Douay-Rheims Bible: 3 Kings — Introduction, Chapter Summaries and Notes by Richard Challoner
Chapter 12
SummaryRoboam, following the counsel of young men alienateth from him the minds of the people. They make Jeroboam king over ten tribes: he setteth up idolatry.
[12:20] Juda only. . .Benjamin was a small tribe, and so intermixed with the tribe of Juda, ( the very city of Jerusalem being partly in Juda, partly in Benjamin,) that they are here counted but as one tribe.
[12:28] Golden calves. . .It is likely, by making his gods in this form, he mimicked the Egyptians, among whom he had sojourned, who worshipped their Apis and their Osiris under the form of a bullock.
[12:29] Bethel and Dan. . .Bethel was a city of the tribe of Ephraim in the southern part of the dominions of Jeroboam, about six leagues from Jerusalem; Dan was in the extremity of his dominions to the north in the confines of Syria.