138. Calf Worship

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Exodus 32:66And 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. (Exodus 32:6). 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.
“This expression [play—Heb. tsachek, to laugh; and so rendered in Genesis 21:66And Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me. (Genesis 21:6)] often signifies dancing among the ancients. It probably refers here to some mystic dance which imitated the course of the stars. The sun-god was represented by the ancients by the image of a bull. Its worship was well known to the Israelites because the Egyptians paid honor to the bull Apia in Memphis; and earlier than this to the bull Mnevis in On, by which name the Greek Heliopolis (City of the Sun) was called. On was near the land of Goshen, which was given to the Israelites when they were brought from Canaan to Egypt” (Stollberg's History of Religion, vol. 2, p. 127; cit. by Rosenmuller, Morgenland, vol. 2, p. 134).
The Egyptian idolaters worshiped deity under animal forms, thus differing from many other nations of antiquity whose deities were in human form. They kept live animals in some of their temples, and exhibited representations of them in others. The worship was accompanied with lascivious dances and other obscene practices. This is probably referred to in the twenty-fifth verse.
Reference is made to the Egyptian origin of this calf-worship in Ezekiel 20:6-86In the day that I lifted up mine hand unto them, to bring them forth of the land of Egypt into a land that I had espied for them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands: 7Then said I unto them, Cast ye away every man the abominations of his eyes, and defile not yourselves with the idols of Egypt: I am the Lord your God. 8But they rebelled against me, and would not hearken unto me: they did not every man cast away the abominations of their eyes, neither did they forsake the idols of Egypt: then I said, I will pour out my fury upon them, to accomplish my anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt. (Ezekiel 20:6‑8), and in Acts 7:39, 4039To whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt, 40Saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us: for as for this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him. (Acts 7:39‑40). Jeroboam, who afterward set up the two golden calves (1 Kings 12:2828Whereupon the king took counsel, and made two calves of gold, and said unto them, It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem: behold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. (1 Kings 12:28)) had lived in Egypt (1 Kings 12:22And it came to pass, when Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who was yet in Egypt, heard of it, (for he was fled from the presence of king Solomon, and Jeroboam dwelt in Egypt;) (1 Kings 12:2)).