Jeroboam I
An official of Solomon from Ephraim who became the first king of the ten northern tribes. He set up golden calves at Bethel and Dan, which Kings calls the sin by which he made Israel sin.
Jeroboam son of Nebat, of Zeredah in Ephraim, oversaw the forced labour of the house of Joseph under Solomon. The prophet Ahijah of Shiloh told him he would rule ten tribes; Solomon sought his life and he fled to Shishak in Egypt (1 Kings 11:26–40). After Solomon’s death he returned, and the northern tribes made him king when they broke with Rehoboam (1 Kings 12:2–20); see the Kingdom Divides.
To keep his people from going to Jerusalem he set up golden calves at Bethel and Dan with a priesthood and a festival of his own (1 Kings 12:26–33). Ahijah then foretold the end of his house (1 Kings 14:7–16). He reigned twenty-two years (1 Kings 14:20); his son Nadab was killed within two years and the whole family with him (1 Kings 15:25–30). Kings judges later kings of Israel by whether they kept to “the sins of Jeroboam” (2 Kings 10:29).
In the timeline
- about 930 BC, estimated dateThe Kingdom Divides
After Solomon’s death the northern tribes reject his son Rehoboam at Shechem and make Jeroboam their king. Israel in the north and Judah in the south become separate kingdoms, and Jeroboam sets up his own sanctuaries at Bethel and Dan.