Exodus 32:32

The sin of the Golden Calf, vv.1 6; Jehovah, having told Moses that it is His intention to destroy the people in consequence, is diverted from His purpose by Moses" intercession, vv.7 14; Moses, coming down from the mount, and seeing the calf and the dancing, breaks the tables of stone, and then makes the people drink the powder of the calf, vv.15 20; Aaron's excuses, vv.21 24; the insubordination of the people punished by the sons of Levi, who are rewarded for their zeal by the priesthood, vv.25 29; Moses intercedes with Jehovah, and obtains from Him the promise that he may lead the people on to Canaan, though without His own personal presence, vv.30 34; the people plagued for their sin, v.35.

The account of some of the events narrated in this ch., given in the retrospect of Deuteronomy 9:8-29, deserves to be compared: the reader who will be at the pains to underlinein his text of Dt. the passages in vv.12 17, 21, 26 29 taken verbatimfrom Exodus 32:7-10; Exodus 32:15; Exodus 32:19-20; Exodus 32:11; Exodus 32:13; Exodus 32:12; Exodus 32:11, will find remarkable resemblances, and also some remarkable differences: in particular (vv.26 29), words taken from Exodus 32:11-13 (and also from Numbers 14:16), but referred to a different occasion(comp. the writer's Deut.pp. 10, 112 ff.).

Why, it may be asked, was the figure of a bullchosen to represent Jehovah? The same figure, it will be remembered, was chosen also by Jeroboam I, when he set up the two -calves" in Bethel and Dan (1 Kings 12:28 f., cf. 1 Kings 12:32), in order to divert the people from going up on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and told the Israelites that they were the gods who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt: and the worship of these calves continued till the fall of the N. kingdom in b.c. 722 (2 Kings 10:29; Hosea 8:5-6; Hosea 10:5; Hosea 13:2; 2 Kings 17:16). From the time of Philo on wards it has commonly been supposed that the symbolism was derived from Egypt, where the bull Apis was revered in the temple at Heliopolis as the incarnation of Osiris, and the bull Mnevis in the temple of Ptah at Memphis, as the incarnation of the sun-god (Erman, Eg. Relig.1907, p. 22; cf. Wilk.-Birch, iii. 86 95, 306 f.). There are however objections to this view. (1) The Egyptians worshipped only the livinganimals, not images of them; (2) it is unlikely that an image reflecting an Egyptian deity would have been chosen as the symbol of the national God, Jehovah, or have been represented as the deity who had delivered Israel from Egypt; (3) it is equally unlikely that Jeroboam should have sought to secure his throne by inviting his people to adopt the symbolism of a foreign cult. For these reasons most recent writers (including Di.) prefer to seek the origin of the bull-symbolism in the native beliefs either of the Israelites themselves, or of the Semitic nations allied to them. In Israel itself traces of bull-symbolism, other than that in question, are few and uncertain: not much can be built upon either the use of the term "abbîr, -mighty one," both of bulls (Psalms 50:13 al.), and (in the form "âbîr, const. "ǎbîr) of the -Mighty one of Jacob" (Genesis 49:24), or upon the oxen which supported Solomon's molten sea, or which ornamented the panels of the bases of the lavers in the Temple (1 Kings 7:25; 1 Kings 7:29). But many representations have been found of Hadad, the Syrian storm-god, with lightnings in his hand, standing upon a bull; and a bull seems often also to have been regarded as a symbol of the Phoenician Baal (see particulars in Baudissin's art. Kalb, goldenes, in Proverbs 3; Proverbs 3 [217] ix. (1901), 708 710): in Assyria, also, though nothing is known of the bull as the materialimage of a deity, the bull in the Zodiac symbolized Marduk; and the huge winged bull-colossi, with human heads, which guarded the gates of Assyrian temples, are an indication that some mythological significance was attached to the animal. Among an agricultural people, also, a young bull would be a very natural symbol of strength and vital energy (cf. Deuteronomy 33:17). These facts make it not improbable that in the popularreligion of Israel the bull may have been regarded as an emblem of divine might, and even perhaps used to represent Jehovah; and that this popular belief may have supplied the antecedents for the bull-worship which is actually mentioned in the OT., and which prevailed in the N. kingdom from the time of Jeroboam to its close in b.c. 722. The popular belief itself may have been derived from Israel's nearest neighbours, the Canaanites, or (p. 416 f.) brought by the N. tribes directly from the East.

[217] Realencyklopädie für Protestantische Theologie und Kirche, Exodus 3, edited by A. Hauck, 1896 1909.

The narrative represents Aaron as the first to suggest the worship of Jehovah under the form of a bull. This was the popular worship of the N. kingdom: it is not explicitlycondemned by Amos; but Hosea inveighs against it strongly, on account of its unspirituality, and the ease with which Jehovah's distinctive character might in consequence become obliterated, and His rites assimilated to those of Baal. The writers whose narratives stand combined in Exodus 32 stand on the side of the image-less worship of the Temple at Jerusalem: their standpoint was in principle the same as that of the Second Commandment and Hosea. In recording the condemnation of Aaron, they condemned at the same time the recognized worship of the N. kingdom. It is possible that although Jeroboam himself appointed non-Levitical priests (1 Kings 12:31) there may have been among the priests of the calves some who traced their ancestry to Aaron, and claimed him as the founder of the calf-worship in Israel. If this were the case, it would make Aaron's condemnation the more pointed. But, however that may be, the chapter remains an emphatic protest against any attempt to represent Jehovah under a material form. See further Ew. Hist.ii. 182 185; Kennedy, art. Calf, Golden Calf in DB.i.; and Baudissin as cited above.

1 6 The people, disheartened by the length of Moses" absence on the mount, induce Aaron to make them a god, who may act as their visible leader. The invisible, spiritual leadership of Jehovah is an idea to which evidently they have not risen. Cf. Acts 7:40-41.

Moses" love for his people finds here noble and pathetic expression.

if thou wilt forgive their sin For the aposiopesis, comp. Genesis 30:27; Genesis 38:17; Daniel 3:15; Luke 13:9. LXX., Sam., Ps.-Jon. supply -forgive."

and if not, blot me, &c. i.e. let me die (cf. Numbers 11:15): Moses would rather not live than that his people should remain unforgiven. The -book" which God has written is the -book of life," or -of the living" (Psalms 69:28; cf. Isaiah 4:3), i.e. the book in which the names of the living are said metaphorically to be inscribed. The figure is borrowed from the custom of keeping registers of citizens (Jeremiah 22:30, Eze Exodus 13:9). The -book" is not to be understood in the NT. sense of the expression -book of life" (Philippians 4:3; Revelation 3:5; Revelation 13:8; Revelation 17:8; Revelation 20:12; Revelation 20:15; Revelation 21:27), i.e. the register of the saints ordained to eternal life. Cf. Kirkpatrick's note on Psalms 69:28 (in the Camb. Bible).