Exodus 32:24

32:24 So I said to them, ‘Whoever has gold, break it off.’ So they gave it ¹  to me, and I threw it into the fire, and this calf came out.” ² 

Exodus 32:35

32:35 And the Lord sent a plague on the people because they had made the calf ³  – the one Aaron made. ⁴ 

Exodus 32:4

32:4 He accepted the gold ⁵  from them, ⁶  fashioned ⁷  it with an engraving tool, and made a molten calf. ⁸  Then they said, “These are your gods, ⁹  O Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.”

Exodus 32:8

32:8 They have quickly turned aside ¹⁰  from the way that I commanded them – they have made for themselves a molten calf and have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, which brought you up from the land of Egypt.’”

Exodus 32:19-20

32:19 When he approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses became extremely angry. ¹¹  He threw the tablets from his hands and broke them to pieces at the bottom of the mountain. ¹²  32:20 He took the calf they had made and burned it in the fire, ground it ¹³  to powder, poured it out on the water, and made the Israelites drink it. ¹⁴ 

[32:24]  ¹ tn Here “it” has been supplied.

[32:24]  ² sn Aaron first tried to blame the people, and then he tried to make it sound like a miracle – was it to sound like one of the plagues where out of the furnace came life? This text does not mention it, but Deut 9:20 tells how angry God was with Aaron. Only intercession saved his life.

[32:35]  ³ tn The verse is difficult because of the double reference to the making of the calf. The NJPS’s translation tries to reconcile the two by reading “for what they did with the calf that Aaron had made.” B. S. Childs (Exodus [OTL], 557) explains in some detail why this is not a good translation based on syntactical grounds; he opts for the conclusion that the last three words are a clumsy secondary addition. It seems preferable to take the view that both are true, Aaron is singled out for his obvious lead in the sin, but the people sinned by instigating the whole thing.

[32:35]  ⁴ sn Most commentators have difficulty with this verse. W. C. Kaiser says the strict chronology is not always kept, and so the plague here may very well refer to the killing of the three thousand (“Exodus,” EBC 2:481).

[32:4]  ⁵ tn Here “the gold” has been supplied.

[32:4]  ⁶ tn Heb “from their hand.”

[32:4]  ⁷ tn The verb looks similar to יָצַר (yatsar), “to form, fashion” by a plan or a design. That is the verb used in Gen 2:7 for Yahweh God forming the man from the dust of the ground. If it is here, it is the reverse, a human – the dust of the ground – trying to form a god or gods. The active participle of this verb in Hebrew is “the potter.” A related noun is the word יֵצֶּר (yetser), “evil inclination,” the wicked designs or intent of the human heart (Gen 6:5). But see the discussion by B. S. Childs (Exodus [OTL], 555-56) on a different reading, one that links the root to a hollow verb meaning “to cast out of metal” (as in 1 Kgs 7:15).

[32:4]  ⁸ sn The word means a “young bull” and need not be translated as “calf” (although “calf” has become the traditional rendering in English). The word could describe an animal three years old. Aaron probably made an inner structure of wood and then, after melting down the gold, plated it. The verb “molten” does not need to imply that the image was solid gold; the word is used in Isa 30:22 for gold plating. So it was a young bull calf that was overlaid with gold, and the gold was fashioned with the stylus.

[32:4]  ⁹ tn The word could be singular here and earlier; here it would then be “this is your god, O Israel.” However, the use of “these” indicates more than one god was meant by the image. But their statement and their statue, although they do not use the holy name, violate the first two commandments.

[32:8]  ⁷ tn The verb is a perfect tense, reflecting the present perfect nuance: “they have turned aside” and are still disobedient. But the verb is modified with the adverb “quickly” (actually a Piel infinitive absolute). It has been only a matter of weeks since they heard the voice of God prohibiting this.

[32:19]  ⁹ tn Heb “and the anger of Moses burned hot.”

[32:19]  ¹⁰ sn See N. M. Waldham, “The Breaking of the Tablets,” Judaism 27 (1978): 442-47.

[32:20]  ¹¹ tn Here “it” has been supplied.

[32:20]  ¹² tn Here “it” has been supplied.