Calves, golden, worship of

The form that Israelite idolatry took in the wilderness (Ex. 32:4; Deut. 9:12–21), and later on under Jeroboam and his successors (1 Kgs. 12:28, 32–33; 2 Kgs. 10:29; 2 Chr. 11:15; 13:8; Hosea 8:5–6; 13:2). Under this symbol they professed to worship Jehovah, but such worship naturally soon degenerated into a worship of the image itself.