Texts in Conversation
Hosea turns the golden calf declaration back against the people in echoing the opening of the Ten Commandments. The same formula of positive divine self-identification becomes a negative indictment of them.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Exodus 20:2
Hebrew Bible
1 God spoke all these words: 2 “I, the Lord, am your God, who brought you from the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery. 3 “You shall have no other gods before me. 4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is on the earth beneath or that is in the water below. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous God, responding to the transgression of fathers by dealing with children to the third and fourth generations of those who reject me, 6 and showing covenant faithfulness to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.
Hosea 13:1
Hebrew Bible
1 When Ephraim spoke, there was terror; he was exalted in Israel, but he became guilty by worshiping Baal and died. 2 Even now they persist in sin! They make metal images for themselves, idols that they skillfully fashion from their own silver; all of them are nothing but the work of craftsmen. There is a saying about them: “Those who sacrifice to the calf idol are calf kissers!” 3 Therefore they will disappear like the morning mist, like early morning dew that evaporates, like chaff that is blown away from a threshing floor, like smoke that disappears through an open window. 4 But I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt. Therefore, you must not acknowledge any God but me. Except for me there is no Savior. 5 I cared for you in the wilderness, in the dry desert where no water was. 6 When they were fed, they became satisfied; when they were satisfied, they became proud; as a result, they forgot me!
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Notes and References
"... The continuation of the prophecy compares the sin of the calf and the declaration that precedes it — "This is your god, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt" — with the first two of the Ten Commandments: "Only I the Lord have been your God ever since the land of Egypt; You have never known a God but Me, you have never had a helper other than Me" (Hosea 13:4; compare Exodus 20:2–3: "I the Lord am your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt. . . . You shall have no other gods besides Me"). ..."
Shinan, Avigdor and Yair Zakovitch
From Gods to God: How the Bible Debunked, Suppressed, or Changed Ancient Myths and Legends
(p. 120) The Jewish Publication Society, 2012
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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