Lucas van Leyden, Triptych with the Adoration of the Golden Calf, about 1530. Public domain.
Exodus 32 to 34 · Doctrine · Featured Study
The Golden Calf: Covenant Made, Broken, Remade
Exodus 32 to 34 record the first breach of the Sinai covenant, the intercession of Moses, and the renewal of the covenant on new tablets.
Israel broke the covenant before Moses had carried it down the mountain, and God renewed it on His own word.
Now when the people saw that Moses was delayed in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him!”
- First taught
- Exodus 32:4 “He took the gold from their hands, and…”
- Fullest statement
- Exodus 32:1 to 14 “Now when the people saw that Moses was…”
Israel broke the covenant before Moses had carried it down the mountain, and God renewed it on His own word.
Summary
While Moses was on Mount Sinai receiving the pattern of the tabernacle, the people asked Aaron for gods, and he made a molten calf from their gold earrings.
- Moses broke the tablets at the foot of the mountain and burned the calf, and about three thousand of the people fell that day.
- Moses pleaded for the people four times, on the ground of God's people, God's name and God's oath, and last by offering himself.
- God proclaimed His Name to Moses in Exodus 34:6 to 7, and later books quote that sentence as prayer, praise and warning.
- The covenant was renewed on new tablets, and Exodus ends with the glory of the LORD filling the tabernacle.
The Calf at the Foot of the Mountain
The people turn to Aaron while Moses is still on the mountain with the tablets.
Now when the people saw that Moses was delayed in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him!”The people ask for gods to go before them, the work the LORD had done in the pillar of cloud since Exodus 13:21.
He took the gold from their hands, and with an engraving tool he fashioned it into a molten calf. And they said, “These, O Israel, are your gods, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”The calf is credited with the words God used of Himself at the giving of the law in Exodus 20:2.
He took the gold from their hands, and with an engraving tool he fashioned it into a molten calf. And they said, “These, O Israel, are your gods, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”The calf is credited with the words God used of Himself at the giving of the law in Exodus 20:2.
The days of Exodus 24 to 34 on one line9 events
Two stays of forty days on the mountain frame the breach, and the second is a fast.
- Exodus 24:18Moses goes up into the cloud on the mountainforty days and forty nightsExodus 24:18
- Exodus 32:1The people gather around Aaron and ask for godswhile Moses is delayedExodus 32:1
- Exodus 32:6Burnt offerings and a feast before the calfthe next dayExodus 32:6
- Exodus 32:19 to 20The tablets broken and the calf burned and ground to powderthe day Moses comes downExodus 32:19 to 20
- Exodus 32:28About three thousand of the people fallthat dayExodus 32:28
- Exodus 32:30Moses goes up again to seek atonementthe next dayExodus 32:30
- Exodus 34:4Moses climbs Sinai with two new stone tabletsearly in the morningExodus 34:4
- Exodus 34:28Moses with the LORD without bread or waterforty days and forty nightsExodus 34:28
- Exodus 34:29Moses comes down with the tablets and a radiant faceat the end of the second forty daysExodus 34:29
Each row gives the text, the event and the time the text gives for it.
Exodus 34:4, Exodus 34:28, Exodus 34:29
Made, Broken and Remade
The covenant is followed from Exodus 24 to Exodus 40, first text by text and then part by part.
The covenant is made in blood, broken at the calf, and remade on God's own word.
1Made
- What the text gives
- This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you
- Text
- Exodus 24:8
- What the text gives
- So the LORD relented from the calamity He had threatened
- Text
- Exodus 32:14
- What the text gives
- The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God
- Text
- Exodus 32:16
- What the text gives
- threw the tablets out of his hands, shattering them at the base of the mountain
- Text
- Exodus 32:19
- What the text gives
- My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest
- Text
- Exodus 33:14
- What the text gives
- Chisel out two stone tablets like the originals, and I will write on them the words
- Text
- Exodus 34:1
- What the text gives
- the LORD descended in a cloud, stood with him there, and proclaimed His name, the LORD
- Text
- Exodus 34:5
- What the text gives
- Moses was unable to enter the Tent of Meeting because the cloud had settled on it
- Text
- Exodus 40:35
Each step gives the Berean words of its text, in the order of the book.
The Name proclaimed, The glory dwells
Each part of the covenant that breaks in Exodus 32 is restored in Exodus 34, and none comes back quite the same.
| State | The people's word | Moses on the mountain | The gold | The glory |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Made | All that the LORD has spoken we will do (Exodus 24:7) | Come up to Me on the mountain and stay here, so that I may give you the tablets of stone (Exodus 24:12) | an offering from every man whose heart compels him (Exodus 25:2) | like a consuming fire on the mountaintop (Exodus 24:17) |
| Broken | How quickly they have turned aside from the way that I commanded them! (Exodus 32:8) | he comes down to the sound of singing (Exodus 32:18) | the gold earrings made into a calf (Exodus 32:2 to 4) | I will not go with you (Exodus 33:3) |
| Remade | God makes the covenant, and no promise is asked of the people first (Exodus 34:10) | Write down these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant (Exodus 34:27) | so much given that the people are restrained from bringing more (Exodus 36:6 to 7) | the face of Moses radiant from speaking with the LORD (Exodus 34:29) |
Standing in the Breach
Moses prays four times for the people in Exodus 32, and in Exodus 33 he asks for the Presence and for the glory.
Three appeals rest on God's people, His name and His oath, and the fourth offers Moses himself.
| Moses asks | The ground of the appeal |
|---|---|
| Why does Your anger burn against Your people? (Exodus 32:11) | God's own people, whom He brought out of the land of Egypt with great power. |
| Why should the Egyptians declare, He brought them out with evil intent? (Exodus 32:12) | God's name among the nations, since Egypt will judge Him by what He does to Israel. |
| Remember Your servants Abraham, Isaac, and Israel (Exodus 32:13) | The oath God swore by His very self, with no greater name to swear by. |
| If not, please blot me out of the book that You have written (Exodus 32:32) | His own life, offered where his sentence breaks off, and refused in Exodus 32:33. |
Moses never pleads Israel's merit and never makes the sin smaller than it was. The first appeal turns on a single pronoun, since the people God gave to Moses in Exodus 32:7 are given back to God in Exodus 32:11.
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, in their Commentary Critical and Explanatory, set the willingness of Moses to die for the people beside Christ, who did die for His people (Romans 5:8).
Psalm 106:23 remembers the scene in one line: God would have destroyed them, had not Moses His chosen one stood before Him in the breach.
Perhaps I can make atonement, Exodus 32:301 passage
The next day Moses said to the people, “You have committed a great sin. Now I will go up to the LORD; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.” So Moses returned to the LORD and said, “Oh, what a great sin these people have committed! They have made gods of gold for themselves.Here the prayer turns from holding back wrath to seeking a covering for the guilt.
The verb Moses uses is the one the mercy seat of Exodus 25:17 is named from. He attempts the atonement and cannot complete it, since no man can cover the idolatry of another.
If Your Presence does not go with us, Exodus 33:152 passages
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Leave this place, you and the people you brought up out of the land of Egypt, and go to the land that I promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob when I said, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’ And I will send an angel before you, and I will drive out the Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites.The offer of the land and an angel is what Moses answers in Exodus 33:15 to 16.
“If Your Presence does not go with us,” Moses replied, “do not lead us up from here. For how then can it be known that Your people and I have found favor in Your sight, unless You go with us? How else will we be distinguished from all the other people on the face of the earth?”Moses refuses the land without the Presence, since the Presence is what sets Israel apart from every other people.
Please show me Your glory, Exodus 33:181 passage
Then Moses said, “Please show me Your glory.” “I will cause all My goodness to pass before you,” the LORD replied, “and I will proclaim My name—the LORD—in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”Having won the Presence, Moses asks for more, and the answer of Exodus 33:19 is kept in Exodus 34:6 to 7.
What the Chapters Leave Unsaid
Exodus 32 gives the sin and its cost and leaves the reader to weigh some of its details.
The text does not say how long the people waited before they went to Aaron, only that Moses was delayed. Aaron's own account in Exodus 32:24 says the calf came out of the fire. The narrator in Exodus 32:4 says Aaron fashioned it with an engraving tool, and the reader is left to weigh the two accounts.
About three thousand fell by the swords of the Levites at Exodus 32:28, and about three thousand were added to the believers at Pentecost in Acts 2:41. The pairing of the two numbers is made by later readers, and Peter's sermon in Acts 2 draws on Joel and the Psalms.
The Name Proclaimed, Exodus 34:6 to 7
God answers the request to see His glory with a sentence about His own character.
Then the LORD passed in front of Moses and called out: “The LORD, the LORD God, is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in loving devotion and faithfulness, maintaining loving devotion to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin. Yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished; He will visit the iniquity of the fathers on their children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”Moses answers the proclamation by bowing to the ground and worshiping (Exodus 34:8).
The first half reaches further than the second. Mercy is kept far longer than judgment is visited, and that proportion is part of what the verse teaches.
Adam Clarke, in his Commentary on the Bible, reads the proclamation as God showing Moses fully what was implied in the name Jehovah. On the hard clause he notes that the Hebrew says, word for word, in clearing he will not clear.
Because the sentence is spoken where the worst sin of the wilderness had just been committed, its second half keeps the mercy of the first from being cheap.
Eight later texts take up the sentence of Exodus 34:6 to 7, in prayer, confession, praise, warning and complaint.
- Numbers 14:18Moses at Kadesha prayer for pardon after the next rebellion, with the warning half keptNumbers 14:18
- Nehemiah 9:17the Levites after the exilea confession that goes on in the next verse to name the calfNehemiah 9:17
- Psalm 86:15the psalmista prayer for help in troublePsalm 86:15
- Psalm 103:8the psalmistpraise for the God who forgivesPsalm 103:8
- Psalm 145:8the psalmistpraise in a psalm of God's kingshipPsalm 145:8
- Joel 2:13Joelthe reason given for a call to return to the LORDJoel 2:13
- Jonah 4:2Jonahhis complaint that God spared NinevehJonah 4:2
- Nahum 1:3Nahumthe warning half, against NinevehNahum 1:3
Each row gives the text, who speaks, and how the formula is used there.
Jonah 4:2, Nahum 1:3
Three Hebrew words of these chapters1 table or figure
Three Hebrew words carry Exodus 32 to 34: the Name, atonement and glory.
| Word | Sense | Where it stands |
|---|---|---|
| YHWH | the Name of God, rendered the LORD | proclaimed twice in Exodus 34:6 |
| kaphar | to cover, to atone | what Moses hopes to do in Exodus 32:30 |
| kabod | glory | what Moses asks to see in Exodus 33:18 |
Teachers on the Intercession
Four readings, from Jerome and Ambrose to Matthew Henry, on the prayer of Moses for the people.
died 397 · Ambrose of Milan
On the Duties of the Clergy 2.7.31
Ambrose on Moses offering himself, Exodus 32:32
The quotation1 quotation
“What reproaches Moses had to bear from his people! But when the Lord would have avenged him on those who reviled him, he often used to offer himself for the people that he might save them from the divine anger. What gentle words he used to address the people, even after he was wronged! He comforted them in their labors, consoled them by his prophetic declarations of the future and encouraged them by his works. And though he often spoke with God, yet he was inclined to address men gently and pleasantly.”
Ambrose of Milan · On the Duties of the Clergy 2.7.31 · on Exodus 32:32Patristic
died 420 · Jerome
HOMILIES ON THE PSALMS 26
The quotation1 quotation
“Moses resisted God and prevented him from destroying his people when God said to him: ‘Let me alone, that I may strike this people.’ Just see the power of Moses! What does God say to him? Let me alone; you are compelling me, your prayers, as it were, restrain me; your prayers hold back my hand. I shoot an arrow; I hurl a javelin; and your prayers are the shield of the people. Let me alone that I might strike down this people. Along with this, consider the compassionate kindness of God.”
Jerome · Homilies on the Psalms 26 · on Exodus 32:10Patristic
1662 to 1714 · Matthew Henry
Commentary on the Whole Bible
The quotation1 quotation
“Now Moses is standing in the gap to turn away the wrath of God, Ps. cvi. He wisely took the hint which God gave him when he said, Let me alone, which, though it seemed to forbid his interceding, did really encourage it, by showing what power the prayer of faith has with God.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible · on Exodus 32:11 to 13Puritan
1662 to 1714 · Matthew Henry
Commentary on the Whole Bible
The quotation1 quotation
“See, in type, the prevalency of Christ's intercession, which he ever lives to make for all those that come to God by him, and the ground of that prevalency. It is purely his own merit, not any thing in those for whom he intercedes; it is because thou hast found grace in my sight.”
Matthew Henry · Commentary on the Whole Bible · on Exodus 33:17Puritan
Matthew Henry, Matthew Henry
Two Readings of the Calf
The calf has been read as an image of the LORD and as a copy of a god of Egypt.
An image of the LORD3 paragraphs
On this reading the people meant the calf as an image of the LORD Himself, and their sin was against the second commandment. Its chief text is Aaron's proclamation of a feast to the LORD in Exodus 32:5.
Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, in their Commentary Critical and Explanatory, hold that a single image does not show the people renouncing the true God for idols. Nehemiah 9:18 recalls the words in the singular, This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt.
The objection is that Exodus 32:4 and 32:8 give the words in the plural, your gods, and Acts 7:41 calls the calf an idol.
A god taken from Egypt2 paragraphs
On this reading the calf copied a god Israel had seen in Egypt. The same commentary of Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, at Exodus 32:4, names Apis, worshipped at Memphis in the form of a live ox, as the likely model.
Matthew Henry reads the calf through Psalm 106:20, where Israel exchanged its Glory for the image of a grass-eating ox. The objection is that Aaron proclaimed a feast to the LORD, and the next day the people offered burnt offerings and peace offerings, the sacrifices of His covenant (Exodus 32:5 to 6).
The Glory Returns
The book that broke at the calf ends with God dwelling among His people.
Paul reads these chapters in 2 Corinthians 3, where believers with unveiled faces reflect the glory of the Lord and are being transformed into His image (2 Corinthians 3:18).
Then the cloud covered the Tent of Meeting, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.The Presence that was withdrawn to a tent outside the camp in Exodus 33 now fills the tabernacle in the middle of it.
Sources
Scripture is the Berean Standard Bible.
- Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)
- Jerome, Homilies on the Psalms 26.
- Ambrose of Milan, On the Duties of the Clergy 2.7.31.
- Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
- Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible.
Keep Studying
Read it7
Studies5
People and groups7
Symbols5
Doctrines15