Exodus 32:5

Exo 32:5 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.

Ver. 5. A feast to Jehovah.] Whom these idolators pretended to worship in the golden calf; as did also Jehu, {2Ki 10:16; 2Ki 10:29 2Ch 11:15} and as the Papists at this day. But with what face can some of their Rabbis excuse this people from idolatry? or the Jesuits their image worshippers?

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Exo 32:5. Aaron built an altar — Being borne down with the stream; and proclaimed a feast — Namely, of dedication; yet he calls it a feast to Jehovah — By which it is still more evident that the people did not intend to terminate their adoration in the image, but designed to worship the true God in and by this calf, which they meant to consider as only a visible token of God’s presence with them, and a medium by which to convey their worship to him. And yet this did not excuse them from the sin of gross idolatry any more than it will excuse the Papists, whose plea it is that they do not worship the images which they use, but God, or Christ, by the images, so making themselves just such idolaters as the worshippers of the golden calf, whose feast was a feast to Jehovah, and proclaimed to be so, that the most ignorant and unthinking might not mistake it.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

32:5 Aaron attempted to control the process, but he was actually abdicating leadership by simply doing what he thought the people wanted. • Although the idol was referred to as “the gods” (32:4), Aaron also implied that it was a physical manifestation of the Lord.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Aaron made proclamation, and said, To-morrow is a feast to the Lord--a remarkable circumstance, strongly confirmatory of the view that they had not renounced the worship of Jehovah, but in accordance with Egyptian notions, had formed an image with which they had been familiar, to be the visible symbol of the divine presence. But there seems to have been much of the revelry that marked the feasts of the heathen.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 5. To-morrow is a feast to the Lord] In Bengal the officiating Brahmin, or an appointed person proclaims, "To-morrow, or on -- day of -- , such a ceremony will be performed!"

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(5) Aaron . . . built an altar before it.—Having once yielded to the popular cry. Aaron was carried on from one compliance to another. He caused the mould to be made for the idol, and the gold to be melted and run into it; and now he constructed, perhaps with his own hands, an altar of rough stones or turf (Exo_20:24-25), and placed it directly in front of the Image, thus encouraging the offering of sacrifice to it. Perhaps he flattered himself that by heading the movement he could control it, and hinder it from becoming downright apostacy from Jehovah. In his view no doubt the calf was an emblem of Jehovah, and the worship paid it was the worship of Jehovah. Hence the festival which he proclaimed was to be “a feast to Jehovah.” But how little able he was to guide events, or to hinder the worst evils of idolatry from speedily manifesting themselves, appears from Exo_32:6; Exo_32:25.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

5. Seeing the impression which the image made upon Israel, Aaron at once builds an altar before it, and proclaims a feast to Jehovah. The calf is thus clearly regarded, not as exclusive of Jehovah, but as representing Him.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And they rose up early in the morning,.... Being eager of, and intent upon their idol worship:

and offered burnt offerings; upon the altar Aaron had made, where they were wholly consumed:

and brought peace offerings: which were to make a feast to the Lord, and of which they partook:

and the people sat down to eat and to drink; as at a feast:

and rose up to play; to dance and sing, as was wont to be done by the Egyptians in the worship of their Apis or Ox; and Philo the Jew says (f), of the Israelites, that having made a golden ox, in imitation of the Egyptian Typho, he should have said Osiris, for Typho was hated by the Egyptians, being the enemy of Osiris; they sung and danced: the Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem interpret it of idolatry; some understand this of their lewdness and uncleanness, committing fornication as in the worship of Peor, taking the word in the same sense as used by Potiphar's wife, Gen 39:14.

(f) Ut supra, (De Vita Mosis, l. 3. p. 677.) & de Temulentia, p. 254.

Next: Exodus Chapter 33

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

The Lord. The most sacred name of God is prostituted, (Judges xvii. and xviii.; Wisdom xiv. 21,) and an altar is erected to this idol; though some pretend, that Aaron meant God to be adored under this similitude. His weakness was unaccountable, and God would have slain him, had not Moses interceded, Deuteronomy ix. 20. Those who undertake to justify him, enter not into the sentiments of God; and the offender himself pleads no excuse, but the violence of the people, ver. 23. (Salien.) --- To-morrow, when the 40 days expired, and Moses returned arrayed in terrors. (Haydock)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

When Aaron saw, i.e. observed with what applause they received it, and with what fury and resolution they prosecuted their former desire, he was borne down with the stream, and, as it is probable, by the people’s instigation, built an altar to it.

To the Lord, Heb. to Jehovah; which title being peculiar to the true God, and being here given by Aaron to the calf, with the approbation of the people, makes it more than probable that the people designed to worship the true God in this calf, which they made only as a visible token of God’s presence with them, and an image by which they might convey their worship to God.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

5. When Aaron saw — No object of the verb saw is expressed, and we do best to understand what is implied in the words immediately preceding. When he saw the excitement and enthusiasm of the people, and their acceptance of the image as a symbol of their God, he was carried away by the scene, and proceeded further to erect an altar before it, and announce that on the morrow they would celebrate a feast to the Lord. Thus this man, so highly honoured of God, became a culpable partaker in the people’s sin.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

He built an altar before it. Aaron thus proceeded to "follow a multitude to evil", (Exo_23:2) and encouraged the idolatry which he felt himself powerless to restrain. Still, he did not intend that the people should drift away from the worship of Jehovah, or view the calf as anything but a symbol of him. He therefore made proclamation and said, Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord (literally, "to Jehovah").

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And Aaron built an altar before it, and proclaimed a feast - A feast of dedication; yet he calls it a feast to Jehovah; for, as brutish as they were, they did not design to terminate their adoration in the image; but they made it for a representation of the true God, whom they intended to worship in and through this image. And yet this did not excuse them from gross idolatry, no more than it will excuse the Papists, whose plea it is, that they do not worship the image, but God by the image; so making themselves just such idolaters as the worshippers of the golden calf, whose feast was a feast to Jehovah, and proclaimed to be so, that the most ignorant and unthinking might not mistake it.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

When Aaron saw this

You may need to make explicit what he saw. "When Aaron saw what the people did" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

to carouse in wild celebration

"to have a wild party." The people likely behaved in sexually immoral ways at the party.

translationWords

Aaron

altar

cow

preach

festival

Yahweh

honor

raise

burnt offering

fellowship offering

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

וירא אהרן AND WHEN AARON SAW that there was the breath of life in it — as it is said with reference to the golden calf, (Psalms 106:20) “[They changed their glory] into a similitude of an ox that ate grass” — and he realized that Satan’s work had succeeded and that he had no argument (lit., mouth) to put them (the people) entirely off.

ויבן מזבח HE BUILDED AN ALTAR to put them off.

ויקרא חג לה׳ מחר AND CALLED OUT … TO-MORROW IS A FESTIVAL TO THE LORD — to-morrow, not to-day, for he hoped that Moses might return before they would worship it (the calf). This is the plain meaning of the verse. The Midrashic explanation of it in Leviticus Rabbah 10:3 (— it supplies an object to the verb וירא —) is: Aaron saw many things; he saw Hur, his sister’s son, who had reprimanded them, and whom they had killed. This is the meaning of ויבן מזבח, viz., וַיָבֶן, he realized (taking the word as from the root בון, to understand, to realize) מִזָּבוּחַ לפניו from him who lay slaughtered before him (מזבח is vowelled to be read as מִזָּבוּחַ) what would happen to him if he offered resistance. A further explanation of וירא אהרן in the Midrash is: He saw what the situation was and said: It is better that the offence should attach itself to me than to them. And yet a further Midrashic explanation of וירא is: He looked into the matter and said: If they build this altar themselves, one will bring a clod and another a stone and the result will be that their work will be accomplished all at once; through myself building it and being dilatory in my work, in the meantime Moses may come.

חג לה׳ A FESTIVAL TO THE LORD — not to the golden calf. In his heart it (the feast) was for Heaven (the Lord). He felt confident that Moses would return by the morrow and that they would worship the Omnipresent (Leviticus Rabbah 10:3).

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

AND AARON SAW. The meaning of this verse is that Aaron saw them set on evil, intent upon making the calf, and he arose and built an altar and proclaimed, Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Eternal, so that they should bring offerings to the Proper Name of G-d upon the altar which he built to His Name, and that they should not build altars to the shameful thing, and that their intent in the offerings should be [to none] save unto the Eternal only. It is possible that Aaron said, Tomorrow [shall be a feast], in order to delay them, thinking that perhaps Moses would come in the meantime and they would abandon the calf. But they rose up early in the morning and offered burnt-offerings, and brought peace-offerings. Now Scripture does not say “and they offered burnt-offerings to it, and brought peace-offerings to it.” The reason for that is that there were some people amongst them who intended them to be for the Name of the Holy One, blessed be He, as Aaron had said, but some of them became corrupted and sacrificed them to the calf. It is with reference to this latter group that the Holy One, blessed be He, said to Moses, they have worshipped it, and have sacrificed unto it, for it is they who were the sinners. And even if it was perhaps Aaron who performed the sacrifical rites, Scripture used an indefinite expression — saying, they offered burnt-offerings and brought peace-offerings — in order to suggest that Aaron’s intention was directed towards the Name of the Eternal, whilst they set their mind towards the calf which they had made, and thus the owners [of the sacrifices] invalidated them.

Ramban (Nachmanides) on the Tanakh — English translation: “Commentary on the Torah by Ramban (Nachmanides). Translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel. New York, Shilo Pub. House, 1971-1976” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.