1 Kings 12:31

Christian Standard Bible ®

Jeroboam also built shrines on the high places and set up priests from every class of people who were not Levites.

Parallel Translations

Legacy Standard Bible
And he made houses on high places, and made priests from among all the people who were not of the sons of Levi.

New American Standard Bible (1995)
And he made houses on high places, and made priests from among all the people who were not of the sons of Levi.

Bishop's Bible (1568)
And he made an house of hill aulters, and made priestes of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sonnes of Leui.

New King James Version
He made shrines [fn] on the high places, and made priests from every class of people, who were not of the sons of Levi.

Literal Translation
And he made a house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of people, who were not of the sons of Levi.

Easy-to-Read Version
Jeroboam also built temples at the high places and chose priests from among the different tribes of Israel. (He did not choose priests only from the tribe of Levi.)

Revised Standard Version
He also made houses on high places, and appointed priests from among all the people, who were not of the Levites.

World English Bible
He made houses of high places, and made priests from among all the people, who were not of the sons of Levi.

King James Version (1611)
And he made an house of hie places, and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sonnes of Leui.

King James Version
And he made an house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi.

Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
He made an house also in the hye places, and made prestes of the smallest in the people, which were not of the childre of Leui.

THE MESSAGE
And that wasn't the end of it. Jeroboam built forbidden shrines all over the place and recruited priests from wherever he could find them, regardless of whether they were fit for the job or not. To top it off, he created a holy New Year festival to be held on the fifteenth day of the eighth month to replace the one in Judah, complete with worship offered on the Altar at Bethel and sacrificing before the calves he had set up there. He staffed Bethel with priests from the local shrines he had made. This was strictly his own idea to compete with the feast in Judah; and he carried it off with flair, a festival exclusively for Israel, Jeroboam himself leading the worship at the Altar.

American Standard Version
And he made houses of high places, and made priests from among all the people, that were not of the sons of Levi.

Bible in Basic English
And he made places for worship at the high places, and made priests, who were not Levites, from among all the people.

Update Bible Version
And he made houses of high places, and made priests from among all the people, that were not of the sons of Levi.

Webster's Bible Translation
And he made a house of high places, and made priests of the lowest of the people, who were not of the sons of Levi.

New English Translation
He built temples on the high places and appointed as priests people who were not Levites.

Contemporary English Version
Jeroboam built small places of worship at the shrines and appointed men who were not from the tribe of Levi to serve as priests.

Complete Jewish Bible
He also set up temples on the high places and made cohanim from among all the people, even though they were not descended from Levi.

Darby Translation
And he made a house of high places, and made priests from all classes of the people, who were not of the sons of Levi.

Geneva Bible (1587)
Also he made an house of hie places, and made Priestes of the lowest of the people, which were not of the sonnes of Leui.

George Lamsa Translation
And he made a temple of idols, and made priests from among the people who were not of the sons of Levi.

Amplified Bible
And Jeroboam also made houses on high places, and he made priests from all people who were not of the sons (descendants) of Levi.

Hebrew Names Version
He made houses of high places, and made Kohanim from among all the people, who were not of the sons of Levi.

JPS Old Testament (1917)
And he made houses of high places, and made priests from among all the people, that were not of the sons of Levi.

New Living Translation
Jeroboam also erected buildings at the pagan shrines and ordained priests from the common people—those who were not from the priestly tribe of Levi.

New Life Bible
Jeroboam made houses on high places. He made religious leaders from among all the people, who were not of the sons of Levi.

New Revised Standard
He also made houses on high places, and appointed priests from among all the people, who were not Levites.

Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And he made houses on the high places, and made priests of any part of the people, who were not of the sons of Levi.

English Revised Version
And he made houses of high places, and made priests from among all the people, which were not of the sons of Levi.

Berean Standard Bible
Jeroboam also built shrines on the high places and appointed from every class of people priests who were not Levites.

J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
And he made a house of high-places, - and made priests from the whole compass of the people, who were not of the sons of Levi.

Douay-Rheims Bible
And he made temples in the high places, and priests of the lowest of the people, who were not of the sons of Levi.

Lexham English Bible
Then he built the houses on the high places, and he appointed priests from all walks of life who were not from the sons of Levi.

English Standard Version
He also made temples on high places and appointed priests from among all the people, who were not of the Levites.

New American Standard Bible
And he made houses on high places, and appointed priests from all the people who were not of the sons of Levi.

New Century Version
Jeroboam built temples on the places of worship. He also chose priests from all the people, not just from the tribe of Levi.

Good News Translation
Jeroboam also built places of worship on hilltops, and he chose priests from families who were not of the tribe of Levi.

Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And Jeroboam made templis in hiye placis, and `he made preestis of the laste men of the puple, that weren not of the sones of Leuy.

Young's Literal Translation
And he maketh the house of high places, and maketh priests of the extremities of the people, who were not of the sons of Levi;

Contextual Overview

²⁵ Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. From there he went out and built Penuel. ²⁶ Jeroboam said to himself, "The way things are going now, the kingdom might return to the house of David. ²⁷ If these people regularly go to offer sacrifices in the Lord 's temple in Jerusalem, the heart of these people will return to their lord, Rehoboam king of Judah. They will murder me and go back to the king of Judah." ²⁸ So the king sought advice. Then he made two golden calves, and he said to the people, "Going to Jerusalem is too difficult for you. Israel, here is your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt." ²⁹ He set up one in Bethel, and put the other in Dan. ³⁰ This led to sin; the people walked in procession before one of the calves all the way to Dan. ³¹ Jeroboam also built shrines on the high places and set up priests from every class of people who were not Levites. ³² Jeroboam made a festival in the eighth month on the fifteenth day of the month, like the festival in Judah. He offered sacrifices on the altar; he made this offering in Bethel to sacrifice to the calves he had set up. He also stationed the priests in Bethel for the high places he had set up. ³³ He offered sacrifices on the altar he had set up in Bethel on the fifteenth day of the eighth month. He chose this month on his own. He made a festival for the Israelites, offered sacrifices on the altar, and burned incense.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

an house: 1 Kings 13:24, 1 Kings 13:32, Deuteronomy 24:15, Ezekiel 16:25, Hosea 12:11

priests: 1 Kings 13:33, Numbers 3:10, 2 Kings 17:32, 2 Chronicles 11:14, 2 Chronicles 11:15, 2 Chronicles 13:9, Ezekiel 44:6-8

Reciprocal: Judges 17:5 - consecrated Judges 17:12 - his priest 2 Kings 17:27 - one of the priests 2 Kings 23:19 - the houses Psalms 78:58 - with Hosea 8:14 - and buildeth Amos 7:10 - the priest

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And he made an house of high places,.... Or "altars" s, built a temple at Dan, and set up several altars in it for sacrifice, both for burnt offerings, and for incense, as at Jerusalem:

and made priests of the lowest of the people; this clause seems not so well rendered; for this would have been very unpopular, and brought his new form of worship into contempt, to make the dregs of the people priests, which was not only a very sacred office, but of great honour; it was usual in some nations for kings to be priests also t, and Jeroboam himself exercised this office, 1 Kings 12:33 and therefore would never put the meanest of the people into it, but rather those of higher rank: the words may be literally rendered, "from the extremities" or "ends of the people" u; meaning not merely from the extremist parts of his country, but rather out of the whole of the people; out of all sorts of them, out of any of them, without any distinction of tribe: for so it follows,

which were not of the sons of Levi; and as by this means he enriched himself, by taking the cities that belonged to the priests and Levites, which they were obliged to leave, and from whence he drove them, 2 Chronicles 11:14 so he pleased the people by laying open the priesthood common to them, and freeing them from the payment of tithes, and the like.

s במות "altarium", Vatablus. t Rex Anius, &c. Virgil. l. 3. Vid. Servium in ib. u מקצות העם "de extremitatibus populi", Vatablus, Piscator.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

He made an house of high places - i. e., “He built a temple, or sanctuary, at each of the two cities where the calves were set up.” The writer uses the expression “house of high places” in contempt, meaning that the buildings were not real temples, or houses of God, like that at Jerusalem, but only on a par with the temples upon high places which had long existed in various parts of the land.

Made priests of the lowest of the people - More correctly, “from all ranks of the people.” That the Levites did not accept Jeroboam’s innovations, and transfer their services to his two sanctuaries, must have been the consequence of their faithful attachment to the true worship of Yahweh. In all probability Jeroboam confiscated the Levitical lands within his dominions for the benefit of the new priestly order 2 Chronicles 11:13-14.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 1 Kings 12:31. A house of high places — A temple of temples; he had many high places in the land, and to imitate the temple at Jerusalem, he made one chief over all the rest, where he established a priesthood of his own ordination. Probably a place of separate appointment, where different idols were set up and worshipped; so it was a sort of pantheon.

Made priests of the lowest of the people — He took the people indifferently as they came, and made them priests, till he had enough, without troubling himself whether they were of the family of Aaron or the house of Levi, or not. Any priests would do well enough for such gods. But those whom he took seem to have been worthless, good-for-nothing fellows, who had neither piety nor good sense. Probably the sons of Levi had grace enough to refuse to sanction this new priesthood and idolatrous worship.