Matthew Henry on Hosea 13:1-4
Idolatry was the sin that did most easily beset the Jewish nation till after the captivity; the ten tribes from the first were guilty of it, but especially after the days of Ahab; and this is the sin which, in these verses, they are charged with. Observe,
I. The provision that God made to prevent their falling into idolatry. This we have, Hos 13:4. God did what was fit to be done to keep them close to himself; what could have been done more? 1. He made known himself to them as the Lord their God, and took them to be his people in a peculiar manner. Both by his word and by his works all along from the land of Egypt he declared, I am the Lord thy God; he told them so from heaven at Mount Sinai…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Hosea 13:2
according to their own understanding--that is, their arbitrary devising. Compare "will-worship," Col 2:23. Men are not to be "wise above that which is written," or to follow their own understanding, but God's command in worship.
kiss the calves--an act of adoration to the golden calves (compare Kg1 19:18; Job 31:27; Psa 2:12).
Adam Clarke on Hosea 13:2
And now they sin more and more - They increase in every kind of vice, having abandoned the great Inspirer of virtue.
Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves - This was the test. If there be a Jew that pretends to sacrifice, and whose conversion is dubious, let him come openly and kiss the calves. This will show what he is; no real Jew will do this. If he be an idolater, he will not scruple. This was the ancient method of adoration.
1. They kissed the idol.
2. When the statue was too high or too far off, they presented the hand, in token of alliance.
3. They brought that hand respectfully to their mouths, and kissed it.
This was the genuine act of adoration; from ad, to, and os, oris, the…
Read the whole note in the consoleJohn Gill on Hosea 13:2
And now they sin more and more,.... Since the times of Jeroboam, and also of Ahab, adding other deities to the calves, and to Baal, as follows; increasing the number of their idols, and their idolatrous sacrifices, rites, and ceremonies: this they did in the times the prophet, who prophesied after the times of as it is common with evil men and seducers to wax worse and worse, and to proceed to more ungodliness, and from evil to evil; such is the way of idolaters, they stop not, but run into greater absurdities and grosser idolatries:
and have made them molten images of their silver: which is to be understood, not of the calves, or of Baal, made of gold, which they purchased with their silve…
