commandments), he’d made ‘other gods’ which were merely ‘molten images.’ Jeroboam had pushed Yahweh behind his back (had contemptuously disregarded divine revelation), and thus he’d aroused Yahweh’s anger. Because of this, Yahweh laid a sentence on the House of Jeroboam: judgment would come! Every male of Jeroboam’s lineage would be cut off ‘as one takes away dung’ – in other words, they would be exterminated with extreme contempt. The bodies of Jeroboam’s sons would be left unburied; those who fell in the city would be eaten by roving packs of savage dogs; those who fell in the open field would be consumed by birds of prey. These were harsh words: the exposing of the corpses represented a final humiliation and desecration, for most ancient peoples believed that proper and timely burial affected the quality of one’s afterlife. Even Israelites believed this; they buried their family members with pottery vessels filled with food and jewelry to ward off evil, and with tools and personal items, so that they could be prepared for the afterlife. Israelite law even required that the bodies of impaled criminals be buried at sunset rather than be left to be devoured by animals. To be eaten by scavengers made burial impossible, and it was the supreme punishment: those suffering such an atrocity believed their spirits would wander restlessly rather than enjoy a blissful afterlife. Thus Ahijah was telling Jeroboam that not only would his lineage be exterminated, but his family would be doomed to wander restlessly without any enjoyment of the afterlife. 

But what, after all, of the sick boy? As a sign of Ahijah’s long-range prediction concerning Jeroboam’s dynasty coming to pass, the prophet gave a prediction that would be verified soon: at the very moment the queen arrived home, the crown prince would die. The entire nation would mourn Abijah’s death and bury him. He would be the one exception to the punishment awaiting Jeroboam’s family. Abijah would be granted a proper burial, for he was the only member of the royal household who lived a life deserving recognition. Abijah was the only person in Jeroboam’s family whom Yahweh liked. This suggests that Abijah dissented from his father’s religious policies and was devoted to Yahweh. His premature death and burial, then, was an act of mercy: because of his father’s sins, judgment was coming, but Abijah would be spared the worst of it. Ahijah informed the queen that Yahweh’s judgment on Jeroboam’s dynasty would be enacted by a king whom he’d raise up to overthrow the House of Jeroboam (this would be King Baasha).

All this was bad enough for the queen’s shocked ears, but the half-blind prophet wasn’t finished. He then pronounced judgment on the people of Israel. Because they weren’t unwilling victims of Jeroboam’s state-sanctioned apostasy (they were glad for it!), they would be judged, too. Yahweh would smite Israel and sweep it away as easily and swiftly as a reed was swept down a turbulent stream. Israel would be removed from the Promised Land and carried into captivity beyond the Euphrates. This terrible fate would befall the Israelites because they’d provoked Yahweh’s anger by making pagan poles to Asherah. Because of all the sins inaugurated and tolerated during the reign of Jeroboam, Yahweh was going to give Israel up to her enemies. This would be fulfilled when the Assyrians wiped out Israel in 722 BC. Left with such dire prophecies, the queen began her thirty-mile trek home. Abijah died just as she reached Tirzah. The boy was allowed a proper burial because Yahweh liked him. 

Jeroboam’s reign continued going downhill. He was defeated by Abijah of Judah at the Battle of Mount Zemaraim just before his death (see the chapter on Abijah of Judah for more on this battle). When Jeroboam died his son Nadab inherited a weakened state – and, according to Ahijah’s prophecy, plans of violence and bloodshed were being made against him.