He received what they handed him, fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made it a molded calf. Then they said, “These are your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 4. Received them, “in a purse, (as Gideon did afterwards, Judges 8:25,) he made a molten calf.” Jonath.—Perhaps he engraved on it the peculiar marks of the Egyptian idol, Apis; a square white spot on the forehead, and a crescent upon the side. For it is generally believed, that this calf was designed to imitate that object of worship, to which the Hebrews had been too much accustomed. Acts 7:39, 41. Saint Jerome in Ose. iv. The Egyptians adored not only the living ox, but also its image, which they kept in their temple. Porphyr. Abst. ii. Mela. i. 8. Some of the fathers think, that the head of a calf only appeared. Saint Ambrose Lactant. and so forth The rest of the figure was perhaps human, as Osiris was represented with the head of an ox, as well as Astarte and Serapis. Monceau pretends that Aaron represented the true God, under the form of a cherub, in which he falsely asserts he had appeared on Mount Sinai, and that his fault consisted only in giving occasion of superstition to the people. But his opinion (though adopted by many Protestants, who excuse all from the guilt of idolatry, but papists. Bible.) has been condemned at Rome, and refuted by Visorius, and so forth—Thy gods, and so forth Thus spoke the infatuated ringleaders. Calmet.—And they changed their glory, the true God, into the likeness of a calf that eateth grass. Psalms 105:19.—They forgot God, who saved them, ib. (verse 21,) and forsook Him, (Deuteronomy 32:18,) to adore the calf. Worthington.