Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
After getting advice, the king made two golden calves and said to the people, 'It's too difficult for you to travel all the way to Jerusalem. Look, here are your gods, Israel, the ones that brought you out of Egypt!'
King Jeroboam created false gods to prevent his people from worshiping in Jerusalem, making it convenient for them but leading them away from the true God.
📚 Historical Context
In the biblical account, after King Solomon's death, the kingdom of Israel divided into the northern kingdom under Jeroboam and the southern kingdom under Rehoboam. Jeroboam, as the new king of the north, feared that his people would travel to Jerusalem for worship and potentially defect to the southern kingdom, so he created two golden calves as idols to keep them loyal. He presented these calves to the people as the gods that had delivered them from Egypt, echoing the earlier idolatry during the Exodus.
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