Exodus 32:20
took ... calf <05695 03947> [took the calf.]
How truly contemptible must the object of their idolatry appear, when they were obliged to drink their god, reduced to powder, and strewed on the water! Some have asked, how gold, the most ductile and ponderous of all metals, could have been stamped into dust, and strewed on the water. In De 9:21, this is fully explained. I took, says Moses, your sin, the calf which ye had made, and burnt it with fire; that is, melted it down, probably into ingots or gross plates, and stamped it, beat it into thin lamin‘, something like our gold leaf, and ground it very small, even until it was as small as dust, which might be very easily done by the action of the hands, when beat into thin plates or leaves as the original words {ekkoth,} and {dak,} imply.
Israelites <01121> [made the.]
Deuteronomy 7:25
images <06456> [graven.]
covet <02530> [thou shalt.]
ensnared <03369> [snared.]
abhorrent <08441> [an abomination.]
Deuteronomy 9:21
took <03947> [I took.]
stream <05158> [the brook.]
This was the stream which flowed from the rock that Moses smote with his rod, (Ex 17:6,) and to which the Psalmist alludes in Ps 78:16-20; 105:41. Philo relates, that upon Moses' striking the rock, the water poured out like a torrent, affording not only a sufficient quantity for allaying their present thirst, but to fill their water vessels, to carry with them on their journey.
