Book of Hosea Chapter 13 Vs. 2

 The Lord's Relentless Judgment on Israel

And now they sin more and more, and have made them molten images of their silver, and idols according to their own understanding, all of it the work of the craftsmen: they say of them, Let the men that sacrifice kiss the calves. Hos. 13:2

have made them... They used the precious metals of silver and gold, that God had blessed them with, to make these abominable idols. Anything that you can see is not God. If it is made by human hands, it is not God. Even this calf was made by human hands and was not to be worshipped. God is a Spirit.

kiss the calves... An act of devotion to their idols (1Kgs. 19:18). Kissing the calves just shows the degradation of their worship.

The making of idols was just another sign of how far they had fallen from God.

They debased themselves even further by kissing the calf-idols (cf. 1Kgs. 19:18; also cf. calf-idol in Hos. 8:4-5; 10:5) in conjunction with their many sacrificial rites.

They offer human sacrifice literally reads, sacrificers of men kiss calves. The Bible speaks of child sacrifice in conjunction with worship of the god Molech (cf. Lev. 18:21; 20:2-5; 2Kgs. 23:10), which was apparently sometimes combined with Baal worship (cf. Jer. 32:35). However, the word used here, men ’āḏām, does not suggest child sacrifice. A more likely interpretation is that sacrificers of men is idiomatic, meaning sacrificers among men or men who sacrifice (cf. KJV, NASB). One should compare this with the following expressions, wild donkey of a man Gen. 16:12; i.e., a man who is like a wild donkey in character, the poor of men (Isa. 29:19 1, KJV; i.e., men who are poor, and leaders lit., princes of men Mic. 5:5; perhaps meaning men who are princes. In this case the prophet (Hos. 13:2) was emphasizing the absurdity of men kissing images of calves.

Even now they continue to sin and make them a smelting of their silver, idols after their own model smith's work all of it. To them to such things they speak! Sacrificing men kiss calves! In such unreasoning have they sunk. They cannot endure.

Again, as the Ephraimites and the other Israelites they represent here multiplied their idols and images, they added to their guilt.