Text: 1 Kings 12:28
OT Text Referred to: Exodus 32:4
Subject: golden calves comparison
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Direct Quotation
Connection Method(s): Analogy
Significance: Exodus 32:4 records the people declaring before Aaron's calf: "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt" (אֵלֶּה אֱלֹהֶיךָ יִשְׂרָאֵל, elleh elohekha yisra'el). 1 Kings 12:28 records Jeroboam using virtually the same formula when erecting golden calves at Bethel and Dan. The verbatim repetition is the Deuteronomistic historian's deliberate indictment: Jeroboam's sin is not merely idolatry but a calculated recapitulation of the wilderness apostasy. By echoing the exact words of Exodus 32, the narrator signals that the northern kingdom was founded on the same sin that nearly destroyed Israel at Sinai—the substitution of a visible image for the invisible God who brought them out of Egypt.