Then Jeroboam built Shechem in the hill country of Ephraim and lived there. And he went out from there and built Penuel.
We have here the beginning of the reign of Jeroboam. He built Shechem first and then Penuel - beautified and fortified them, and probably had a palace in each of them for himself (Kg1 12:25), the former in Ephraim, the latter in Gad, on the other side Jordan.
Commenting on 1 Kings 12:25-33
If this people go up to do sacrifice in the house of the Lord at Jerusalem,.... In the temple there, three times in the year, which all the males were obliged to, besides other times, when they had occasion to offer sacrifice, which they might do nowhere else: then shall the heart of this people turn again unto their Lord, even unto Rehoboam king of...
Jeroboam built Shechem--destroyed by Abimelech (Jdg. 9:1-49). It was rebuilt, and perhaps fortified, by Jeroboam, as a royal residence. built Penuel--a ruined city with a tower (Jdg 8:9), east of Jordan, on the north bank of the Jabbok. It was an object of importance to restore this fortress (as it lay on the caravan road from Gilead to Damascus and Palmyra) and to secure his frontier on that quarter.