Commentaries:
Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown
he ordained him priests—The persons he appointed to the priesthood were low and worthless creatures (I Kings 12:31; I Kings 13:33); any were consecrated who brought a bullock and seven rams (II Chronicles 13:9; Exodus 29:37).
for the high places—Those favorite places of religious worship were encouraged throughout the country.
for the devils—a term sometimes used for idols in general (Leviticus 17:7). But here it is applied distinctively to the goat deities, which were probably worshipped chiefly in the northern parts of his kingdom, where the heathen Canaanites still abounded.
for the calves which he had made—figures of the ox gods Apis and Mnevis, with which Jeroboam's residence in Egypt had familiarized him. (See on I Kings 12:26).
the priests and the Levites . . . resorted to him out of all their coasts—This was an accession of moral power, for the maintenance of the true religion is the best support and safeguard of any nation; and as it was peculiarly the grand source of the strength and prosperity of the Hebrew monarchy, the great numbers of good and pious people who sought an asylum within the territories of Judah contributed greatly to consolidate the throne of Rehoboam. The cause of so extensive an emigration from the kingdom of Israel was the deep and daring policy of Jeroboam, who set himself to break the national unity by entirely abolishing, within his dominions, the religious institutions of Judaism. He dreaded an eventual reunion of the tribes if the people continued to repair thrice a year to worship in Jerusalem as they were obliged by law to do. Accordingly, on pretense that the distance of that city was too great for multitudes of his subjects, he fixed upon two more convenient places, where he established a new mode of worshipping God under gross and prohibited symbols [I Kings 12:26-33]. The priests and Levites, refusing to take part in the idolatrous ceremonies, were ejected from their living [II Chronicles 11:13-14]. Along with them a large body of the people who faithfully adhered to the instituted worship of God, offended and shocked by the impious innovations, departed from the kingdom.
Other Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown entries containing 2 Chronicles 11:15:
1 Kings 18:3
1 Corinthians 10:19-20
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