The Man ‘Who Made Israel to Sin’
He founded the northern kingdom of Israel. Every king who reigned after him walked in his footsteps—a refrain repeated through the books of Kings. He did not follow after King David and the glorious history of the nation during that golden age. Instead, he established a new form of religion. He formally institutionalized nationwide paganism and idolatry. Our editor in chief Gerald Flurry said that what this man did led to “the greatest disaster in the history of Israel”!
Yet it’s not as though this man was disadvantaged. The biblical record says he was handpicked by God and that his reign was prophesied to King Solomon. “Wherefore the Lord said unto Solomon: ‘Forasmuch as this hath been in thy mind, and thou hast not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded thee, I will surely rend the kingdom from thee, and will give it to thy servant’” (1 Kings 11:11). Who was this servant?
Jeroboam, the son of Nebat.
Jeroboam worked closely with Solomon. He was “industrious” and a “mighty man of valour,” given “charge over all the labour of the house of Joseph” (verse 28). As a member of Solomon’s inner circle, Jeroboam learned firsthand what makes a king and a kingdom successful. Yet following Solomon’s death, Jeroboam led an insurrection, one that divided the kingdom into two—Judah and Israel.
In its 200-year history, the northern kingdom of Israel never produced one righteous king. It never recovered from the foundation that Jeroboam laid.
And yet as infamous as this king is, there are still those who attempt to say he didn’t exist. One biblical scholar has gone so far as to suggest that all that he did “cannot be placed under Jeroboam i. It is a polemical [controversial] fiction that transfers an event from the time of Jeroboam ii to the early days of the northern kingdom” (“How Jeroboam II Became Jeroboam I”). In other words, Jeroboam i is actually Jeroboam ii—a king who ruled nearly 200 years after his namesake.
But the Bible is clear: All 18 kings who ruled the kingdom of Israel followed in the way of Jeroboam the first!
So once again, we turn to archaeology: Can the details of the Bible regarding the activities of Jeroboam i be verified by the archaeological record?
Solomon’s Servant
We are introduced to Jeroboam i at the end of King Solomon’s reign, when God tells the king that, due to his sins, his kingdom would be divided. The message to Jeroboam in 1 Kings 11:31-32 is remarkably specific: “… I will rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and will give ten tribes to thee—but he shall have one tribe, for My servant David’s sake, and for Jerusalem’s sake, the city which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel.”
This enraged Solomon, who immediately attempted to kill Jeroboam (verse 40). Jeroboam, however, fled to Egypt under the care of Pharaoh Shishak (for more information on Shishak, see “The Egyptian Empire Strikes Back: Evidence of Shishak’s Invasion of Judah”).
After Solomon’s death, his son Rehoboam came to power, and Jeroboam returned to Judah. The people then elected Jeroboam to go before their new king and request that the tax burden be lightened (1 Kings 12:4). Rehoboam, however, refused.
“And it came to pass, when all Israel heard that Jeroboam was returned, that they sent and called him unto the congregation, and made him king over all Israel …” (verse 20). The nation was now divided. Ten of the tribes went with Jeroboam to the north; only Judah, Benjamin and a portion of Levi remained with Rehoboam in the kingdom of Judah.
The First Capital
Jeroboam’s reign began around 931 b.c.e. The first thing the Bible specifies Jeroboam did was “built Shechem in the hill-country of Ephraim, and dwelt therein …” (1 Kings 12:25). Shechem was the northern kingdom of Israel’s first capital. Why Shechem? This city was clearly important to Israel. This was something King Rehoboam knew well, which is why he chose it as the city of his coronation (verse 1). Jeroboam, too, was aware of its importance.
Consider some of the history regarding Shechem. This location is first mentioned in Genesis 12:6, describing Abraham entering Canaan and receiving his first promise from God. It is then described 200 years later when Jacob removed the idols from his household and “hid them under the terebinth [tree] which was by Shechem” (Genesis 35:4).
Shechem lies in the valley between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal. Before his death, Moses had told Joshua to divide the children of Israel between these two mountains and have them alternate singing of blessings and curses (Deuteronomy 27-28). This chorus would have rung loudly in the Late Bronze Age walls of Shechem.
Finally, Shechem is where Joshua gathered the people of Israel, reminded them of their history with God, and made a covenant with the people (Joshua 24). Carl Keil and Franz Delitzsch write in Commentary on the Old Testament: “For this solemn act he did not choose Shiloh, the site of the national sanctuary, … but Shechem, a place which was sanctified as no other was for such a purpose as this by the most sacred reminiscences from the times of the patriarchs.”
It was also at this location that the Israelites buried the bones of Joseph, which they had brought out of Egypt (verse 32).
Jeroboam actively worked to take the people’s focus away from King David and away from Jerusalem (1 Kings 12:26-27). Shechem, a city with so much patriarchal history, was the ideal counterfeit to Jerusalem.
Refortifying the City
Since the Bible specifies that Jeroboam “built Shechem,” we should expect to find evidence of this project in the archaeological record.
Various archaeological expeditions have taken place at Tell Balata, modern-day Shechem, since 1913. Archaeologists have uncovered a Bronze Age temple, Iron Age granary, casemate walls and the quintessential Israelite four-room house. But what can we learn about the time of Jeroboam, between 931 and 910 b.c.e.?
According to Kenneth A. Kitchen in On the Reliability of the Old Testament, “Shechem was destroyed circa 1100, and remained so until a modest settlement arose in the 10th century.” Jeroboam’s stint in Shechem was short-lived. In the same verse it says he rebuilt Shechem, it says he “went out from thence, and built Penuel” (1 Kings 12:25) and made that his capital. With such a short stint in Shechem, we should expect to find a more modest settlement—one that was focused on rebuilding the defenses and less on building monumental structures.
Prof. George E. Wright described his experience excavating Shechem in the 1950s, writing: “Further digging showed that we were inside the guardroom of the gate-tower, erected on the ruins of an earlier tower. These ruins had been cleaned off, leveled and filled over before the new guard room had been erected. In connecting these remains with known history it seemed probable that we here had evidence for the refortification of Shechem by Jeroboam i ….”
Edward F. Campbell described for The Biblical Archaeologist magazine in 1963 how a probe under the stones of the northwest gate proved a rebuilding project occurred there in the early Iron ii around 922 b.c.e.
According to Professor Campbell, this level presented “tangible evidence of Jeroboam i’s rebuilding (1 Kings 12:25) and a return to city status” (The New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land). The archaeological evidence shows that Shechem sat destroyed for nearly 200 years. Then right at the time we would expect to see Jeroboam’s rebuilding project, the city is resettled and the fortifications are rebuilt.
In “The Stratification of Tell Balatah (Shechem),” archaeologist Lawrence Toombs wrote, “The fortunes of the city improved dramatically when Jeroboam i rebuilt its walls and made it briefly the capital of the northern kingdom ….”
The Religious Center
Jeroboam’s primary efforts were directed toward establishing the religion of the northern kingdom. By controlling the religion, he could control the people. “If this people go up to offer sacrifices in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem, then will the heart of this people turn back unto their lord, even unto Rehoboam king of Judah; and they will kill me, and return to Rehoboam king of Judah’” (1 Kings 12:27).
Jeroboam wanted to completely separate the people from the southern kingdom. That meant keeping them from going to Jerusalem for the annual holy days. “Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold; and he said unto them: ‘Ye have gone up long enough to Jerusalem; behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.’ And he set the one in Beth-el, and the other put he in Dan” (verses 28-29).
Jeroboam established two centers of pagan worship—one in the south (Bethel) and one in the north (Dan).
Tel Dan is one of Israel’s most well-known archaeological sites. Israeli archaeologist Avraham Biran excavated the site between 1966 and 1999. What was happening in the city of Dan in the 10th century b.c.e.? According to the archaeological record, a large plaza for cultic worship was being established.
Professor Biran wrote in Biblical Dan, “The earliest evidence of a cultic character found in the course of excavation goes back only to the 10th century b.c.e., to the time of King Jeroboam i, son of Nebat.” What Biran uncovered at the site proves that at the exact time Jeroboam i was founding a new religion in the city of Dan, a large 2,700-square-meter (29,000-square-foot) cultic center was established in that very city.
Biran summed up his earliest discoveries, writing: “Walls built of large basalt and dolomite fieldstones and boulders, two complete pithoi with a snake decoration, an incense stand, the broken fragments of a clay tub with a shelf used as a seat, and other vessels led us to conclude that we were digging within the sacred precinct of the city of Dan of the 10th and beginning of the ninth centuries b.c.e. The date, based on the ceramic evidence, corresponds with the time of Jeroboam i’s reign.”
He then added that even though no golden calf was found—a treasure that certainly would have been hauled away by invading enemies—they had “uncovered enough evidence to enable us to reconstruct King Jeroboam i’s sanctuary at Dan.”
Biran’s team uncovered a podium that would have served as a foundation for a temple. This podium is made up of finely worked ashlar stones. The southern face is 18 meters (59 feet) long.
Storerooms near the temple housed two, large, 300-liter pithoi that were decorated with a snake relief. Amihai Mazar writes in Archaeology of the Land of the Bible that these pithoi would have “probably contained libation liquids.”
Biran’s team made other discoveries that pointed to sacrifices taking place at Tel Dan, such as a sunken, plastered basin surrounded by flagstones. Biran said these discoveries “aroused much speculation.” While he couldn’t know for sure exactly how these features were used, the presence of bone fragments and ash around the basin indicate that this was used for “some sort of animal sacrifice.”
Biran’s team also discovered cultic remains from the eighth century b.c.e., such as remnants of an altar, including one of the four corners and the steps that would have led up to it. By discovering one of the corners, Biran was able to estimate the size of the altar, which would have been around 3 meters (10 feet) tall. This altar sat within a 12.5-meter-by-14-meter ashlar enclosure. A smaller horned altar was discovered within this enclosure. Although these remains date later than Jeroboam i, they highlight that this area continued to operate as a well-developed, important cultic site.
According to Biran, the discoveries at Tel Dan “are the most extensive late 10th–early 9th century b.c.e. cultic remains so far uncovered in Israel.”
The Stain of Jeroboam
Both Tell Balata and Tel Dan give us insight into one of the most turbulent times for the nations of Judah and Israel. The once powerful, united nation was now fragmented and weak.
By looking into the archaeological record of these two cities, we see clear evidence of Jeroboam’s first capital city and one of his most important religious centers. But what Jeroboam did goes beyond the refortified walls or pagan temple.
He left a stain on the northern kingdom of Israel. It never recovered from the faulty foundation that he laid. God had given him a remarkable promise: “[I]f thou wilt hearken unto all that I command thee, and wilt walk in My ways, and do that which is right in Mine eyes, to keep My statutes and My commandments, as David My servant did, that I will be with thee, and will build thee a sure house, as I built for David, and will give Israel unto thee” (1 Kings 11:38).
But Jeroboam rejected the house of David, turned his back on Jerusalem—God’s chosen city—and brazenly disobeyed God.
Two hundred years after Jeroboam i reigned, Shechem and Dan fell to the Assyrians. The collapse of these cities ultimately gets back to the fact that every succeeding king of the northern kingdom followed “in the way of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, wherein he made Israel to sin” (1 Kings 22:53).