‘He has cast off (is disgusted at) your calf, O Samaria,
My anger is kindled against them,
How long will it be before they attain to innocency?
For from Israel is even this,
The workman made it, and it is no God,
Yes, the calf of Samaria will be broken in pieces.'
YHWH has especially determined that ‘the calf of Samaria' will be cast off in His disgust, and will be broken in pieces, and it is spoken of prophetically as something already accomplished. The use of ‘cast off, be disgusted at' here contrasts with its use in Hosea 8:3. In Hosea 8:3 Israel had cast off, and been disgusted at, that which was good. Here YHWH is disgusted at their golden calf. That this refers to the calf at Bethel can hardly be doubted for there is no suggestion anywhere else of the making of ‘calves' other than at Bethel and Dan (compare Hosea 10:5). But the one at Dan had probably by this time been melted down or taken as ‘hostage' by invaders (Dan, being on the northern border was very vulnerable). Thus the one at Bethel was probably called ‘the calf of Samaria'. This may have been (a) because ‘Samaria' as their leading city was seen as standing for the people of Israel, or (b) because the golden calf of Bethel had itself been taken to Samaria, or simply (c) because it was the centre point of the worship of the people of Samaria..
It was both their casual attitude as to who should reign over them, and their willingness to worship before the golden calves, that had made YHWH angry with them, and caused Him to despair as to when they would return to a state of purity. For by this they were both disregarding His rule and debasing His Name. The calves may well have been seen by them as the base on which the invisible YHWH stood, in the same way as the god Hadad stood on the back of a bull, but this made them no more acceptable to YHWH, for it meant that they were still involving graven images in their worship contrary to His commandment, and YHWH knew, even if they did not, that that inevitably led to idolatry. It is significant in this regard that the graven image was not seen as acceptable even though the sophisticated among them no doubt argued that they did not worship it, for God knew their hearts and recognised that, whether they themselves recognised it or not, a great deal of their worship was being directed at the calf itself (Baal was worshipped in the form of a bull). The same applies today when people argue that they are only ‘venerating' images and using them as a means of worshipping God. The sad truth is that there is often little difference in many of these cases between veneration and worship, and it is not long before worship begins to be directed at the images.
The debased condition of Israel was further revealed by the fact that ‘this' (we can sense the contempt behind the word), which was a graven image made by the hands of a workman, was being worshipped even though it was ‘no God'. And the total folly of worshipping it was revealed by the fact that men would later ‘break it in pieces'. So they worshipped a god that could be broken in pieces? What kind of a god was that?
‘He has cast off your calf, O Samaria.' The change of person to ‘He' might indicate that this was an interjection by Hosea himself, but it is not necessary to see it in that way for we often have such changes of person being used in the prophets to bring out a special emphasis, without the person involved being changed, especially when that person was God.