Jeroboam thought to himself:
"The kingdom will return to David's house.
If now this people go up to offer sacrifices
in the temple of the LORD in Jerusalem,
the hearts of this people will return to their master,
Rehoboam, king of Judah, and they will kill me."
After taking counsel, the king made two calves of gold
and said to the people: "You have been going up to Jerusalem long enough.
Here is your God, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt."
And he put one in Bethel, the other in Dan.
This led to sin, because the people frequented
these calves in Bethel and in Dan.
He also built temples on the high places and made priests
from among the people who were not Levites.
Jeroboam established a feast in the eighth month
on the fifteenth day of the month to duplicate
in Bethel the pilgrimage feast of Judah,
with sacrifices to the calves he had made;
and he stationed in Bethel priests of the high places he had built.
Jeroboam did not give up his evil ways after this event,
but again made priests for the high places
from among the common people. Whoever desired it
was consecrated and became a priest of the high places.
This was a sin on the part of the house of Jeroboam
for which it was to be cut off and destroyed from the earth.

We have sinned, we and our fathers;
we have committed crimes; we have done wrong.
Our fathers in Egypt
considered not your wonders.

At Horeb they fashioned a calf,
worshiped a metal statue.
They exchanged their glory
for the image of a grass-eating bullock.

They forgot the God who had saved them,
who had done great deeds in Egypt,
Wondrous deeds in the land of Ham,
terrible things at the Red Sea.

In those days when there again was a great crowd
without anything to eat, Jesus summoned the disciples and said,
My heart is moved with pity for the crowd,
because they have been with me now for three days and have nothing to eat.
If I send them away hungry to their homes,
they will collapse on the way,
and some of them have come a great distance."
His disciples answered him, "Where can anyone
get enough bread to satisfy them here in this deserted place?"
Still he asked them, "How many loaves do you have?" "Seven," they replied.
He ordered the crowd to sit down on the ground.
Then, taking the seven loaves he gave thanks,
broke them, and gave them to his disciples to distribute,
and they distributed them to the crowd.
They also had a few fish. He said the blessing
over them and ordered them distributed also.
They ate and were satisfied.
They picked up the fragments left over--seven baskets.
There were about four thousand people.
He dismissed them and got into the boat
with his disciples and came to the region of Dalmanutha.