Exodus 32:4

Treasury of Scripture Knowledge

Summary

And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

Fashioned

Acts 17:29

A graving

Exodus 28:9

Calf

Hosea 13:2

These

Romans 1:21

Which brought

Exodus 32:1

Exodus 20:2

General references

Bible References

Fashioned

You shall not make other gods [to worship] besides Me; gods of silver or gods of gold, you shall not make [these lifeless idols] for yourselves.

And I saw that you had indeed sinned against the Lord your God. You had made for yourselves a molten calf (idol). You had turned aside quickly from the way which the Lord had commanded you.

They made a calf in Horeb (Sinai)
And worshiped a cast image.

All who make carved idols are nothing. Their precious objects are worthless [to them], and their own witnesses (worshipers) fail to see or know, so that they will be put to shame.

“Those who lavish gold from the bag
And weigh out silver on the scales
Hire a goldsmith, and he makes it into a god;
They bow down, indeed they worship it.

In those days they made a calf and brought a sacrifice to the idol, and rejoiced and celebrated over the works of their hands.

So then, being God’s children, we should not think that the Divine Nature (deity) is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination or skill of man.

A graving

You shall take two onyx stones and engrave on them the names of the [twelve] sons of Israel,

Calf

So the king took counsel [and followed bad advice] and made two calves of gold. And he said to the people, “It is too much for you to go [all the way] up to Jerusalem; behold your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”

However, Jehu did not turn from the [idolatrous] sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel sin, that is, [led them to worship] the golden calves which were at Bethel and Dan.

Jeroboam appointed his own priests for the high places, for the satyrs (goat demons) and calves (idols) which he had made.

“And now you intend to assert yourselves against the kingdom of the Lord which is in the hands of the sons of David, since you are a great multitude and have with you the golden calves (idols) which Jeroboam made for you as gods.

They set up kings, but not from Me [therefore without My blessing];
They have appointed princes, but I did not know it.
With their silver and their gold they made idols for themselves,
That they might be cut off.

The people of Samaria will fear and tremble
For the [idolatrous] calf of Beth-aven (House of Wickedness).
Indeed, its people will mourn over it
And its idolatrous priests will cry out and wail over it,
Over its glory, because the glory [of their calf god] has departed from it.

And now they sin more and more,
And make for themselves molten images,
Idols skillfully made from their silver [as it pleased them],
All of them the work of the craftsmen.
They say of these [very works of their hands], “Let those who sacrifice kiss and show respect to the calves [as if they were living gods]!”

These

They have quickly turned aside from the way which I commanded them. They have made themselves a molten calf, and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it, and said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!’”

He returned the eleven hundred pieces of silver to his mother, and she said, “I had truly dedicated the silver from my hand to the Lord for my son (in his name) to make an image [carved from wood and plated with silver] and a cast image [of solid silver]; so now, I will return it to you.”

“Even when they had made for themselves
A calf of cast metal
And said, ‘This is your god
Who brought you up from Egypt,’
And committed great [and contemptible] blasphemies,

To whom then will you liken God?
Or with what likeness will you compare Him?

For even though they knew God [as the Creator], they did not honor Him as God or give thanks [for His wondrous creation]. On the contrary, they became worthless in their thinking [godless, with pointless reasonings, and silly speculations], and their foolish heart was darkened.

Which brought

Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, they gathered together before Aaron and said to him, “Come, make us a god who will go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.”

“I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

General references

You shall not make other gods [to worship] besides Me; gods of silver or gods of gold, you shall not make [these lifeless idols] for yourselves.

For they said to me, ‘Make us a god who will go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’

The Lord was very angry with Aaron, angry [enough] to destroy him, so I also prayed for Aaron at the same time.

“Even when they had made for themselves
A calf of cast metal
And said, ‘This is your god
Who brought you up from Egypt,’
And committed great [and contemptible] blasphemies,

They made a calf in Horeb (Sinai)
And worshiped a cast image.

As for the cast image (idol), a metalworker casts it,
A goldsmith overlays it with gold
And a silversmith casts its silver chains.