25. Jeroboam built up Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. Then he left it and built up Penuel.
26. Jeroboam thought to himself: “Now the kingdom will return to the house of David.
27. If this people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, the hearts of this people will return to their master, Rehoboam, king of Judah, and they will kill me and return to Rehoboam, king of Judah.”
28. The king took counsel, made two calves of gold, and said to the people: “You have been going up to Jerusalem long enough. Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.”
29. And he put one in Bethel, the other in Dan.
30. This led to sin, because the people frequented these calves in Bethel and in Dan.
31. He also built temples on the high places and made priests from among the common people who were not Levites.
32. Jeroboam established a feast in the eighth month on the fifteenth day of the month like the pilgrimage feast in Judah, and he went up to the altar. He did this in Bethel, sacrificing to the calves he had made. He stationed in Bethel the priests of the high places he had built.
33. Jeroboam went up to the altar he built in Bethel on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, the month he arbitrarily chose. He established a feast for the Israelites, and he went up to the altar to burn incense.