Now they sin more and more, And have made themselves molten images of their silver, Even idols according to their own understanding, All of them the work of the craftsmen. They say of them, "They offer human sacrifice and kiss the calves."
They say of them - Strictly, Of them, (i. e., of these things, such things, as these,) “they, say, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves.” The prophet gives the substance or the words of Jeroboam’s edict, when he said, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem, behold thy gods, O Israel.” “Whoever would sacrifice, let him do homage to the calves.” He would have calf-worship to be the only worship of God. Error, if it is strong enough, ever persecutes the truth, unless it can corrupt it. Idol-worship was striving to extirpate the worship of God, which condemned it. Under Ahab and Jezebel, it seemed to have succeeded. Elijah complains to God in His own immediate presence; “the children of Israel have forsaken Thy covenant, thrown down Thine altars, and slain Thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I, only am left, and they seek my life, to take it away 1Ki 19:10, 1 Kings 19:14. Kissing was an act of homage in the East, done upon the hand or the foot, the knees or shoulder. It was a token of divine honor, whether to an idol (1 Kings 19:18 and here,) or to God Psalms 2:12. It was performed, either by actually kissing the image, or when the object could not be approached, (as the moon) kissing the hand Job 31:26-27, and so sending, as it were, the kiss to it. In the Psalm, it stands as a symbol of worship, to be shown toward “the” Incarnate “Son,” when God should make Him “King upon His holy hill of Sion.”