THE PROPHETS, THE PRIESTHOOD, AND THE IMAGE Of GOD 323 It is well known that polemics against the manufacture and wor- ship of idols in short punctuating statements, as well as in lengthy pericopes, abound in the prophetic literature 8. The prophets in numer- ous passages railed against the creation and veneration of divinities in fashioned forms. What is less well known is that prophetic literature also reveals the rejection of stabilized yahwistic images and even mental depictions that could be interpreted as idols. Images employed in cultic contexts that implied or projected a stable image of yHWH, such as the Bull Calf statue of the northern kingdom in the Book of Hosea, were rejected 9. Its rejection seems to be related to the perception that the form of the calf represented the form of the deity and became the object of worship 10. Similarly, in the southern king- dom, the stabilization of the divine form into a king, through the mental image projected by a divine throne or footstool, was rejected in the Book of Ezekiel because of concerns about stabilized divine images 11. aging in the Prophets”, Divine Presence and Absence in Exilic and Post-Exilic Judaism. Studies of the Sofia Kovalevskaja Research Group on Early Jewish Monotheism, vol. 2. (eds. N. MACDONALD – I.J. DE HuLSTER) (fAT 2/61; Tübingen 2013) 183-211; and ID., The Divine Image. 8 Lengthier PAI passages include Isa 40,18-25; 41,6-7; 44,9-20; 46,1-7; Jer 10,1-16 // 51,15-19; Hab 2,18-19. See H.D. PREuSS, Verspottung fremder Reli- gionen im Alten Testament (BWANT 5; Stuttgart 1971) 192-241, 251-253; W.M.W. ROTH, “for Life He Appeals to Death (Wis 13,18): A Study of Old Testament Idol Parodies”, CBQ 37 (1975) 22-36; E.M. CuRTIS, “The Theological Basis for the Prohibition of Images in the Old Testament”, JETS 28 (1985) 277- 287; M.B. DICK, “Prophetic Parodies of Making the Cult Image”, Born in Heaven, Made on Earth. The Making of the Cult Image in the Ancient Near East (ed. M.B. DICK) (Winona Lake, IN 1999) 1-53. Cf. N.B. LEVTOW, Images of Others. Iconic Politics in Ancient Israel (BJS 11; Winona Lake, IN 2008); HERRING, Divine Sub- stitution, 77-84, 187-191; MIDDLEMAS, The Divine Image, 25-36. 9 W.I. TOEWS, Monarchy and Religious Institution in Israel under Jeroboam I (SBLMS 47; Atlanta, GA 1993) 168; MIDDLEMAS, The Divine Image, 59-66. It is generally agreed that the Golden Calf episode participates in iconoclasm, but see the reassessment by J.W. WATTS, “Aaron and the Golden Calf in the Rhetoric of the Pentateuch”, JBL 130 (2011) 417-430. 10 for a study of the confusion of a physical symbol with the form of the deity, see M. HALBERTAL – A. MARGALIT, Idolatry (trans. N. GOLDBLuM) (Cambridge, MA 1992). 11 J. MIDDLEMAS, “Exclusively yhwh: Aniconism and Anthropomorphism in Ezekiel”, Prophecy and the Prophets in Ancient Israel (ed. J. DAy) (LHBOT 531; New york 2010) 310-314; ID., “Transformation of the Image”, Transforming Visions. Transformations of Text, Tradition, and Theology in Ezekiel (eds. W.A. TOOMAN – M.A. LyONS) (PTMS 127; Eugene, OR 2010) 127-136.