For the Levites left their pasturelands and their possessions and went to Judah and Jerusalem, because Jeroboam and his sons had rejected them as priests of the LORD. And Jeroboam appointed his own priests for the high places and for the goat demons and calf idols he had made.
Then Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. And from there he went out and built Penuel. Jeroboam said in his heart, "Now the kingdom might revert to the house of David. If these people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the LORD at Jerusalem, their hearts will return to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah; then they will kill me and return to Rehoboam king of Judah." After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves and said to the people, "Going up to Jerusalem is too much for you. Here, O Israel, are your gods, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt." One calf he set up in Bethel, and the other in Dan. And this thing became a sin; the people walked as far as Dan to worship before one of the calves. Jeroboam also built shrines on the high places and appointed from every class of people priests who were not Levites. And Jeroboam ordained a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the feast that was in Judah, and he offered sacrifices on the altar; he made this offering in Bethel to sacrifice to the calves he had set up, and he installed priests in Bethel for the high places he had set up.
Significance
The Chronicler notes that the Levites abandoned their pasturelands and properties to come to Judah and Jerusalem because Jeroboam and his sons "rejected them as priests of the LORD" (2 Chr 11:14). This connects to 1 Kings 12:25-32, where Jeroboam appointed non-Levitical priests for his golden calves at Dan and Bethel. The Chronicler presents this Levitical migration as a theological referendum: the legitimate priests voted with their feet against Jeroboam's cultic innovations, strengthening Judah's claim to authentic Yahwistic worship and bolstering Rehoboam's kingdom with faithful clergy.
Found via
Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Reference Type
Allusion
Connection Method(s)
Redemptive-Historical Progression + Longitudinal Theme — the Chronicler's notice that Jeroboam rejected the Levites "as priests of the LORD" (2 Chr 11:14) presupposes and builds on 1 Kings 12:25-32's account of the rival cult (golden calves, non-Levitical priests, an invented feast), advancing the divided-kingdom history; and together the texts carry the developing theme of the one legitimate, God-appointed priesthood over against manufactured worship — the thread that runs on to the true and final Priest.
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