Exodus 32:6
in Exodus 32So the next day they arose, offered burnt offerings, and presented peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink, and got up to indulge in revelry.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt-offerings, and brought peace-offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.
KJV
And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.
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This verse in Exodus 32
Commentary
10 notes on this verseThe people sat down to eat and to drink - The burnt-offerings were wholly consumed; the peace-offerings, when the blood bad been poured out, became the food of the priests, etc. When therefore the strictly religious part of these ceremonies was finished, the people sat down to eat of the peace-offerings, and this they did merely as the idolaters, eating and drinking to excess.
This site's exposition
he built an altar before the calf
on Exodus 32:5-6
Aaron builds an altar and proclaims a feast to the LORD, so the name stands and the form changes. That change is what 20:4 had forbidden, and Paul quotes verse 6 at 1 Corinthians 10:7 as a warning to a church.
This site's exposition
the people sat down to eat and drink
The burnt offerings were burned whole on the altar, and the peace offerings gave the people their meal, as Adam Clarke explains. Aaron had proclaimed a feast to the LORD in verse 5. Gregory the Great saw the revelry follow the eating and drinking.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers4 voices
A commentator
Philoxenus of Mabbug13 Ascetic Discourses, Discourse 10 -- On Gluttony · Written before 523.
proposed
And together with the testimony of the Word we may also see from the fact itself how they came to offer praises before the calf in the wilderness, "The people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play;" until food had …
A commentator
Philoxenus of Mabbug13 Ascetic Discourses, Discourse 11 -- On Abstinence · Written before 523.
proposed
Now this is the first lust which conquered the world, and because of it the first transgression of the law took place. It destroyed the people in the wilderness by penalties of all kinds; from the table of lust they rose up and worshipped a …
But he who has engulfed and plunged himself in such wallowing places, falls also into the snare of unbelief; for the people sat down to eat and to drink, and required that gods should be made for them. Hereby the Lord teaches us that he who gives up his soul to these two kinds of vices, is stript of the garment, not of a woollen vest, but of living virtue; that clothing which is not temporal but eternal.
Of old, the Word educated through Moses and after that through the prophets; even Moses was in fact a prophet. For the law was the education of children difficult to control. "Having eaten their fill," Scripture says, "they got up to play," using a Greek word which means not food but cattle fodder, because of their irrational gorging.And since they were continually filling themselves without obeying reason and playing without listening to reason, the law and fear followed them to restrain them from sin and to encourage them to reform themselves.
The Medieval Church1 voice
But it must be carefully noted what it means that the rich man placed in the fire asks for his tongue to be cooled. For it is the custom of sacred Scripture sometimes to say one thing, but to indicate another by that same saying. Now above the Lord had described this proud rich man not as given to talkativeness, but as feasting excessively. And He did not narrate that he sinned by talkativeness, but that he sinned by pride and greed through gluttony. But because talkativeness usually abounds at feasts, he who is said to have feasted wickedly here is reported to burn more grievously in his tongue in hell. For the sin of talkativeness first serves those who feast wickedly, and after talkativeness the levity of jesting also follows. For that jesting follows gluttony, sacred Scripture testifies, which says: "The people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play." But before the body is moved to play, the tongue is moved to jokes and empty words.
2 more voices on this verse
The Puritans and the Awakening2 voices
It is a plain indication that the law was no more able to sanctify than it was to justify; by it is the knowledge of sin, but not the cure of it. This is intimated in the emphasis laid upon the place where this sin was committed ( Ps. cvi.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens
And they rose up early in the morning,....
The words behind it
12 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וַיַּשְׁכִּ֙ימוּ֙ | vaiyashkimu | and they rose early | H7925 → | 65 times |
| מִֽמָּחֳרָ֔ת | mimochorat | from [the] next day | H4283 → | 32 times |
| וַיַּעֲל֣וּ | vaiyaalu | and they offered up | H5927 → | 890 times |
| עֹלֹ֔ת | ʾolot | burnt offerings | H5930 → | 287 times |
| וַיַּגִּ֖שׁוּ | vaiyagishu | and they brought near | H5066 → | 125 times |
| שְׁלָמִ֑ים | shelamim | peace offerings | H8002 → | 87 times |
| וַיֵּ֤שֶׁב | vaiyeshev | and it sat down | H3427 → | 1079 times |
| הָעָם֙ | haam | the people | H5971 → | 1873 times |
| לֶֽאֱכֹ֣ל | leekhol | to eat | H398 → | 810 times |
| וְשָׁת֔וֹ | veshato | and to drink | H8354 → | 217 times |
| וַיָּקֻ֖מוּ | vaiyakumu | and they arose | H6965 → | 628 times |
| לְצַחֵֽק׃ פ | letzachek | to play | H6711 → |
וַיַּשְׁכִּ֙ימוּ֙and they rose early
vaiyashkimuH7925 →65 times
מִֽמָּחֳרָ֔תfrom [the] next day
mimochoratH4283 →32 times
וַיַּעֲל֣וּand they offered up
vaiyaaluH5927 →890 times
עֹלֹ֔תburnt offerings
ʾolotH5930 →287 times
וַיַּגִּ֖שׁוּand they brought near
vaiyagishuH5066 →125 times
שְׁלָמִ֑יםpeace offerings
shelamimH8002 →87 times
וַיֵּ֤שֶׁבand it sat down
vaiyeshevH3427 →1079 times
הָעָם֙the people
haamH5971 →1873 times
לֶֽאֱכֹ֣לto eat
leekholH398 →810 times
וְשָׁת֔וֹand to drink
veshatoH8354 →217 times
וַיָּקֻ֖מוּand they arose
vaiyakumuH6965 →628 times
לְצַחֵֽק׃ פto play
letzachekH6711 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
1 Corinthians 10:7Do not be idolaters, as some of them were. As it is written: “The people sat down to eat and to drink, and got up to indulge in revelry.”
it leads to
- Exodus 32:6–8
So the next day they arose, offered burnt offerings, and presented peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink, and got up to indulge in revelry.
- Psalms 106:19–20
At Horeb they made a calf and worshiped a molten image.
- 1 Corinthians 6:9
Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who submit to or perform homosexual…
- Deuteronomy 9:12
And the LORD said to me, “Get up and go down from here at once, for your people, whom you brought out of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. How quickly they have turned aside from…
- 1 Corinthians 10:14
Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry.
- Exodus 32:6–8
Through
Numbers 25:2who also invited them to the sacrifices for their gods. And the people ate and bowed down to these gods.
it leads to
- 1 Corinthians 10:20
No, but the sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God. And I do not want you to be participants with demons.
- Exodus 20:5
You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on their children to the third and fourth…
- 1 Corinthians 10:20
Through
Revelation 11:10And those who dwell on the earth will gloat over them, and will celebrate and send one another gifts, because these two prophets had tormented them.
it leads to
- 1 Kings 18:17
When Ahab saw Elijah, he said to him, “Is that you, O troubler of Israel?”
- 1 Kings 18:17
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies16
About Exodus
This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Ambrose of Milan, Letter 58.16; Clement of Alexandria, The Instructor Book 1; Gregory the Dialogist, Forty Gospel Homilies, Homily 40; John Calvin, Commentary on the Four Last Books of Moses Arranged in the Form of a Harmony; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Philoxenus of Mabbug, 13 Ascetic Discourses, Discourse 10 -- On Gluttony and Philoxenus of Mabbug, 13 Ascetic Discourses, Discourse 11 -- On Abstinence.