For she did not know that I gave her the grain, the new wine, and the oil, And multiplied to her silver and gold, which they used for Baal.
Which they prepared for Baal - Rather, as in the English Margin, “which they made into Baal” (see Hosea 8:4; Ezekiel 16:17-19). “Of that gold and silver, which God had so multiplied, Israel, revolting from the house of David and Solomon, made, first the calves of gold, and then Baal.” Of God’s own gifts they made their gods. They took God’s gifts as from their gods, and made them into gods to them. “Baal,” Lord, the same as Bel, was an object of idolatry among the Phoenicians and Tyrians. Its worship was brought into Israel by Jezebel, daughter of a king of Sidon. Jehu destroyed it for a time, because its adherents were adherents of the house of Ahab. The worship was partly cruel, like that of Moloch, partly abominable. It had this aggravation beyond that of the calves, that Jezebel aimed at the extirpation of the worship of God, setting up a rival temple, with its 450 prophets and 400 of the kindred idolatry of Ashtaroth, and slaying all the prophets of God.