He went up to the altar that he had made in Bethel on the fifteenth day in the eighth month, in the month that he had devised of his own heart; and he instituted a feast for the people of Israel and went up to the altar to burn incense — Jeroboam's personal ascent to the altar and burning of incense are acts of priesthood forbidden to laymen and non-Levites. The phrase אֲשֶׁר־הוֹצִיא מִלִּבּוֹ (asher-hotsi milbbo, which he devised of his own heart) emphasizes the arbitrary, humanistic foundation of this religious calendar. The calendar is not divinely ordained but invented—a decisive theological error that subsequent prophets and historians will condemn. Jeroboam's assumption of priestly function, combined with the invented festival and calf worship, completes the schismatic religious package.

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