Jeroboam chose the city of Shechem to be
the capital of Israel. He built it up and put his
palace there.
He realized his people had a natural
tendency to be loyal to the family of David. He
said to his advisors, “The people keep going to
Jerusalem to worship at the Temple. Eventually,
they’ll decide their true loyalty is to the king
from the line of David. They’ll kill me and reunite
with Judah.”
To solve this problem, he made two golden
calves. He put one in the south at Bethel and
the other in the north at Dan. He said to the
people, “It’s too hard to travel to Jerusalem
several times a year. Here’s your god who
brought you out of...