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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadPaul Kretzmann Commentary - Exodus 32:1 - 32:6
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The Golden Calf
v. 1. And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the text implies that they had waited for his return in vain, and therefore foolishly concluded that he had forsaken them, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, not in the spirit of an orderly congregation, but of a mob bent on violence, and said unto him, Up, make us gods which shall go before us! For as for this Moses, as they now contemptuously called him, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot (know) not what is become of him. They had given up all hopes regarding the leadership of Moses, and therefore proposed to establish their own gods, fashioned according to the ideas of their perverted mind.
v. 2. And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, the heavy ring pendants worn according to Oriental fashion, and bring them unto me. If Aaron, as some commentators state, made this demand in a spirit of cunning, thinking that the great sacrifice which this involved would keep the people from carrying out their plan, he found himself badly in error.
v. 3. And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron. Swept along by a wave of mob activity, the people showed a fanatical readiness to part with the possessions which they prized most highly. It is the same tendency which may be observed in the case of the many cults and heresies of our days, which spread with such alarming rapidity and command such great resources.
v. 4. And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving-tool after he had made it a molten calf. After melting the golden rings, Aaron cast a rough figure of a young ox, or bullock, and then finished the outline with the tools of an engraver. It may not have been a work of art, but it served its purpose. And they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. In these words the people proclaimed the idol as god and rejected the true and only God.
v. 5. And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation and said, Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord. The name of Jehovah was introduced to cover up the evil, the implication being that he, Aaron, at least, had erected this figure in honor of Jehovah, the true God. St. Paul expressly calls the children of Israel idolaters in speaking of this incident, 1Co_10:7.
v. 6. And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, in honor of the false god, and brought peace-offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, in a joyful sacrificial meal, and rose up to play, in merry festive games, in wilful abandon. The worship of the golden calf is a picture of the idolatry of our days, for these are the gods of the world, mammon, gold, money, luxury, eating, drinking, lascivious merriment. It is the very height of hypocrisy if Christians take part in the idolatrous ways of the world and then try to cover their sin with a sanctimonious behavior.