Text: 1 Kings 12:28-29
OT Text Referred to: Exodus 32:4
Subject: golden calf idolatry repeated by Jeroboam
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type: Direct Quotation
Connection Method(s): Analogy
Significance: Exodus 32:4 records the people declaring before Aaron's golden calf: "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt" (אֵלֶּה אֱלֹהֶיךָ יִשְׂרָאֵל, elleh elohekha yisra'el). 1 Kings 12:28-29 records Jeroboam using virtually identical words when installing his golden calves at Bethel and Dan: "Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt." The verbatim quotation is the narrator's deliberate indictment—Jeroboam's sin is not merely generic idolatry but a conscious repetition of the wilderness apostasy. The Deuteronomistic historian frames the northern kingdom's founding act of worship as a recapitulation of Israel's primal sin, establishing the paradigm of covenant unfaithfulness that will define the northern monarchy.