The Golden Calf at Sinai

The words

1. Atonement

   Making amends for wrongdoing.

   The next day, Moses says he will return to the LORD, hoping to make atonement for the people; he asks for their sin to be forgiven.

   Exodus 32:30–32 (opens a new tab) · Webster’s 1828: atonement (opens a new tab)

2. Calf

   Aaron makes a molten calf from the collected gold; the people acclaim it as the gods who brought Israel out of Egypt.

   Did you know?

   First Kings later gives Jeroboam similar words about his two golden calves: “behold thy gods, O Israel.”

   Exodus 32:2–4 (opens a new tab) · 1 Kings 12:26–28 (opens a new tab)

3. Dancing

   Seeing the calf and dancing, Moses becomes angry and throws down the tables, breaking them beneath the mountain.

   Exodus 32:19 (opens a new tab)

4. Earrings

   Aaron asks for golden earrings from wives, sons and daughters; the people bring him the ornaments used to make the calf.

   Did you know?

   Earrings also appear in the later collection for the tabernacle, brought by willing men and women among other gold ornaments.

   Exodus 32:2–4 (opens a new tab) · Exodus 35:22 (opens a new tab)

5. Golden

   When Moses questions him, Aaron says he threw the collected gold into the fire and the calf came out.

   Exodus 32:21–24 (opens a new tab)

6. Graven

   Exodus calls the writing on the two tables “graven,” describing words engraved on both sides of the stone.

   Exodus 32:15–16 (opens a new tab) · Exodus 31:18 (opens a new tab)

7. Graving Tool

   An engraving tool.

   The KJV says Aaron receives the gold and fashions it with a graving tool in making the molten calf.

   Exodus 32:3–4 (opens a new tab) · NET Bible: Exodus 32:4 (opens a new tab)

8. Molten

   After making the molten calf, Aaron builds an altar before it and proclaims a feast to the LORD for the next day.

   Exodus 32:4–5 (opens a new tab)

9. Plagued

   Afflicted with a plague.

   Exodus says the LORD plagued the people because they made the calf, which Aaron had fashioned.

   Exodus 32:35 (opens a new tab) · NET Bible: Exodus 32:35 (opens a new tab)

10. Powder

    Moses burns the calf, grinds it to powder, scatters it on the water, and makes the children of Israel drink it.

    Exodus 32:20 (opens a new tab)

11. Sinai

    The preceding chapter places Moses on Sinai when he receives the stone tables, before he descends toward the calf and dancing.

    Did you know?

    Earlier, Exodus describes Moses entering the cloud on the mountain and remaining there for forty days and forty nights.

    Exodus 31:18 (opens a new tab) · Exodus 32:15; Exodus 32:19 (opens a new tab) · Exodus 24:18 (opens a new tab)

12. Sons of Levi

    The sons of Levi follow Moses’s command to go through the camp with swords and kill; about three thousand men die that day.

    Exodus 32:26–28 (opens a new tab)

13. Stiffnecked

    The LORD calls Israel a stiffnecked people after describing their turning aside to worship and sacrifice to the calf.

    Exodus 32:8–9 (opens a new tab)

14. Two Tables

    Stone tablets.

    Moses carries the two tables down the mountain, then breaks them when he sees the calf and the dancing in the camp.

    Exodus 32:15; Exodus 32:19 (opens a new tab) · Exodus 31:18 (opens a new tab)

15. Writing of God

    Exodus calls the inscription the writing of God; the preceding chapter describes the stone tables as written with God’s finger.

    Did you know?

    Exodus later tells Moses to cut replacement stone tables, with the LORD promising to write the words from the first ones.

    Exodus 32:16 (opens a new tab) · Exodus 31:18 (opens a new tab) · Exodus 34:1 (opens a new tab)