So the men did as instructed. ¹  They took two cows that had calves and harnessed them to a cart; they also removed their calves to their stalls.

With what should I ¹  enter the Lord’s presence? With what ²  should I bow before the sovereign God? ³  Should I enter his presence with burnt offerings, with year-old calves?

They lie around on beds decorated with ivory, ¹  and sprawl out on their couches. They eat lambs from the flock, and calves from the middle of the pen.

and he entered once for all into the most holy place not by the blood of goats and calves but by his own blood, and so he himself secured ¹  eternal redemption.

Their bulls ¹  breed ²  without fail; ³  their cows calve and do not miscarry.

So now go and make a new cart. Get two cows that have calves and that have never had a yoke placed on them. Harness the cows to the cart and take their calves from them back to their stalls.

So the army rushed greedily on ¹  the ²  plunder, confiscating sheep, cattle, and calves. They slaughtered them right on the ground, and the army ate them blood and all.

However, Jehu did not repudiate the sins which Jeroboam son of Nebat had encouraged Israel to commit; the golden calves remained in Bethel ¹  and Dan. ² 

They abandoned all the commandments of the Lord their God; they made two metal calves and an Asherah pole, bowed down to all the stars in the sky, ¹  and worshiped ²  Baal.

Sound your battle cry ¹  against the wild beast of the reeds, ²  and the nations that assemble like a herd of calves led by bulls! ³  They humble themselves ⁴  and offer gold and silver as tribute. ⁵  God ⁶  scatters ⁷  the nations that like to do battle.

Now you are declaring that you will resist the Lord’s rule through the Davidic dynasty. ¹  You have a huge army, ²  and bring with you the gold calves that Jeroboam made for you as gods.

But for you who respect my name, the sun of vindication ¹  will rise with healing wings, ²  and you will skip about ³  like calves released from the stall.

Jeroboam ¹  appointed his own priests to serve at the worship centers ²  and to lead in the worship of the goat idols and calf idols he had made. ³ 

After the king had consulted with his advisers, ¹  he made two golden calves. Then he said to the people, ²  “It is too much trouble for you to go up to Jerusalem. Look, Israel, here are your gods who brought you up from the land of Egypt.”

Jeroboam inaugurated a festival on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, ¹  like the festival celebrated in Judah. ²  On the altar in Bethel he offered sacrifices to the calves he had made. ³  In Bethel he also appointed priests for the high places he had made.

For when Moses had spoken every command to all the people according to the law, he took the blood of calves and goats with water and scarlet wool and hyssop and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people,

Even her mercenaries ¹  will prove to be like pampered, ²  well-fed calves. For they too will turn and run away. They will not stand their ground when ³  the time for them to be destroyed comes, the time for them to be punished.

Even now they persist in sin! ¹  They make metal images for themselves, idols that they skillfully fashion ²  from their own silver; all of them are nothing but the work of craftsmen! There is a saying about them: ³  “Those who sacrifice ⁴  to the calf idol are calf kissers!” ⁵ 

Your children ¹  will be cursed, as well as the produce of your soil, the calves of your herds, and the lambs of your flocks.

For the fortified city ¹  is left alone; it is a deserted settlement and abandoned like the desert. Calves ²  graze there; they lie down there and eat its branches bare. ³