12:24. Thus saith the Lord: You shall not go up, nor fight against your brethren, the children of Israel: let every man return to his house, for this thing is from me. They hearkened to the word of the Lord, and returned from their journey, as the Lord had commanded them. 12:25. And Jeroboam built Sichem in mount Ephraim, and dwelt there, and going out from thence, he built Phanuel. 12:26. And Jeroboam said in his heart: Now shall the kingdom return to the house of David, 12:27. If this people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem: and the heart of this people will turn to their lord Roboam, the king of Juda, and they will kill me, and return to him. 12:28. And finding out a device, he made two golden calves, and said to them: Go ye up no more to Jerusalem: Behold thy gods, O Israel, who brought thee out of the land of Egypt. Golden calves... It is likely, by making his gods in this form, he mimicked the Egyptians, among whom he had sojourned, who worshipped their Apis and their Osiris under the form of a bullock. 12:29. And he set the one in Bethel, and the other in Dan: Bethel and Dan... Bethel was a city of the tribe of Ephraim in the southern part of the dominions of Jeroboam, about six leagues from Jerusalem; Dan was in the extremity of his dominions to the north in the confines of Syria. 12:30. And this thing became an occasion of sin: for the people went to adore the calf as far as Dan. 12:31. And he made temples in the high places, and priests of the lowest of the people, who were not of the sons of Levi. 12:32. And he appointed a feast in the eighth month, on the fifteenth day of the month, after the manner of the feast that was celebrated in Juda. And going up to the altar, he did in like manner in Bethel, to sacrifice to the calves, which he had made: and he placed in Bethel priests of the high places, which he had made. 12:33. And he went up to the altar, which he had built in Bethel, on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, which he had devised of his own heart: and he ordained a feast to the children of Israel, and went up on the altar to burn incense. 3 Kings Chapter 13 A prophet sent from Juda to Bethel foretelleth the birth of Josias, and the destruction of Jeroboam's altar. Jeroboam's hand offering violence to the prophet withereth, but is restored by the prophet's prayer: the same prophet is deceived by another prophet, and slain by a lion. 13:1. And behold there came a man of God out of Juda, by the word of the Lord, to Bethel, when Jeroboam was standing upon the altar, and burning incense. 13:2. And he cried out against the altar in the word of the Lord, and said: O altar, altar, thus saith the Lord: Behold a child shall be born to the house of David, Josias by name, and he shall immolate upon thee the priests of the high places, who now burn incense upon thee, and he shall burn men's bones upon thee.