Exodus 32:5 kjv
And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, To morrow is a feast to the LORD.
Exodus 32:5 nkjv
So when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, "Tomorrow is a feast to the LORD."
Exodus 32:5 niv
When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, "Tomorrow there will be a festival to the LORD."
Exodus 32:5 esv
When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, "Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD."
Exodus 32:5 nlt
Aaron saw how excited the people were, so he built an altar in front of the calf. Then he announced, "Tomorrow will be a festival to the LORD!"
Exodus 32 5 Cross References
| Verse | Text | Reference |
|---|---|---|
| Ex 20:3-5 | You shall have no other gods before Me... You shall not make for yourself any carved image... | First and Second Commandments against idolatry. |
| Ex 24:18 | Moses entered the midst of the cloud... and Moses was on the mountain forty days... | Moses' long absence prompting the people's impatience. |
| Ex 32:1-4 | ...the people gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us...” Aaron then fashioned it with an engraving tool and made it into a molten calf... | Immediate preceding events of the calf's creation. |
| Ex 32:6 | Then they rose up early on the next day, offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings... ate and drank, and rose up to play. | Fulfillment of the feast proclamation, detailing the immoral worship. |
| Ex 32:7-8 | Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go down at once, for your people... have corrupted themselves... they have made for themselves a molded calf, and worshiped it...” | God's immediate judgment and description of their sin. |
| Deut 4:15-16 | ...take careful heed to yourselves, for you saw no form... lest you corrupt yourselves and make for yourselves a carved image in the form of any figure... | Warning against forming images of God based on sight. |
| Deut 5:8-9 | You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness... | Restatement of the Second Commandment. |
| 1 Ki 12:28 | The king consulted, and made two calves of gold, and said to them, “It is too much for you to go up to Jerusalem. Here are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt!” | Jeroboam's later replication of the golden calf sin, explicitly echoing Ex 32. |
| 1 Ki 12:32 | Jeroboam ordained a feast on the fifteenth day of the eighth month, like the feast that was in Judah, and offered sacrifices on the altar... | Jeroboam's instituted feast in Bethel, paralleling Aaron's proclamation. |
| Neh 9:18 | even when they made for themselves a molded calf, and said, 'This is your god who brought you up out of Egypt,' and worked great provocations. | Post-exilic recognition of the severity of this early rebellion. |
| Ps 106:19-20 | They made a calf in Horeb, and worshiped the molded image. Thus they changed their glory into the image of an ox that eats grass. | Poetic reflection on Israel's sin and betrayal of God. |
| Jer 32:30 | For the children of Israel... have only done evil before Me from their youth; for the children of Israel have provoked Me to anger with the work of their hands... | General lament over Israel's persistent idolatry and provocation. |
| Ezek 20:7-8 | 'Then I said to them, "Each of you, throw away the detestable things of his eyes... I am the LORD your God." But they rebelled against Me...' | God's expectation for immediate abandonment of Egyptian idolatry upon deliverance. |
| Hos 8:5-6 | Your calf, O Samaria, is rejected! My anger is hot against them... for from Israel is even this; a craftsman made it... | Condemnation of Northern Kingdom's calf worship as continuing apostasy. |
| Am 5:21-23 | I hate, I despise your feast days, and I do not savor your sacred assemblies... away with the noise of your songs... | God's rejection of religious acts when accompanied by sin and disobedience. |
| Isa 1:13-14 | Bring no more futile offerings; incense is an abomination to Me... Your New Moons and your appointed feasts My soul hates... | God despises rituals performed without righteousness or true heart. |
| Acts 7:40-41 | ...saying to Aaron, 'Make us gods who shall go before us... They made a calf in those days, offered sacrifices to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands.' | Stephen's sermon recalling this historical event as a pattern of rebellion. |
| 1 Cor 10:7 | And do not become idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, “The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.” | Paul warns New Testament believers against idolatry using this incident as a warning. |
| Heb 12:29 | For our God is a consuming fire. | Reinforces God's jealous nature and His righteous judgment against sin. |
| Rom 1:23 | and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man—and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things. | Describes the human propensity for idolatry, reducing God to created forms. |
| Jn 4:24 | God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth. | Contrast to physical, image-based worship; God must be worshipped as He is. |
Exodus 32 verses
Exodus 32 5 Meaning
Exodus 32:5 reveals Aaron's action after the Israelites had constructed the golden calf. Seeing their revelry, he built an altar before the idol and proclaimed the next day to be a feast to the LORD. This verse tragically illustrates an attempt to blend forbidden idolatrous practices with the worship of the one true God, signifying a grave act of syncretism and disobedience to the recently given commands.
Exodus 32 5 Context
Exodus 32 begins with the Israelites demanding an object of worship from Aaron because Moses had been on Mount Sinai for forty days (Ex 24:18) receiving the Law. Impatient and lacking visible leadership, they sought a tangible god "who will go before us." Aaron succumbed to their pressure, fashioned a golden calf, and the people proclaimed, "This is your god, O Israel, that brought you up from the land of Egypt!" (Ex 32:4). Against this backdrop of immediate apostasy, Exodus 32:5 details Aaron's next step: not stopping the idolatry, but actively building an altar and legitimizing a "feast" in the name of the true God while centering it around the pagan symbol. This profound theological error happened directly after receiving the very commandments forbidding such acts (Ex 20:3-5).
Exodus 32 5 Word analysis
- When Aaron saw this: Indicates Aaron's observation of the people's intense engagement with the golden calf, implying a recognition of the popular demand and a strategic response to it rather than firm opposition. He perceived the momentum of their idolatrous actions.
- he built an altar before it: "Altar" (Heb. mizbeaḥ, מִזְבֵּחַ) signifies a sacred place for sacrifice and worship. The deliberate act of building one "before" (Heb. lip̄nê, לִפְנֵי) the golden calf directly associates the worship space with the idol. This makes Aaron an active participant and legitimizer of the new idolatrous-syncretic system. It also echoes the sacred architecture God commanded for His tabernacle.
- and Aaron made a proclamation: "Proclamation" comes from the verb qara' (קָרָא), meaning "to call out" or "to summon." This refers to a formal, public declaration of a sacred occasion, giving the event an air of legitimacy and religious authority. This act suggests Aaron stepping into a priestly role, albeit one now tainted by compromise.
- and said, "Tomorrow shall be a feast": "Feast" (Heb. chag, חַג) refers to an appointed religious festival, similar to those Yahweh Himself ordained for Israel. Proclaiming it for "Tomorrow" creates anticipation and designates a specific time for communal worship.
- "to the LORD": This phrase (Heb. laYHWH, לַיהוה) is profoundly significant. Aaron does not declare the feast to the calf but specifically to Yahweh, the covenant God of Israel. This is the essence of syncretism: attempting to combine the worship of the true God with forbidden pagan forms and objects. It suggests a distortion of Yahweh's nature, seeking to control Him or render Him visible through an idol, rather than denying Him outright. This misrepresentation implies that the invisible God could be represented by a tangible animal idol.
Words-group by words-group analysis:
- "When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it": This sequence of actions highlights Aaron's complicity. He observes the sin, yet rather than confronting or preventing it, he facilitates and sanctifies it by providing a physical structure for the illicit worship. This shows a descent from passive yielding to active enabling.
- "Aaron made a proclamation and said, 'Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD'": This demonstrates a clear attempt to redefine the sacred. By proclaiming a feast to Yahweh centered on an idol, Aaron effectively merges pagan methods of worship (calf imagery, wild celebrations implied by later verses) with the worship of the true God. This was a direct violation of the fundamental principle that Yahweh cannot be confined to or represented by an image (Ex 20:4).
Exodus 32 5 Bonus section
The actions described in Exodus 32:5 were a direct polemic against the distinctiveness of Yahwism. The surrounding cultures, particularly Egypt, practiced animal worship (e.g., Apis bull cult). By fashioning a calf and then proclaiming a feast to Yahweh around it, Israel attempted to domesticate God into a recognizable pagan format. This not only desecrated His name but also minimized His infinite nature, reducing Him to a creation rather than the Creator. This event foreshadows the ongoing struggle of Israel with syncretism, seen later in the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, where leaders like Jeroboam would explicitly replicate the golden calf worship as an alternative to pure worship at Jerusalem (1 Ki 12). The sin in Exodus 32:5 was not simply worshiping a false god, but blasphemously misrepresenting and disrespecting the one true God, setting the stage for future divine judgments.
Exodus 32 5 Commentary
Exodus 32:5 captures a critical moment of Israel's early spiritual apostasy. Aaron, under duress, moves from allowing the people to make an idol to actively endorsing and ritualizing its worship. His building an altar gives a sacred veneer to their pagan rebellion, while the proclamation of a "feast to the LORD" is an attempt to sanctify profanity. This wasn't outright rejection of Yahweh, but a dangerous syncretism—an effort to worship the God who saved them through the very means (animal cult images common in Egypt) He had just explicitly forbidden.
This verse underlines the core challenge of pure worship: Israel desired a tangible god they could see and control, rejecting the unseen God who demanded worship in Spirit and truth. Aaron's actions reflect the temptation to compromise divine standards with popular cultural or religious practices, believing they could still "honor" God while violating His specific commands regarding His nature and worship. This act initiated a grave spiritual crisis, inciting God's fierce anger and requiring Moses' urgent intercession, demonstrating the Lord's utter intolerance for such hybrid worship. It served as a stark warning against substituting God's revelation with human innovation in worship.