הושע, פרק י״ג, פסוק ב׳

Spiritual deterioration rarely stops at merely repeating past mistakes; it tends to expand and become deeply institutionalized. The primary approach among commentators is that the generation was no longer satisfied with the public golden calves erected by King Jeroboam, but actively sought to deepen and expand their idolatry [מצודת דוד, אברבנאל]. This represents a fundamental historical shift. Unlike the era of the Judges, when the people would eventually repent, this generation sought to completely uproot the worship of God and prevent any pilgrimage to Jerusalem [רד״ק]. Their actions were also steeped in hypocrisy. After assassinating their king under the pretense that he was guilty of idolatry, the people continued committing the exact same sin, only now on their own initiative and at their own expense [מלבי״ם].

Moving from public transgression to private devotion, the Israelites began casting their own metal idols [מצודת ציון]. While Jeroboam’s public calves were made of gold, the people now used their personal silver to fund and manufacture private statues, recognized simply as false idols [מצודת ציון, ביאור שטיינזלץ], to keep inside their homes [רד״ק, מצודת דוד]. The design of these objects is understood in two main ways. They either replicated the exact shape of Jeroboam’s calves [רש״י, אבן עזרא, אברבנאל, מצודת דוד], or they were custom-designed according to the individual imagination and understanding of the owners [רד״ק, מלבי״ם, ביאור שטיינזלץ, צאינה וראינה]. Regardless of their shape, these objects were entirely the work of human craftsmen [מצודת ציון]. They contained no spiritual essence whatsoever, consisting solely of shaped matter born from the artisan's mind [רד״ק, אברבנאל, ביאור שטיינזלץ].

The devotion shown to these statues, particularly the act of kissing them [מצודת ציון], exposes a complete distortion of human morality and values. Idolatrous priests actively manipulated the masses, convincing them to sacrifice their own children. According to one perspective, the priests declared that only someone who offered the precious sacrifice of a human life was worthy of the great honor of kissing the calf [רש״י, רד״ק, ביאור שטיינזלץ, אברבנאל, צאינה וראינה]. Alternatively, the priests elevated the act of kissing the idol by claiming its spiritual reward was equal to that of human sacrifice, which they considered the highest form of worship. This promise motivated people to keep statues in their own homes so they could kiss them at any given moment [מצודת דוד, חומת אנך, אברבנאל].

This moral inversion is highlighted through sharp mockery of the people's twisted values. In a normal society, a person kisses other humans out of affection and slaughters calves for food. The idolaters, however, completely reversed the natural order: they murdered and sacrificed humans, yet tenderly kissed calves [אבן עזרא]. This absurdity is further illustrated through a poetic image in which the idols themselves appear to speak. The lifeless, human-made statues mock the very people who approach them, asking how those who ruthlessly murder human beings can bring themselves to affectionately kiss calves [מלבי״ם].