19 Bible Verses about Calf worship

The people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain. They gathered around Aaron. They said to him: We do not know what has happened to Moses, the man who led us out of Egypt. Make gods to lead us. Aaron replied: Have your wives, sons, and daughters take off the gold earrings they are wearing. Bring them to me. The people took off their gold earrings and handed them to Aaron.read more.
After he worked on the gold with a tool, he made it into a statue of a calf. Then they said: Israel, this is your god, who brought you out of Egypt.

Jehovah said to Moses: Go down there. Your people whom you brought out of Egypt have corrupted themselves. They have already turned from the way I commanded them to live. They made a statue of a calf for themselves. They have bowed down to it and offered sacrifices to it. They said: Israel, here is your god who brought you out of Egypt.'

At Mount Horeb they made a statue of a calf. They worshiped an idol made of metal. They traded their glorious God for the statue of a bull that eats grass. They forgot the God of their salvation, the one who did spectacular things in Egypt,read more.
miracles in the land of Ham, and terrifying things at the Red Sea.

They made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.

Moses came close enough to the camp at the foot of the mountain to see the bull-calf and to see the people dancing. He became furious! He threw down the tablets he was carrying and broke them. He took the bull-calf that they had made, melted it, ground it into fine powder, and mixed it with water. Then he made the people of Israel drink it.

Jehovah killed people because they had Aaron make the calf.

I saw that you had indeed sinned against Jehovah your God. You made yourselves an idol, cast in the shape of a calf. You turned aside quickly from the way Jehovah had commanded you. I took hold of the two tablets and threw them from my hands and smashed them before your eyes. I fell down before Jehovah. Like the first, forty days and nights I did not eat or drink. This was because of all your sin you committed in doing what was evil in the sight of Jehovah to provoke Him to anger.read more.
I was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure from Jehovah. For he was wrathful against you to the point of destroying you! But Jehovah listened to me that time also. Jehovah was angry enough with Aaron to destroy him! So I also prayed for Aaron at the same time. I took your sinful thing, the calf that you had made, and burned it with fire and crushed it. I ground it very small until it was as fine as dust. I threw its dust into the brook that flowed down the mountain.

God said he was going to destroy them, but Moses, his chosen one, stood in his way to prevent him from exterminating them.

He thought to himself: The way things are my people will go to Jerusalem and offer sacrifices to Jehovah at the Temple there. They will transfer their allegiance to King Rehoboam of Judah and will kill me. After asking for advice, the king made two golden calves. He said: You have been worshiping in Jerusalem long enough. Israel, here are your gods who brought you out of Egypt.read more.
He placed one in Bethel and the other in Dan. This became Israel's sin, worshiping the golden calves. The people went as far as Dan to worship the one calf.

They refused to obey his instructions. They did not keep the covenant he made with their ancestors. They disregarded his warnings. They worshiped worthless idols and became worthless themselves. They followed the customs of the surrounding nations, disobeying Jehovah's command not to imitate them. They broke all the laws of Jehovah their God. They made two metal bull-calves to worship. They also made an image of the goddess Asherah. Also they worshiped the stars and served the god Baal.

The priests abandoned their land and property and went to Judah and Jerusalem because Jeroboam and his descendants rejected them as Jehovah's priests. As an alternative, Jeroboam appointed his own priests for the illegal worship sites and the goat and calf statues he had made as idols.

Now you plan to fight against the royal authority Jehovah gave to David's descendants. You have a huge army! You have with you the golden calves that Jeroboam made to be your gods.

Jehovah was very angry with Israel. He removed them from his sight. Only the tribe of Judah kept its place. But even Judah did not obey the commands of Jehovah their God. They were guided by the rules Israel made. So Jehovah would have nothing to do with all the offspring of Israel. He caused trouble for them. He gave them up into the hands of their attackers, till he had sent them away from before his face.read more.
He tore Israel from the house of David and made Jeroboam son of Nebat king. Jeroboam drove them away from the laws of Jehovah and made them do a great sin. The children of Israel walked in all the sins Jeroboam committed. They did not depart from these sins. Jehovah removed Israel from his sight as he said he would through all his servants the prophets. Israel was taken away from their land to Assyria, to this day. Then the king of Assyria took men from Babylon and from Cuthah and Avva and Hamath and Sepharvaim, and put them in the towns of Samaria in place of the children of Israel. They acquired Samaria for their heritage, living in its towns. When they first lived there they did not respect Jehovah. So Jehovah sent lions among them, causing some of them to die. They said to the king of Assyria: The nations you have taken as prisoners and put in the towns of Samaria have no knowledge of the way of the god of the land. He has sent lions among them causing their death. This is because they have no knowledge of his way. Then the king of Assyria gave orders, saying: Send one of the priests you took from there. Let him live there and teach the people the way of the god of the land. So one of the priests they had taken away as a prisoner from Samaria came back. He lived in Bethel and taught them how to worship Jehovah.

They chose their own kings. I did not approve. They chose their own princes. Princes I did not know. They made idols with their own silver and gold. Because of this, they will be destroyed! Get rid of your calf-shaped idol, Samaria. My anger burns against these people! How long will they remain unclean? Samaria's calf-shaped idol was made in Israel. Skilled workers made it. It is not God. It will be smashed to pieces!read more.
The people of Israel plant the wind, but they harvest a storm. A field of grain that does not ripen will never produce any grain. Even if it did produce grain, foreigners would eat it all. Israel is swallowed up. It has already mixed in with the other nations. It has become worthless. The people of Israel went to Assyria. They were like wild donkeys wandering off alone. The people of Ephraim sold themselves to their lovers.

The people who live in the city of Samaria will be afraid and will mourn the loss of the gold bull at Bethaven. They and the priests who serve the idol will weep over it. They will wail when it is stripped of its golden splendor. The idol will be carried off to Assyria as tribute to the great emperor. The people of Israel will be disgraced and put to shame because of the advice they followed.

Burn the carved images of their gods with fire. Do not covet the silver or the gold that is on them. Do not take it for yourselves, or you will be snared by it. It is an abomination to Jehovah your God.

All who make idols are nothing. The things they treasure are worthless. Those who would speak up for them are blind. They are shamefully ignorant. Who shapes a god and casts a useless and good for nothing idol. He and his kind will be put to shame. Craftsmen are merely men. Let them all come together and take their stand for they will be brought down to terror and infamy.read more.
The blacksmith takes a tool and works with it in the coals. He shapes an idol with hammers; he forges it with the might of his arm. He gets hungry and loses his strength. He drinks no water and grows faint. The carpenter measures with a line and makes an outline with a red chalk marker. He roughs it out with chisels and marks it with a compass. He shapes it in the form of man in all his glory, that it may dwell in a shrine. He cut down cedars, or cypress or oak. He let it grow among the trees of the forest, or planted a pine, and the rain made it grow. It is man's fuel for burning so he takes some to warm himself. He kindles a fire and bakes bread. But he also fashions a god and worships it. Yes he makes an idol and bows down to it. Half of the wood they burn in the fire. Over this half they roast meat that they can eat until they are full. They also warm themselves and say: We are warm. We can see the fire! But the rest of the wood they make into gods, carved statues. They bow to them and worship them. They pray to them and say: Rescue us, because you are our gods. They do not know or understand anything. Their eyes are plastered shut and cannot see. Their minds are closed and therefore they cannot understand. No one stops to think. No one has enough knowledge or understanding to say: I burned half of the wood in the fire. I also baked bread over its coals. I roasted meat and ate it. Now I am making the rest of the wood into a disgusting thing and bowing to a block of wood. They eat ashes because they are deceived. Their own misguided minds lead them astray. They cannot rescue themselves or ask themselves: Is what I hold in my right hand a false god?

Some pour out gold from their bags and weigh out silver on the scales. They hire a goldsmith to make it into a god. They bow down and worship it. They lift it to their shoulders and carry it. They set it up in its place and there it stands. From that spot it cannot move. Though one cries out to it, it does not answer. It cannot save him from his troubles!

for when they knew God, they did not glorify him as God. They did not thank him and were vain in their reasoning, for their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools. They changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things.