The Bible Book

84

THEY HAVE MADE

FOR THEMSELVES

A GOLDEN CALF AND

HAVE WORSHIPPED IT

EXODUS 32:8, THE GOLDEN CALF

I

t is remarkable that the

Israelites’ fall into idolatry

ever took place at all. Moses

had only just received God’s Ten

Commandments, in which it was

made clear that the Israelites were

to worship only one God, and that

idolatry was forbidden. Speaking

through Moses, God had warned

of dire consequences should the

Israelites break these laws.

Yet, just 40 days after Moses

had left his people to continue his

meeting with God on Mount Sinai,

the Israelites fall into sin by

deciding to worship a golden calf,

an idol that Aaron, the high priest

and Moses’s brother, had forged for

them out of the jewelry and other

gold trinkets they had brought with

them from Egypt.

Israelite intentions

The reasons why the Israelites are

quick to forget—or deliberately

break—the commandments are not

made clear. All that is said is that

they believed Moses’s failure to

return to them meant that he had

died. Three traditional explanations

The Israelites celebrate a bull-calf

idol in this painting by Filippino Lippi,

c.1500. The golden calf Aaron makes

is thought to be an image of the

Egyptian bull god Apis.

IN BRIEF

PA S SAGE

Exodus 32

THEME

Idolatry

SETTING

14th–13th century bce Six

weeks after Moses received

the Ten Commandments,

near Mount Sinai.

KEY FIGURES

The Israelites Descendants

of the patriarch Jacob.

Aaron Moses’s brother and

the first high priest of the

Israelites. He is left in charge

while Moses goes to talk to

God atop Mount Sinai.

Moses Leader of the Israelites,

and their communicator

with God.

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