Therefore the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.
All Commentaries on 1 Kings 12:28 Go To 1 Kings 12
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
For all that, King Jeroboam of Israel, who had proof that God was true, when he got the kingdom God had promised, was so warped in mind as not to believe in him. Actually, he feared that if he came to God’s temple in Jerusalem (as all Jews without exception were bound by divine ordinance to do for the offering of sacrifices), his subjects might be alienated from his allegiance and reattached to David’s blood successors as the royal dynasty. With this in mind, he established idolatry in his own kingdom and, with shocking impiety, tricked God’s people into joining him in the worship of idols. Even so, God did not entirely give up sending prophets to reprimand the king, and his successors who continued his idolatry and the people themselves. For it was in Israel that there appeared Elijah and his disciple, Elisha, both magnificent prophets and wonder workers as well.
