1 Kings 12:31

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

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.

An house of high places, or, an house (i.e. houses, or chapels) in the high places. Besides the famous houses, or temples, which he built at Dan and Beth-el, he built also, for his people’ s better accommodation, lesser temples upon divers high places, which were esteemed sacred and venerable, because their pious ancestors had served God in them; and thereby Jeroboam might not seem to bring in a new religion, but only to revive the old. Made priests of the lowest of the people; which he might do, either, 1. Because the better sort refused it, as an office below their quality. Or, 2. Because such would be satisfied with mean allowances; and so he could put into his own purse a great part of the rich possessions and revenues of the Levites, which doubtless he seized upon when they forsook him, and went to Jerusalem, ,14, which also was very necessary for his present and pressing occasions; the rather, because he durst not yet lay grievous taxes upon that people, who had newly cast off Rehoboam for that very reason. Or, 3. Because mean persons would depend upon his favour, and therefore be very pliable to his humour, and firm to his interest, and zealous to promote the worship of the calves. But the words in the Hebrew properly signify from the ends of the people; which is and may be translated thus, out of all the people; promiscuously out of every tribe; which exposition seems to be confirmed by the following words, which are added to explain these, which were not of the sons of Levi; though they were not of the tribe of Levi. And that indeed was Jeroboam’ s sin; not that he chose mean persons, for some of the Levites were such; and his sin had not been less, if he had chosen the noblest and greatest persons, as we see in the example of Uzziah, ,19; but that he chose men of other tribes, contrary to God’ s appointment, which restrained that office to that tribe. Not of the sons of Levi; to whom that office was confined by God’ s express command; but he gave the priesthood promiscuously to any person of any other tribe.

1 Kings 12:31 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.Ver. 31. And he made a house.] A mock temple, a pantheon, a place to hold his mawmets and monuments of idolatry. And made priests, &c.] Leaden priests are well fitted to golden deities: such are those greasy hedge priests among the Papists. Which were not of the sons of Levi.] The Levites he had turned out of their places, and enriched himself with their spoils.

(31, 32) Of the lowest of the people.—This is universally recognised as a mistranslation, though a natural one, of the original, “the ends of the people.” The sense is “from the whole mass of the people,” without care for Levitical descent—the Levites having (see 2 Chronicles 11:13-14) generally returned into the kingdom of Judah on the establishment of this idolatry. It is hardly likely that the king would have lacked because at Dan an unauthorised Levitical priesthood was (as has been said) forthcoming.

Verse 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.

31. An house of high places] The graven image must have its temple. So in Bethel and in Dan buildings were raised, and an eminence chosen for the site of each. Hence it is better to render the plural notion, as R.V., houses of high places. and made priests of the lowest of the people] Better, as R.V. ‘and made priests from among all the people’. The noun properly means ‘an end’, ‘an extremity.’ Then in the plural, as it is here, ‘the extremities,’ which between them comprise the whole space of anything. Thus the word is rendered in Judges 18:2 (R.V.) ‘five men from their whole number.’ Here the idea is that Jeroboam’s priests were taken from anywhere, and so the selection differed much from that of the southern kingdom, where one tribe alone held the priest’s office. The Levites who before the division of the kingdom had been scattered among all the tribes, now, in the main, withdrew to the southern tribes (2 Chronicles 11:13-14).

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,

31. House of high places — That is, a house at the two high places just mentioned — Beth-el and Dan. At each of these high places he built houses suitable to the worship that was to be established at them.