(2) Golden Calves of Jeroboam. This prince, in order to separate the ten tribes more ef fectually from the house of David, set up objects of worship in the land of Israel that the people might not be compelled to go up to Jerusalem (i Kings xii :26-28). He made two calves of gold and said: "Behold thy gods, 0 Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And he set the one in Bethel and the other he put in Dan, at the two extremities of his kingdom. And this thing became a sin, for the people went to wor ship before these calves to Dal; And to Bethel." Monceau thought that these calves, as well as the calf of Aaron, were imitations of the cherubim, and that they occasioned rather a schismatic than an idolatrous worship. We know, indeed, that all Israel did not renounce the worship of the Lord for that of the calves, but it is highly probable that the majority did so. (See t Kings xix :to.) It is certain Jeroboam's golden calves were not images of Baal (see 1 Kings xvi:31, 32; 2 Kings x:28, 31), neither does Elijah say, "Choose be tween these calves (as emblems of Apis) and Jehovah." Nevertheless, most commentators think Jeroboam designed, by his golden calves, to imitate the worship of Apis, which he had seen in Egypt (1 Kings xi:40). Scripture reproaches him frequently with having made Israel to sin (2 Kings xiv:9), and when describing a bad prince, it says, he imitated the sin of Jeroboam (2 Kings xvii :21). The LXX and the Greek
fathers generally read (feminine) golden cows, instead of golden calves. Josephus speaks of the temple of the golden calf as still in being in his time, somewhere towards Dan, but he omits the history of the sin. The glory of Israel was their God, their law, and their ark; but the worshipers of the golden calves considered those idols as their glory : "The priests thereof rejoiced on it, for the glory thereof" (Hosea x:5). Hosea fore told the destructiop and captivity of the calves of Samaria (Hosea viii:5, 6), and the Assyrians, having taken Samaria. carried off the golden calves with their worshipers.
Figurative. The dividing a calf in twain at the making of covenants, and wishing that so God might rend the makers if they broke it, exhibits what is our desert for covenant-breaking, and what our blessed Redeemer endured on our ac count (Jer. xxxiv:s8). Ministers and saints are like calves in meekness, patience, spiritual strength, readiness to labor, and cheerful running in the way of God's commandments (Rev. iv :7; Ezek. :7; Is. xi :6). They grow up as calves in the stall; when feasted on Jesus' fullness they abound in grace and good works (Mat iv:2), and they render to him the calves of their lips, the pure offerings of prayer, prise and thanksgiving (Hos. xiv :2).