Exodus 32:2

Earrings] RV 'rings.' Taken by itself the word may mean either earrings or nose-rings. Here the former are expressly intended, but in Exodus 35:22 both may be included. Among Eastern peoples earrings were formerly worn both by men and women ('your sons' here; cp. Judges 8:24), not only as ornaments but as amulets or charms. In modern times men have discontinued the use of earrings, and nose-rings are worn only by the Bedouin women.

4 After he had made it] read with RV, 'and made it.' The calf was really a bullock. It is usually supposed that the symbol was derived from the worship of the Egyptians. But it was a living bull, not an image, that was worshipped in Egypt. More probably, therefore, the symbol was connected with the worship of the Chaldeans and Assyrians, of which some traces may have survived among the descendants of Abraham. A common image with the Assyrians is that of a bull with wings and a human head, emblematic of strength and wisdom. See on the cherubim, Exodus 25:18, also 1 Kings 12:28.