1 Kings 12:32

32. A feast in the eighth month Solomon fixed upon the feast of tabernacles in the seventh mouth (1 Kings 8:2) for the dedication of the temple, and Jeroboam selects the same feast for the dedication of his house at the high place in Beth-el, but he ordains that it be held a month later there than it was in Judah. “A plausible occasion for this arbitrary deviation from the law, which repeatedly names the seventh month as the time appointed of the Lord, (Leviticus 23:34; Leviticus 23:39; Leviticus 23:41,) might be found in the circumstance that in the northern districts of his kingdom the grain ripened at least a month later than in the southern Judah, and this festival was to be kept at the ingathering of the fruit of the land.” Keil.

The fifteenth day “He adhered to the day of the month,” says the same writer, “on account of the weak, who might take offence at the innovations.”

The feast that is in Judah The feast of tabernacles, that continued to be celebrated in Judah according to the law.

He offered upon the altar This need not be pressed to mean that Jeroboam himself offered the sacrifices at Beth-el, any more than 1 Kings 8:63-64, to show that Solomon did the same. The ministry of the priests is to be supposed in either case. But with Jeroboam, who had already gone so far as to ordain priests contrary to the law, it were no strange thing to even sacrilegiously perform with his own hand the sacred duties of the priesthood, and 1 Kings 13:1; 1 Kings 13:4, seem quite clearly to indicate that he did at least burn the incense himself.

So he did in Beth-el The frequent mention of Beth-el in this passage shows that it was regarded as the more important of the two high places.