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Calf WorshipAid to Bible Understanding
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with cows, bulls and other animals, likely had influenced the Israelites to a great extent, causing them to adopt calf worship so soon after being liberated from Egypt. This is confirmed by Stephen’s words: “In their hearts they turned back to Egypt, saying to Aaron, ‘Make gods for us to go ahead of us. . . .’ So they made a calf in those days and brought up a sacrifice to the idol and began to enjoy themselves in the works of their hands.”—Acts 7:39-41.
The first king of the ten-tribe kingdom, Jeroboam, fearing that his subjects would revolt and go back to the house of David if they continued going up to Jerusalem for worship, had two golden calves made. (1 Ki. 12:26-28) The Bible record does not reveal to what extent Jeroboam’s choice of a calf to represent Jehovah was influenced by earlier calf worship in Israel or by what he had observed while in Egypt (1 Ki. 12:2) or by the religion of the Canaanites and others, who often represented their gods as standing upon an animal, such as a bull.
One of the golden calves Jeroboam set up at the far northern city of Dan, the other at Bethel about twelve miles (c. 19 kilometers) N of Jerusalem. He told his subjects that it was too much for them to go up to Jerusalem to worship and that the calf represented the God who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt. (Compare Exodus 32:8.) Since the priests of the tribe of Levi stayed loyal to Jehovah’s worship at Jerusalem (2 Chron. 11:13, 14), Jeroboam appointed his own priests to lead the false worship before the idol calves at Dan and Bethel. He also arranged for a festival similar to the Festival of Booths, but it was celebrated a month later than in Jerusalem.—1 Ki. 12:28-33; 2 Chron. 13:8, 9; Lev. 23:39.
Jehovah condemned this calf worship and, through his prophet Ahijah, foretold calamity for the house of Jeroboam. (1 Ki. 14:7-12) Nevertheless, calf worship remained entrenched in the ten-tribe kingdom. Even King Jehu, who eradicated Baal worship in Israel, let calf worship remain, likely in order to keep the ten-tribe kingdom distinct from the kingdom of Judah. (2 Ki. 10:29-31) In the ninth century B.C.E., Jehovah raised up his prophets Amos and Hosea to proclaim His condemnation of calf worship, which included kissing the idol calves, and also to foretell doom for the ten-tribe kingdom. The golden calf of Bethel was to be carried away to the king of Assyria, giving cause for the people as well as the foreign-god priests to mourn. The high places would be annihilated, and thorns and thistles would grow upon the altars that had been used in false worship. (Hos. 10:5-8; 13:2; Amos 3:14; 4:4; 5:5, 6) Calamity did come when the ten-tribe kingdom fell to Assyria in 740 B.C.E. About a century later, Jeremiah prophesied that the Moabites would be just as ashamed of their god Chemosh as the Israelites had become of their center of idolatrous calf worship Bethel.—Jer. 48:13; see BETHEL No. 1; IDOL, IDOLATRY.
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CalnehAid to Bible Understanding
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CALNEH
(Calʹneh).
1. A city founded by Nimrod in the land of Shinar. (Gen. 10:10) It thus evidently lay in southern Mesopotamia, but the location is uncertain. Nippur, an ancient Babylonian city about fifty-six miles (90.1 kilometers) E-SE of Babylon, has long been suggested as its site, based on Talmudic tradition and other factors. Some scholars, however, prefer an identification with Kulunu, the early name of a city of some importance near Babylon. A third possibility is a twin city of Kish called Hursagkalama, the latter part of the name (-kalama) supposedly representing Calneh. Some translations (RS, JB) render Calneh not as a place-name but as the phrase “all of them” so that the text reads “Babel, Erech, and Accad, all of them in the land of Shinar” (RS), but this requires an adjustment in the pointing as found in the Masoretic text.
2. A place mentioned by the prophet Amos, along with the cities of Hamath and Gath, when warning the people of Israel and Judah of coming calamity. (Amos 6:2) While some commentators consider it to be the same as No. 1 above, most scholars view its association with Hamath and Gath as indicating a location in the region adjacent to the eastern Mediterranean Sea, rather than in Mesopotamia. They suggest an identification with Kullani in northern Syria (apparently represented today by modern Kullan Köy, about ten miles [16 kilometers] SE of Arpad), mentioned by Tiglath-pileser III as among the places subjugated during an Assyrian campaign in the west. If this identification is correct, then Calneh here may be the same as Calno of Isaiah 10:9.—See CALNO.
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CalnoAid to Bible Understanding
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CALNO
(Calʹno).
A city listed in Isaiah’s prophecy concerning the boasting of the Assyrians as to their conquests and the futility of trying to withstand their might. (Isa. 10:5, 9-11) Most authorities consider Calno to be an alternate spelling of Calneh. (Amos 6:2) Calno’s mention in connection with Carchemish would harmonize with the identification of Calneh with Kullani of the Assyrian texts, located between Carchemish and Aleppo in northern Syria. Kullani was conquered by Tiglath-pileser III, a contemporary of King Ahaz of Judah.—See CALNEH No. 2.
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CalvaryAid to Bible Understanding
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CALVARY
See GOLGOTHA.
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CamelAid to Bible Understanding
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CAMEL
An animal that has long served man as a beast of burden and a means of transport, especially in desert regions. There are two varieties of camel, the Bactrian and the Arabian. The former has two humps on its back, is stronger than the latter and is able to carry greater loads; the latter, thought to be the one generally referred to in the Bible, has only one hump.
The camel’s characteristics ideally fit it for life in desert regions, where it fills the place usually assigned the horse or donkey in other lands. This animal’s thick hair shields it from desert heat. Its long slitlike nostrils can close at will, a useful precaution against the blowing sand. Its eyes are shielded from blistering sandstorms by heavy eyelids and long eyelashes. The camel’s feet are provided with a hardened skin and are padlike, remarkably shaped for walking on soft and yielding sand. Callous pads on which the animal rests protect its chest and knees. These pads are present at birth. The camel’s strong teeth enable it to chew practically anything. This creature needs little grain and can subsist on the common plants of the desert, making it an animal quite economical to use.
The camel’s hump serves as a sort of portable pantry. Here most of its food reserve is stored. If the camel is required to draw nourishment from its stored-up food supply for too long a time, the skin of the hump, instead of standing up, falls over, and hangs like an empty bag on the side of the dorsal ridge. In ancient times, as today, loads were placed on the humps of camels. (Isa. 30:6) Mention is also made in Scripture of a “woman’s saddle basket of the camel,” which undoubtedly was placed on the camel’s hump.—Gen. 31:34.
Contrary to popular belief, the camel needs almost as much water as does a horse. If water is available, it will drink from five to seven gallons (c. 19 to c. 26 liters) a day. However, the remarkable feature about the camel is its endurance when forced to go without water. Carrying a load of 400 pounds (c. 181 kilograms) and traveling at a rate of twenty-five to thirty miles (c. 40 to c. 48 kilometers) a day, a camel may go without water for eight days. One camel is known to have continued for thirty-four days without drinking water, but this is an exception.
Views differ as to the reason for the camel’s ability to go for long periods without water. Although folklore has it that the camel stores water in its hump, this is not the case. The idea that the camel stores water in its stomach has been presented
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