this thing became a sin: for the people went to worship before
the one, even unto Dan.

"And he made a house of high places, and made priests of the lowest
of the people, which were not of the sons of Levi."

It was hardly to be expected that any other result than that of sin
would come from this course. It was, to begin with, a violation of the
second commandment, and if Jeroboam did not intend to teach Israel the
worship of false gods, this was the result of it, and repeatedly he is
spoken of in the Scriptures as the one that did cause Israel to sin.

So completely were the people carried away with this bad current, that
they preferred to get as far away from Jerusalem as possible, and went
even to Dan to engage in their idolatrous practices.

At both these places where he had set up the calves, he built houses for
them. Originally and commonly houses of worship were built upon high
places, so that this expression "high places" came to be a description
of the house itself.

It is not a fortunate translation to state that Jeroboam made priests
of the lowest class of the people. It would have been poor policy, and
would have brought his movement into disrepute.

The literal rendering of the Hebrew is "from the ends of the people,"
and means, as in the Revised Version, "from all the people."

Jeroboam would have been glad to have the priestly tribe, Levi, furnish
him his priests, but they were loyal to God and the true worship and
would not assist the king in his schism, so he had to get priests where
he could from all the people and from any tribe.

In 2 Chron. 11: 13 it is said that the Levites in a body went over to
Rehoboam. This greatly strengthened the king of Judah and tended to keep
the religion of that part of the people pure.

NEW FEASTS APPOINTED.

"And Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth
day of the month, like unto the feast that is In Judah, and he
offered upon the altar. So did he in Bethel, sacrificing unto the
calves that he had made: and he placed in Bethel the priests of the
high places which he had made.

"So he offered upon the altar which he had made in Bethel the
fifteenth day of the eighth month, even in the month which he had
devised of his own heart; and ordained a feast unto the children of
Israel: and he offered upon the altar, and burnt incense."

Jeroboam was the more anxious to get his religious enterprises
established becau