<p class="poetry">That idol was made by a workman &#8211; it is not God!p> <p class="poetry">The calf idol of Samaria will be broken to bits.p>

<p class="poetry">They lie around on beds decorated with ivory,<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">and sprawl out on their couches.p> <p class="poetry">They eat lambs from the flock,p> <p class="poetry">and calves from the middle of the pen.p>

But for you who respect my name, the sun of vindication<n id="1" /> will rise with healing wings,<n id="2" /> and you will skip about<n id="3" /> like calves released from the stall.

They have quickly turned aside<n id="1" /> from the way that I commanded them &#8211; they have made for themselves a molten calf and have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and said, &#8216;These are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt.&#8217;&#8221;p>

<p class="bodytext">When he approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses became extremely angry.<n id="1" /> He threw the tablets from his hands and broke them to pieces at the bottom of the mountain.<n id="2" />

He took the calf they had made and burned it in the fire, ground it<n id="1" /> to powder, poured it out on the water, and made the Israelites drink it.<n id="2" />p>

As for your sinful thing<n id="1" /> that you had made, the calf, I took it, melted it down,<n id="2" /> ground it up until it was as fine as dust, and tossed the dust into the stream that flows down the mountain.

After the king had consulted with his advisers,<n id="1" /> he made two golden calves. Then he said to the people,<n id="2" /> &#8220;It is too much trouble for you to go up to Jerusalem. Look, Israel, here are your gods who brought you up from the land of Egypt.&#8221;

<t /><p class="bodytext">However, Jehu did not repudiate the sins which Jeroboam son of Nebat had encouraged Israel to commit; the golden calves remained in Bethel<n id="1" /> and Dan.<n id="2" />

They abandoned all the commandments of the <sc>Lordsc> their God; they made two metal calves and an Asherah pole, bowed down to all the stars in the sky,<n id="1" /> and worshiped<n id="2" /> Baal.

Now you are declaring that you will resist the <sc>Lordsc>&#8217;s rule through the Davidic dynasty.<n id="1" /> You have a huge army,<n id="2" /> and bring with you the gold calves that Jeroboam made for you as gods.

I will punish those people who have violated their covenant with me. I will make them like the calf they cut in two and passed between its pieces.<n id="1" /> I will do so because they did not keep the terms of the covenant they made in my presence.<n id="2" />

<p class="poetry">Even her mercenaries<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">will prove to be like pampered,<n id="2" /> well-fed calves.p> <p class="poetry">For they too will turn and run away.p> <p class="poetry">They will not stand their groundp> <p class="poetry">when<n id="3" /> the time for them to be destroyed comes,p> <p class="poetry">the time for them to be punished.p>

<p class="poetry">Even now they persist in sin!<n id="1" />p> <p class="poetry">They make metal images for themselves,p> <p class="poetry">idols that they skillfully fashion<n id="2" /> from their own silver;p> <p class="poetry">all of them are nothing but the work of craftsmen!p> <p class="poetry">There is a saying about them:<n id="3" />p> <p class="poetry">&#8220;Those who sacrifice<n id="4" /> to the calf idol are calf kissers!&#8221;<n id="5" />p>

Jeroboam inaugurated a festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth month,<n id="1" /> like the festival celebrated in Judah.<n id="2" /> On the altar in Bethel he offered sacrifices to the calves he had made.<n id="3" /> In Bethel he also appointed priests for the high places he had made.p>