CALF, GOLDEN (kaf, gold"n), (Heb. ay'gkel, steer; mas-say-kaw', molten image).
(1) The Idolatrous Statue which the Israel ites worshiped at the foot of Mount Sinai (Exod. xxxii :4). (See AARON.) When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mount they demanded of Aaron to make them gods which should go before them. Aaron demanded their earrings, which were melted and cast into the figure of a calf. When this was about to be consecrated Moses, being divinely informed of it, came down from the mount, and, having called on all who detested this sin, the sons of Levi armed themselves and slew of the people about 23,000, according to our version; but the Hebrew, Sa maritan, Chaldee, LXX, and the greater part of the old Greek and Latin fathers, read 3,000.
There are some hints in the account of the golden calf, which are usually overlooked: as (1) Aaron calls the calf in the plural "gods"—"These are thy gods—they who brought thee out of Egypt." So the people say, "Make us gods," yet only one image was made. (2) Although the sec ond commandment forbids the making "TO THY SELF" any graven image, yet, in the instances of the cherubim, graven images were made, though not for any private individual, nor for the purpose of visible worship, but for interior emblems, in the most holy place, never seen by the people. (3) Aaron did not make this calf with his own hands, most probably, but committed it to some sculptor, who wrought not openly in the midst of the camp, but in his workshop. The Jews report that the image was made into the form of a calf by some evil spirits who accompanied the Israelites from Egypt ; and if they mean evil human spirits, they are right enough. The sacred writers in succeed ing ages plainly speak of the golden calf as a very great sin (Ps. cvi:19, 20; Acts vii :41 ; Deut. 21). (4) Aaron, though greatly misled, must have meant by this worship something more than the mere worship of the Egyptian calf, Apis, for in what sense had Apis "brought Israel out of the land of Egypt ?" an expression which Jero boam subsequently used ( t Kings xii :28), which is strange, if Apis, an Egyptian deity, had been the object of his calves. The LXX say, in Exod. xxxii :4, that Aaron described the calf with a graving tool, but that the people made and cast it.
The Chaldee paraphrast says. "Aaron received the ear-rings, tied them up in purses and made the golden calf of them," and Bochart maintains that this is the best translation, the Hebrew chanet sig nifying a purse, and not a graving tool. It would seem, therefore, that Aaron had given the gold of which he had the custody to a workman ap pointed by the people; that he followed the people throughout this transaction ; and that be endeav ored to guide (perhaps even to control) their opinion in varying and appointing to the honor of Jehovah what many, at least "the mixed multi tude," would refer to the honor of the gods they had seen in Egypt. In this view his expression deserves notice—"to-morrow is a solemnity to Jehovah;" not to Apis or to any other god, but to Jehovah. Such was the sentiment of Aaron, whatever sentiments some of the people might en tertain; and his confession to Moses (ver. 24) may be so taken: "I cast it," i. e. I gave it to be cast. Certainly, the making of the calf was a work of time; it was not cast in a moment, nor in the midst of the camp, but in a proper workshop. or other convenient place; and even perhaps was for warded more rapidly than Aaron knew, or wished He might use all means of delay, though lie sin fully yielded to a prevarication, or to a worship of Jehovah by an image ; an impure medium of worship, which was explicitly forbidden in the second commandment (Exod. xx :4). Augustine says Aaron demanded the personal ornaments of the women and children, in hopes they would not part with those jewels, and, consequently that the calf could not be made. What means of resistance to the people he might possess we cannot tell; per haps the people satisfied themselves by fancying that, in referring by this imagt to God, they avoided the sin of idolatry. Did Aaron imagine the same, not understanding the commandment already given as a prohibition of worshiping God by mediatorial representations, or public symbols of his presence? The termination of this melancholy occurrence was as extraordinary as its commencement : "And Moses took the calf which they had made and burnt it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and strewed it upon the water and made the children of Israel drink of it" (Exod. xxxii :20).