Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Exodus 32:4
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.
4. fashioned it, &c.] the earrings having naturally been previously melted down, and cast approximately into the shape of a young bull. The image may either have been of solid gold, or, in spite of the term ‘molten’ (see Isa 30:22; and cf. Deu 7:25, Isa 40:19), have consisted of a wooden core, overlaid with gold: v. 24b though the terms used can hardly be pressed would suggest the former view, v. 20 would favour the latter.
a graving tool ] a pointed metal instrument: the word rendered ‘pen’ (i.e. a sharp metal stylus) in Isa 8:1.
calf ] The Heb. ‘gel means a young bull, just as the fem. ‘eglh (EVV. usually ‘heifer’) means a young cow; but it does not mean necessarily an animal as young as a ‘calf’: the ‘eglh for instance might be three years old (Gen 15:9), and give milk (Isa 7:21), or plough (Jdg 14:18).
These be thy gods ] Cf. almost the same words in 1Ki 12:28: in the allusion, Neh 9:18, the sing. ‘This’ is used. ‘These’ must refer to an actual plural, and is of course quite suitable in speaking of Jeroboam’s two calves; here it seems as if the narrator had used the plural for the purpose of introducing a covert polemic against the calf-worship of the N. kingdom. So v. 8.
which brought thee, &c.] They recognize in the calf, not only the god who should in the future ( v. 1) go before them, but also the god who had already led them forth out of Egypt.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 4. Fashioned it with a graving tool] There has been much controversy about the meaning of the word cheret in the text: some make it a mould, others a garment, cloth, or apron; some a purse or bag, and others a graver. It is likely that some mould was made on this occasion, that the gold when fused was cast into it, and that afterwards it was brought into form and symmetry by the action of the chisel and graver.
These be thy gods, O Israel] The whole of this is a most strange and unaccountable transaction. Was it possible that the people could have so soon lost sight of the wonderful manifestations of God upon the mount? Was it possible that Aaron could have imagined that he could make any god that could help them? And yet it does not appear that he ever remonstrated with the people! Possibly he only intended to make them some symbolical representation of the Divine power and energy, that might be as evident to them as the pillar of cloud and fire had been, and to which God might attach an always present energy and influence; or in requiring them to sacrifice their ornaments, he might have supposed they would have desisted from urging their request: but all this is mere conjecture, with very little probability to support it. It must however be granted that Aaron does not appear to have even designed a worship that should supersede the worship of the Most High; hence we find him making proclamation, To-morrow is a feast to the LORD, (); and we find farther that some of the proper rites of the true worship were observed on this occasion, for they brought burnt-offerings and peace-offerings, Ex 32:6-7: hence it is evident he intended that the true God should be the object of their worship, though he permitted and even encouraged them to offer this worship through an idolatrous medium, the molten calf. It has been supposed that this was an exact resemblance of the famous Egyptian god Apis who was worshipped under the form of an ox, which worship the Israelites no doubt saw often practised in Egypt. Some however think that this worship of Apis was not then established; but we have already had sufficient proof that different animals were sacred among the Egyptians, nor have we any account of any worship in Egypt earlier than that offered to Apis, under the figure of an OX.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
A molten calf: the meaning of this translation is, that Aaron, to wit, by artificers, did first melt the god into one mass, and then by the graving-tool form it into the shape of a calf, and polish it; or as others render the words, he
formed it in a type or mould, made in the shape of a calf, into which he cast the molten gold, and so made it a molten calf. But the words may be translated thus, He put it, or them, into a purse; for so the Hebrew verb and noun are both used, 2Ki 5:23; and in like manner Gideon disposed the earrings given him for the like use, Jdg 8:24; and afterwards he made of them a molten calf. Now the people desired, and Aaron in compliance with them made this in the form of a
calf, or an ox, (for the word signifies both,) in imitation of the Egyptians, as Philo the Jew expressly affirms, and the learned generally agree; and it may thus appear:
1. The great idols of the Egyptians, Apis, Seraphis, and Isis, were oxen and cows, as is confessed.
2. The Egyptians, besides the creatures which they adored as gods, did also make, and keep, and worship their images, as even the heathen writers, Mela and Strabo, affirm.
3. The Israelites, whilst they were in Egypt, were many of them infected with the Egyptian idolatry, as it appears from Jos 24:14; Eze 20:7,8; 23:3; Act 7:39. And it is not unlikely divers of them hankered no less after the idols, than after the garlic and onions of Egypt. And being now, as they thought, forsaken by Moses, they might think of returning to Egypt, as afterwards they did, and therefore chose a god of the Egyptian mode, that they might more willingly receive them again.
These be thy gods, i.e. this is thy god, the plural number being put for the singular, as it is usual in this case. The meaning is, This is the sign, or symbol, or image of thy god; for such expressions are very frequent: thus this image of a calf is called a calf frequently, and the images of the temple of Diana are called shrines or little temples, Ac 19. So they intended to worship the true God by this image, as afterwards Jeroboam did by the same image, as we shall plainly see when we come to that place of Scripture. And it is absolutely incredible that the generality of the Israelites should be so void of all sense and reason, as to think that this new-made calf did bring them out Egypt before its own creation, and that this was the same Jehovah who had even now spoken to them from heaven with an audible voice, saying, I am the Lord thy God who brought thee out of the land of Egypt.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
4. fashioned it with a graving tool,after he had made it a molten calfThe words are transposed,and the rendering should be, “he framed with a graving tool theimage to be made, and having poured the liquid gold into the mould,he made it a molten calf.” It is not said whether it was of lifesize, whether it was of solid gold or merely a wooden frame coveredwith plates of gold. This idol seems to have been the god Apis, thechief deity of the Egyptians, worshipped at Memphis under the form ofa live ox, three years old. It was distinguished by a triangularwhite spot on its forehead and other peculiar marks. Images of it inthe form of a whole ox, or of a calf’s head on the end of a pole,were very common; and it makes a great figure on the monuments whereit is represented in the van of all processions, as borne aloft onmen’s shoulders.
they said, These be thy gods,O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of EgyptIt isinconceivable that they, who but a few weeks before had witnessedsuch amazing demonstrations of the true God, could have suddenly sunkto such a pitch of infatuation and brutish stupidity, as to imaginethat human art or hands could make a god that should go before them.But it must be borne in mind, that though by election and in namethey were the people of God, they were as yet, in feelings andassociations, in habits and tastes, little, if at all different, fromEgyptians. They meant the calf to be an image, a visible sign orsymbol of Jehovah, so that their sin consisted not in a breach of theFIRST [Ex20:3], but of the SECONDcommandment [Ex 20:4-6].
Fuente: Jamieson, Fausset and Brown’s Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
And he received [them] at their hand,…. For the use they delivered them to him:
and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf; that is, after he had melted the gold, and cast it into a mould, which gave it the figure of a calf, and with his tool wrought it into a more agreeable form, he took off the roughness of it, and polished it; or if it was in imitation of the Egyptian Apis or Osiris, he might with his graving tool engrave such marks and figures as were upon that; to cause the greater resemblance, so Selden y thinks;
see Gill “Jer 46:20” or else the sense may be, that he drew the figure of a calf with his tool, or made it in “a mould” z, into which he poured in the melted gold,
and made it a molten calf; the Targum of Jonathan gives another sense of the former clause, “he bound it up in a napkin”; in a linen cloth or bag, i.e. the gold of the ear rings, and then put it into the melting pot, and so cast it into a mould, and made a calf of it. Jarchi takes notice of this sense, and it is espoused by Bochart a, who produces two passages of Scripture for the confirmation of it, Jud 8:24 and illustrates it by Isa 46:6. What inclined Aaron to make it in the form of a calf, is not easy to say; whether in imitation of the cherubim, one of the faces of which was that of an ox, as Moncaeus thought; or whether in imitation of the Osiris of the Egyptians, who was worshipped in a living ox, and sometimes in the image of one, even a golden one. Plutarch is express for it, and says b, that the ox was an image of Osiris, and that it was a golden one; and so says Philo the Jew c, the Israelites, emulous of Egyptian figments, made a golden ox; or whether he did this to make them ashamed of their idolatry, thinking they would never be guilty of worshipping the form of an ox eating grass, or because an ox was an emblem of power and majesty:
and they said, these be thy gods, O Israel, [which brought] thee up out of the land of Egypt; they own they were, brought up out of that land by the divine Being; and they could not be so stupid as to believe, that this calf, which was only a mass of gold, figured and decorated, was inanimate, had no life nor breath, and was just made, after their coming out of Egypt, was what brought them from hence; but that this was a representation of God, who had done this for them; yet some Jewish writers are so foolish as to suppose, that through art it had the breath of life in it, and came out of the mould a living calf, Satan, or Samael, entering into it, and lowed in it d.
y De Diis Syris Syntagm. 1. c. 4. p. 138. z “formavit illud modulo”, Piscator; so some in Ben Melech, and in Vatablus; and so the Vulgate Latin, “formant opere fusorio”; see Fagius in loc. a Hierozoic. p. 1. l. 2. c. 39. col. 334, 335. b De Isid. & Osir. c De Vita Mosis, l. 3. p. 677. d Pirke Eliezer, c. 45.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
4. And he received them at their hand. He briefly narrates this base and shameful deed; yet sufficiently shows, that whilst Aaron yielded to their madness, he still desired to cure it, though, at the same time, he was weak and frightened, so as to pretend to give his assent, because he feared the consequences of the tumult as regarded himself. For why does he not command the ear-rings to be thrown into some chest, lest he should pollute himself by the contagion of the sacrilege? Since, therefore, he received them into his own hands, it was a sign of a servile and effeminate mind; and thus he is said to have been the founder, or sculptor of the calf, when it is nevertheless probable that workmen were employed upon it. But the infamy of the crime is justly brought upon him, inasmuch as he was its main author, and by his guilt betrayed the religion and honor of God.
The Hebrew word (329) חרט, cheret, some translate a stylus or graving-tool, some a mould; the former think that the rough mass was formed by sculpture into the shape of a calf; the latter, that the calf was cast or founded; as we say, jetter en mousle, to cast in a mould. Ridiculous, however, is the fable, that when the gold was thrown into a furnace, it came forth like a calf without human workmanship; but thus licentiously do the Jews trifle with their fond inventions. The more probable conjecture is, that Aaron designedly sought a remedy for the people’s folly.
It was a disgraceful thing to prostrate themselves before a calf, in which there was no connection or affinity with the glory of God; and with this the Prophet expressly reproaches them, that “they changed their glory ( i. e. , God, in whom alone they should have gloried) into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass.” (Psa 106:20.) For, if it be insulting to God to force Him into the likeness of men, with how much greater and more inexcusable ignominy is His majesty defiled, when He is compared to brute animals? Still it had no effect towards bringing them to repentance; and this is expressed with much force immediately afterwards, when they said to each other, “These be thy gods, O Israel.” Surely the hideousness of the spectacle should have struck them with horror, so as to induce them voluntarily to condemn their own madness; but, on the contrary, they mutually exhort one another to obstinacy; for there is no doubt but that Moses indicates that they were like fans to each other, and thus that their frenzy was reciprocally excited. For, as Isaiah and Micah exhort believers, that each of them should stretch out his hand to his brother, and that they should say to each other,
“
Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord;” (Isa 2:3; Mic 4:2😉
thus does perverse rivalry provoke unbelievers mutually to excite each other to progress in sin. Still they neither speak ironically nor in mockery of God, nor have any intention of falling away from Him; but they cover their sin against Him under a deceitful pretext, as if they denied that by their new and unwonted mode of worship, they desired to detract from the honor of their Redeemer; but rather that it was thus magnified because they worshipped Himself under a visible image. Thus now-a-days do the Papists boldly obtrude their fictitious rites upon God; and boast that they do more for Him by their additions and inventions than as if they merely continued within the bounds prescribed by Himself. But let us learn from this passage, that whatever colouring superstition may give to its idols, and by whatever titles it may dignify them, they remain idols still; for, however those who corrupt the pure worship of God by their inventions, may pride themselves on their good intentions, they still deny the true God, and substitute devils in His place.
Their conjecture is probable who suppose that, Aaron devised the calf in accordance with Egyptian superstition; for it is well known with what senseless worship that nation honored its god (330) Anubis. It is true that they kept (331) a live bull to be consulted as the supreme god; but, inasmuch as the people were accustomed to this fictitious deity, Aaron seems in obedience to their madness to have followed that old custom, from whence they had contracted the error, which was so deeply rooted in their hearts. Thus from bad examples does contagion easily creep into the hearts of those who were else untainted; nor is it without good reason that David protests that idols should be held in such abomination by him, that he would not even “take up their names into his lips,” (Psa 16:4😉 for, unless we seriously abhor the ungodly, and withdraw ourselves as far as possible from their superstitions, they straightway infect us by their pestilential influence.
(329) Professor Robinson says a graving tool; but more properly to be rendered a bag here. C. alludes to what S. M. tells us, that the Rabbins, wishing to excuse their forefathers, said that there came forth a calf, not wrought by any workmen, but produced by the magical arts, which some of the Egyptians, mixed with the people, now employed to introduce idolatry. — W. Lightfoot has a characteristic note on this: “Expositors cannot tell what to say of their intent, for they cannot think they were such calves, (as to turn the glory of God into a calf,) and yet what else can we say? Jonathan saith, ‘The devil got into the metal, and fashioned it into a calf.’ The devil, indeed, was too much there; but it was in their fancies more than in the metal.” Explan. of divers difficult passages of Scripture. Decad, 1. 4. He elsewhere also refers to the probability, stated below by C. , that the idol was made after an Egyptian pattern: “Israel cannot be so long without Moses, as Moses can be without meat. The fire still burneth on the top of Mount Sinai, out of which they had so lately received the Law; and yet so suddenly do they break the greatest commandment of that Law to extremity; — of Egyptian jewels they make an Egyptian idol, because, thinking Moses had been lost, they intended to return for Egypt.” — A handful of gleanings out of Exod., sect. 32.
(330) This appears to have been either a slip of the pen, or of the memory. It was not Anubis, but Osiris, “who was worshipped under the form of Apis, the Sacred Bull of Memphis, or as a human figure with a bull’s head, accompanied by the name Apis. Osiris.” — See Sir Gardner Wilkinson’s “Ancient Egyptians,” vol. 4, p. 347; 3d edition.
(331) It is a strange notion of R. Salomon Jarchi, that the molten calf was alive; because it is said in Psa 106:20, that it was the “similitude of an ox that eateth grass.” See also Breithaupt’s note in loco.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(4) And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool.Rather, and he received it (i.e., the gold) at their hand, and bound it in a bag. So Gesenius, Rosenmller, Frst, Knobel, Kurtz, Maurer, Serder, Cook, &c. Fashioned it with a graving tool is a possible rendering of the Hebrew words, but will not suit here, since the next clause tells us that the image was a molten one, and if it had been intended to say that the image was first molten and then finished with a graving too!, the order of the two clauses would have been inverted. A similar phrase to that here used has the sense of bound in a bag in 2Ki. 5:23.
After he had made it a molten calf.This is a quite impossible rendering. The original gives and, not after. The action of this clause must either be simultaneous with that of the last or subsequent. Translate, and made it into a molten calf.
A molten calf.It has been usual to regard the selection of the calf form for the image as due to Egyptian influences. But the Egyptian calf-worship, or, rather, bull-worship, was not a worship of images, but of living animals. A sacred bull, called Apis, was worshipped at Memphis, and another, called Mnevis, at Heliopolis, both being regarded as actual incarnate deities. Had Egyptian ideas been in the ascendant, it would have been natural to select a living bull, which might have gone before the people literally. The molten calf, which had no very exact counterpart in Egypt, perhaps points back to an older idolatry, such as is glanced at in Jos. 24:14, where the Israelites are warned to put away the gods which their fathers served on the other side of the flood, i.e., of the Euphrates. Certainly the bull form was more distinctive of the Babylonian and Assyrian than of the Egyptian worship, and it may he suspected that the emigrants from Chalda had clung through all their wanderings to the mystic symbolism which had been elaborated in that primval land, and which they would contrast favourably with the coarse animal worship of Egypt. In Chalda, the bull, generally winged and human-headed, represented the combination of wisdom, strength, and omnipresence, which characterises divinity; and this combination might well have seemed to carnal minds no unapt symbol of Jehovah.
These be thy gods.Rather, This is thy god.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
4. Fashioned it with a graving tool This is the most natural import of the unpointed Hebrew text, but seems hardly in harmony with the next statement, which is not correctly translated after he had made it, but, simply, and he made it a molten calf . It is manifestly incongruous to speak of forming a molten calf with a graving tool . Hence many critics propose to read , a money bag, or purse, instead of , here translated graving tool, which occurs elsewhere only at Isa 8:1, and there means a pen, or stylus . The statement would then be: And he received (the earrings) from their hand, and collected ( , from , to bind or collect together in one mass) it (the gold) in a bag, and made it a molten calf . It is no valid objection to this view to ask, with Keil, “Why should Aaron first bind up the golden earrings in a bag?” For it may with equal force be answered, Why should he not? What better or more appropriate way of receiving and retaining the large amount of gold until it was converted into the golden idol? This, on the whole, is more satisfactory than the view which supplies in thought a wooden mould or model after the word fashioned, for such an idea would have required some clearer form of statement; more satisfactory, also, than to assume that the molten calf was cast over a carved image of wood, or that it was finished up by means of a graver’s tool after it had been cast . On this last supposition, the graver’s work should have been mentioned after, not before, the fusion of the golden ornaments .
According to Jos 24:14; Eze 20:7-8; Eze 23:3; Eze 23:8, Israel had been contaminated with Egyptian idolatry, and the most natural explanation of the construction of this image in the form of a calf is, that it was modelled after the form of Apis, the sacred bull which was worshipped at Memphis. See note and cut at Exo 8:26, page 406 . It is hardly credible that during their long sojourn in Egypt the leading men of Israel had not become familiar with the worship of the sacred bull. But it is to be noticed that they did not worship the golden idol as an Egyptian god, but exclaimed before it, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. The plural here, as in Exo 32:1, does not oblige us to translate and explain the words in a polytheistic sense. The next verse shows that they worshipped Jehovah under the symbol of a calf, and so violated the second rather than the first commandment of the decalogue. See notes on Exo 20:4-5. Exo 32:8 of this chapter shows that they did not thus ignorantly worship, but knew that they were violating one of the commandments.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
Exo 32:4. And he received them, &c. And he received it at their hand, and tied it in a bag: (Bochart.) Or, cast it into a mould, and made of it a molten calf. See 2Ki 5:23. Jdg 8:24-25. Either of the translations given above may be very well justified, and wholly remove the objection which some have raised from our version. Houbigant renders it, “Aaron reduced to form the gold received at their hands, and made it a molten calf.” See Psa 106:20. It is very common in Scripture to call the sign by the name of the thing signified; so this image of a calf is called a calf. Soon as the people saw this emblem before them, they cry out, These are thy Elohim, O Israel, who brought thee up out of the land of Egypt; that is, “this is the visible representation, the symbol, or image of that God who brought thee,” &c. Sensible of whose power, and of the wonders he had wrought for their sake, they thought themselves safe, under his auspices, from any future injury among, the Egyptians; nay, and probably imagined, that, returning to Egypt, they should become entire masters of the country, now that Pharaoh and his host were destroyed in the Red-sea. In Num 14:4 we read, that they had then the same inclination to return; let us choose a captain, said they, and let us return into Egypt: see Neh 9:17 and in this view it is manifest, that a learned writer’s conjecture cannot be right, who supposes that “they chose a calf, as being the object of adoration in Egypt; and as an Egyptian god to go before them, as a kind of atoner and reconciler:” (see Divine Legation, vol. 2: b. 4: sect. 5.) So far from this, they say expressly of this calf, that it was not an Egyptian god, but the Elohim, the god which brought them up out of Egypt: and, in the next verse, when a solemn feast to this god is kept, it is expressly called a feast to JEHOVAH; so that there can be no question that this calf was designed as a symbol of Jehovah, that God who brought them up out of Egypt. In forming this symbol or image, and worshipping it, they were guilty of direct disobedience to the second commandment, worshipping the true God in a false manner; and that they did so, is still further evident from the words of St. Stephen, Act 7:42 who tells us, that in consequence of their making and worshipping this idol-calf, God turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven, the sun, moon, and stars; which being the first and most ancient objects of false worship, it is plain that the calf could not be a representative of these, since the Israelites were given up to the worship of them in consequence of, and as a punishment for, their worshipping the calf. From whence we gather, that this calf could not possibly have been formed in imitation of the Egyptian Osiris, since it is beyond all dispute that Osiris was no other than the sun; and it would perhaps be no easy matter to prove, that the ox was held sacred to Osiris so early as this period: neither could it have been representative of Apis, which was no other than an emblem of the Nile. Indeed, from what we have just observed, it is clear, that this calf, which they served as a symbol of the God who brought them out of Egypt, could not be made in imitation of any Egyptian gods, upon all of which the Jehovah of the Hebrews had exercised fearful judgments. (See Jablonski de diis Egypt. lib. 2: cap. 1 lib. 4: cap. 2.)
What, then, it may be asked, could have induced the Israelites to make choice of a calf, or young ox, to represent Jehovah? Some, who believe that the cherubim were known from the beginning, imagine that the idea was derived from thence; the ox’s head there, according to them, being a symbol of Jehovah. See Eze 7:10. Joseph Mede’s works, p. 567. Archbishop Tennison of Idolatry, ch. 6 and on our note on ch. Exo 25:18. A very learned person of Frankfort upon Oder, whose opinion Jablonski produces in his Pantheon, endeavours largely to prove, that the first sacrifice, after the fall of man, was a young bullock, emblematical of the sacrifice of Christ, as a young bullock was sacrificed for the consecration of the high-priest; (ch. Exo 29:1.) and from hence derives the original of this idolatry. But the best arguments that can be adduced on this point must be full of conjecture.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
Exo 32:4 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.
Ver. 4. A molten calf. ] In imitation of the Egyptian idol Apis, a pied-bull. A man may pass through Ethiopia unchanged; but he cannot dwell there, and not be discoloured. How oft, alas, have we abused God’s mercy; taking his jewels, and making a golden calf of them!
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
calf. The chief Egyptian god, with which they were familiar in Egypt.
These be thy gods. Expounded in Neh 9:18 as meaning “This is thy god”. Compare Psa 106:19-2.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
fashioned: Exo 20:23, Deu 9:16, Psa 106:19-21, Isa 44:9, Isa 44:10, Isa 46:6, Act 7:41, Act 17:29
a graving: Exo 28:9, Exo 28:11
calf: 1Ki 12:28, 1Ki 12:32, 2Ki 10:29, 2Ch 11:15, 2Ch 13:8, Hos 8:4, Hos 8:5, Hos 10:5, Hos 13:2
These: Exo 32:8, Jdg 17:3, Jdg 17:4, Neh 9:18, Isa 40:18, Isa 40:19, Rom 1:21-23
which brought: Exo 32:1, Exo 32:8, Exo 20:2
Reciprocal: Exo 32:5 – a feast Exo 32:19 – he saw Exo 32:24 – So they Lev 19:4 – molten gods 2Ki 17:16 – molten images Isa 42:17 – say to Isa 44:12 – The smith Eze 16:26 – with the Eze 20:8 – they did Eze 23:8 – whoredoms Dan 3:2 – sent
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Exo 32:4. He made it a molten calf He melted it down, and, having a mould prepared, poured the melted gold into it, and then produced it in the shape of an ox or calf giving it some finishing strokes with a graving tool. They made a calf, says David, in Horeb, and worshipped the molten image: they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass. It is probable that the origin of this idolatry was from Egypt. The Scriptures inform us that the Israelites in Egypt imitated the Egyptian superstitions, Jos 24:14; Eze 20:7-8. Now that the Egyptians worshipped animals as early as these days, appears from Exo 8:26. An ox or calf in particular was their great idol. So that we may with certainty conclude, notwithstanding what some late commentators have alleged, that Aaron, in compliance with the prejudices of the people, made this calf after the model of what the Israelites had seen in Egypt, consecrating it to Jehovah as the Egyptians had consecrated similar symbols to their principal deity Osiris. Aarons compliance with the popular clamour was, undoubtedly, highly criminal: he ought to have opposed them with all his might, nay, he ought rather to have suffered death than to have yielded to their will in any degree. Accordingly, we find it recorded, (Deu 9:20,) that the Lord was very angry with him to have destroyed him, but that Moses prayed for him. They said, These be thy gods Or as Nehemiah expresses, (Neh 9:18,) This is thy God; that is, This is the image or symbol of thy God; who brought thee out of Egypt For they intended to worship the true God, by this image, as afterward Jeroboam did by the same image, it being incredible that the generality of the Israelites should be so void of all sense and reason, as to think that this new-made calf brought them out of Egypt, even before its own creation, and that this was the same Jehovah that had so lately spoken to them from heaven with an audible voice, saying, I am the Lord thy God who brought thee out of the land of Egypt.
Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
32:4 And he received [them] at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a {d} molten calf: and they said, These [be] thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.
(d) They remembered the sins of Egypt, where they saw calves, oxen and serpents worshipped.