especially the latter. But such a divide demonstrates a very modern take on ‘religion’. The cultic devotion to the calves was every bit as political as religious. That is to say, cultic worship had to do with the polis, the city and life of the community. The calf at Bethel was both a political and cultic centre because the two went close together (cf. Amos 7:10–13). Hosea stands against the people’s infidelity, their ‘whoring’ in his own blunt language, in whatever venue he saw it. For Hosea both