Charles Ellicott Commentary Exodus 32

When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down. — After seven chapters of directions, which belong to the Mosaic or Levitical Law, the writer here resumes his historical narrative. Leaving Moses still on the mountain, he returns to the plain at its base in order to relate the events which had occurred there during Moses’ absence. It has been suggested that Exodus 31 was originally followed by Exodus 35, and that Exodus 32–34 form a “distinct composition,” which was subsequently inserted at this point (Cook). But this supposition is improbable.

Exodus 35 does not cohere with Exodus 31. Passing from one to the other, we would be aware of a gap which required filling up. Neither does Exodus 32 commence like an independent narrative. It rests on the fact of the long delay of Moses on Sinai, which requires Exodus 25–31 to explain it; and its mention of “the people,” and “the mount,” without further designation, implies reference to something that has gone before. Exodus 32–34 occur, really, in their natural, their proper, and, no doubt, in their original place.

The people gathered themselves together to Aaron. — Moses, before his departure, had left directions that the people, in any difficulty, should take the advice of Aaron and Hur (Exodus 24:14). It is not surprising, however, that when the difficulty arose, Aaron alone was consulted. Aaron had been a joint leader with Moses from the first (Exodus 5:1; Exodus 5:4; Exodus 5:20, etc.); Hur had only very recently been advanced to a position of authority (Exodus 17:10; Exodus 24:14). He was, at most, the Lepidus of the Triumvirate.

Up, make us gods. — Rather, make us a god. The religious condition of the Israelites during the sojourn in Egypt has been so entirely passed over in the previous narrative that this request comes upon us as a surprise and a shock. True, there have been warnings against idolatry, reiterated warnings (Exodus 20:4–5; Exodus 20:23; Exodus 23:32–33), but no tendency toward it has manifested itself; no hint has been given that it was an immediate and pressing danger. When, however, we carefully scrutinise the rest of Scripture, we find reason to believe that a leaning toward idolatry had, in fact, shown itself among the people while they were in Egypt and had even attained some considerable development. (Joshua 24:14; Ezekiel 20:8; Ezekiel 23:3).

This tendency had been checked by the series of extraordinary manifestations which had accompanied the exodus. Now, however, in the absence of Moses, in the uncertainty which prevailed about whether he still lived or not, and in the withdrawal from the camp of that Divine Presence which had until then gone before them, the idolatrous instinct once more came to the front. The cry was raised, “make us a god”—make us something to take the place of the pillar of the cloud, something visible, tangible, on which we can believe the Divine Presence to rest, and which may “go before us” and conduct us.

This Moses, the man that brought us up ... — Contemptuous words, showing how short-lived human gratitude is, and even human respect. An absence of less than six weeks, and a belief that he was dead, had sufficed to change the great deliverer into “this Moses, the man who brought us up.”

And Aaron said ... Break off the golden earrings. —It is a reasonable conjecture that Aaron thought to prevent the projected idolatry by this requirement. Not having the courage to meet the demand of the people with a direct negative, he may have aimed at diverting them from their purpose by requiring a sacrifice which they would be unwilling to make, namely, the personal ornaments of their wives and children. The women might reasonably have been expected to resist, and the men to yield before such resistance; but the event proved otherwise.

Your sons. —Earrings are worn in the East almost as much by men as by women. Most Assyrian and some Egyptian monarchs are represented with them.

All the people brake off the golden earrings.—Aaron had miscalculated the strength of the people’s fanaticism. Not the slightest resistance was offered to his requirement; not the slightest objection was made. “All the people,” with one accord, surrendered their earrings. Some measure is thus provided of the intensity of the feeling which was moving the people and urging them to substitute an idolatrous worship for the abstract and purely spiritual religion which had reigned supreme since their departure from Egypt.

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, Rosenmüller, Fürst, Knobel, Kurtz, Maurer, Schröder, Cook, etc. “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. If it had been intended to say that the image was first molten and then finished with a graving tool, the order of the two clauses would have been inverted. A similar phrase to the one used here has the sense of “bound in a bag” in 2 Kings 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 be either simultaneous with that of the previous clause or subsequent to it. 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 Joshua 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 be suspected that the emigrants from Chaldea had clung through all their wanderings to the mystic symbolism which had been elaborated in that primeval land, and which they would contrast favourably with the coarse animal worship of Egypt. In Chaldea, the bull, generally winged and human-headed, represented the combination of wisdom, strength, and omnipresence, which characterizes divinity; and this combination might well have seemed to carnal minds no unapt symbol of Jehovah.

These be thy gods. —Rather, This is your god.

Aaron ... built an altar before it. —Having once yielded to the popular cry, Aaron was carried on from one compliance to another. He caused the mold to be made for the idol, and the gold to be melted and run into it; and now he constructed, perhaps with his own hands, an altar of rough stones or turf (Exodus 20:24–25), and placed it directly in front of the Image, thus encouraging the offering of sacrifice to it.

Perhaps he flattered himself that by heading the movement he could control it, and hinder it from becoming downright apostasy from Jehovah. In his view no doubt the calf was an emblem of Jehovah, and the worship paid it was the worship of Jehovah. Hence the festival which he proclaimed was to be a feast to Jehovah. But how little able he was to guide events, or to hinder the worst evils of idolatry from speedily manifesting themselves, appears from Exodus 32:6; Exodus 32:25.