“And now they sin more and more, and have made them molten images of their silver, and idols according to their own understanding, all of it the work of the craftsmen: they say of them, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves.”
My Notes
What Does Hosea 13:2 Mean?
"And now they sin more and more, and have made them molten images of their silver, and idols according to their own understanding, all of it the work of the craftsmen: they say of them, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves." Hosea describes the acceleration of idolatry — and every detail highlights the absurdity.
"They sin more and more" — the Hebrew literally reads "they add to sin." The sinning isn't static. It compounds. Each act of idolatry leads to another. The momentum increases. Sin breeds sin.
"Molten images of their silver" — they melted their wealth and cast it into gods. The silver was God's gift (2:8). Now it's God's competition. "Idols according to their own understanding" (tevunah) — designed by human imagination. Not revealed. Invented. They didn't receive these gods from above. They dreamed them up and then bowed to what they imagined. The irony is total: the creature designs the creator.
"All of it the work of the craftsmen" — Hosea emphasizes the human hands involved. A craftsman shaped it. A metalworker cast it. A human being made the thing that human beings worship. The manufacturing process is visible. The supply chain is traceable. And still they bow.
"Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves" — the calf-images at Dan and Bethel, the golden calves of Jeroboam I. The worshippers kiss them. Physical affection directed at metal shaped by human hands. The intimacy of the gesture — a kiss — aimed at something that can't feel, can't respond, can't love back. The absurdity reaches its peak in that kiss.
Reflection Questions
- 1.What have you built 'according to your own understanding' and then given your devotion to? Can you trace the manufacturing process?
- 2.Israel kissed the calves — directed intimacy at something that can't respond. Where are you investing emotional energy in something that will never love you back?
- 3."They sin more and more" — idolatry compounds. Can you see an acceleration pattern in a compromise area of your life?
- 4.The silver was God's gift, reshaped into God's competitor. What gifts from God have you reshaped into the thing that replaces Him?
Devotional
They made it. They know they made it. And they kiss it. That's the summary of every idolatry that has ever existed — and Hosea wants you to see how ridiculous it is.
A craftsman takes silver — silver God gave them — and melts it down. He shapes it according to human imagination. He files the edges, polishes the surface, sets it on a pedestal. And then people line up to kiss it. To bow to it. To sacrifice to it. Everyone in the room knows a human made it. Everyone saw the workshop. Everyone knows it was silver last week. And they worship it anyway.
The modern version doesn't involve metal calves, but the pattern is identical. You take something God gave you — time, talent, money, desire — and you reshape it according to your own understanding into something you worship. A career idol. A body idol. A relationship idol. A success idol. You designed it. You built it. You maintain it. And you bow to it, knowing it came from your own workshop.
"Idols according to their own understanding" — that phrase is the diagnosis. You imagined what God should look like, what fulfillment should feel like, what a god worth worshipping would provide. And then you built it. The idol is a mirror of your own desires given religious weight. It's you, worshipping yourself, through an intermediary you crafted.
The kiss is what makes it personal. You can worship something at a distance and maintain some dignity. But kissing the calf — pressing your lips to the thing you made — that's affection. That's intimacy aimed at metal. And it's the saddest image in Hosea: desperate love directed at something that will never love you back.
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
And now they sin more and more,.... Since the times of Jeroboam, and also of Ahab, adding other deities to the calves,…
And now they sin more and more - Sin draws on sin. This seems to be a third stage in sin. First, under Jeroboam, was the…
And now they sin more and more - They increase in every kind of vice, having abandoned the great Inspirer of virtue.
Let…
Idolatry was the sin that did most easily beset the Jewish nation till after the captivity; the ten tribes from the…
And now, &c. The present race is no better; they go on adding to their guilt.
idols according to their own understanding…
Cross References
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