4 And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

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.

6 And 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.

7 ¶ And the LORD said unto Moses, 'Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves :

8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed thereunto, and said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which have brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

9 And the LORD said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people:

10 Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation.

11 ¶ And Moses besought 'the LORD his God, and said, LORD, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand?

12 Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people.

13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, 'I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever.

14 And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.

15 And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand: the tables were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other were they written.

16 And the 1otables were the work of God,

21 Kings 12. 28. Psal. 106. 19.
7 Heb. the face of the LORD.
11 Heb. weakness.

and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables.

17 And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said unto Moses, There is a noise of war in the camp.

18 And he said, It is not the voice of them that shout for mastery, neither is it the voice of them that cry for "being overcome: but the noise of them that sing do I hear.

19 ¶ And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing and Moses' anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount.

12

:

20 T2And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and strawed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it.

21 ¶ And Moses said unto Aaron, What did this people unto thee, that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them?

22 And Aaron said, Let not the anger of my lord wax hot thou knowest the people, that they are set on mischief.

:

23 For they said unto me, Make us gods, which shall go before us: for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.

24 And I said unto them, Whosoever hath any gold, let them break it off. So they gave it me: then I cast it into the fire, and there

came out this calf.

25 ¶ And when Moses saw that the people were naked; (for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies :)

26 Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the LORD's side? let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him.

27 And he said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour.

28 And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men.

29 For Moses had said, "Consecrate yourselves to day to the LORD, even every man upon his son, and upon his brother; that he may bestow upon you a blessing this day. 30 ¶ And it came to pass on the morrow,

that Moses said unto the people, Ye have sinned a great sin: and now I will go up unto the LORD; peradventure I shall make an atonement for your sin.

31 And Moses returned unto the LORD, and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold.

32 Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin ; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written.

Verse 2. The golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters.'-It seems, from this passage, that it was customary among the Hebrews, not only for the females, but for the young men to wear ear-rings. However, that they were not commonly

EAR-RINGS OF MEN.

worn by the men appears from Judges viii. 24, where, 'because they were Ishmaelites,' is assigned as a reason why a great spoil in ear-rings was taken from the host defeated by Gideon. Among the Egyptians, ear-rings were not worn by men, although common among the women; but in the sculptures they are frequently represented as being worn by foreign men of different nations, examples of which have been collected in the annexed engraving. The ear-rings required by Aaron, at least those worn by the women, were doubtless Egyptian; and the form which they probably bore will be seen in the cut at the end of ch. iii. Their size and weight, as there exhibited, will show what a large mass of precious metal must have been formed by a general contribution of such ornaments. They do not seem to be, rings, properly so called, but round plates of metal with a thick border. The ear-rings now used in the East are various in form and size. They are generally thick, sometimes fitting close to the ear, and in other instances very large, perhaps three or four inches in diameter, and so heavy as greatly to distend the lobe of the ear, at the same time enlarging in a very disagreeable manner the orifice made for the insertion of the ring.

4. And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf!' –

33 ¶ And the LORD said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book.

34 Therefore now go, lead the people unto the place of which I have spoken unto thee: behold, mine Angel shall go before thee: nevertheless in the day when I visit I will visit their sin upon them.

35 And the LORD plagued the people, because they made the calf, which Aaron made.

With reference to the whole passage (vv. 2-4; 20, 24), Sir William Drummond (Origines, ii. 269) remarks: The ungrammatical construction of some of these sentences has rendered the sense obscure in English, while in the Hebrew it is perfectly clear. But the translation appears not to be faithful. Aaron is said to have fashioned it (the gold) after he had made it a molten calf. By what authority is the conjunctive particle rendered after? In the original the verbs are both in the same time. Why are the tenses different in the version? The word signifies a gravingtool where the letter teth has been substituted for a tau, and the word can be referred to the verb n, to engrave; but when this is not the case, signifies anything hollow, a box, a chest, etc. (see 2 Kings v. 22). I would venture to suggest that it means a mould in this place: "And he took it (the gold) from their hands, and formed it in a mould, and made it a golden calf." Most certainly, if the received version be correct, Aaron must have worked with singular expedition. In less than twenty-four hours he melted the gold, and afterwards fashioned it in the form of a calf with a graving-tool. But how is this to be reconciled with his own statement (v. 24), "I cast it (the gold) into the fire, and there came out this calf." Nothing is here said of his having fashioned it with a graving-tool. The gold, as it melted, probably ran out of the fire, or furnace, into a mould prepared to receive it.'

The present is the earliest instance on record of the art of forming a statue. Sculpture in stone was however certainly known at this time, since the Israelites were forbidden to make images of stone. Yet the instance before us probably exhibits the primitive form of statuary; for we are disposed to concur with Goguet in thinking, that the art of casting in moulds preceded that of sculpture. Men might take the hint of this by observing the shapes assumed by soft substances when they happened to fall into the cavities of more compact and solid bodies. The same observation would teach them the use of moulds. They had only to follow the hints thus naturally furnished. They would search for earth of such a quality, that, although solid, it might be readily softened and kneaded. At first they would only mould clay, plaster, etc.; but men would not long be content with the brittle forms thus produced; the desire of rendering their works more durable and solid would soon lead them to think of employing metals, when it became known that metals might be rendered fluid at pleasure. Metallic personal ornaments were probably thus cast in the first instance, and then it would naturally occur to cast in metal images and other objects which had formerly been made with clay. Instances of molten images are so common in the history of the ancient idolatries, that it seems superfluous to specify particular examples. That the image now before us was no less after Egyptian models as a work of art, than as an idol, seems clear from Deut. xxix. 17, where the Egyptians are expressly stated to have had gods not only of wood and stone, but of silver and gold.

These be thy gods, O Israel.'-In Josh. xxiv. 14, it is expressly said that the Hebrews had, while in Egypt, served the gods of that country; and, had this information been wanting, the fact of their predilection for the idolatry

of Egypt would be sufficiently apparent from their conduct on the present and various other occasions. It is not at all questioned that the idol to which they turned aside at this time was an Egyptian god; and it is also very generally agreed that this god was no other than Apis, the sacred bull of Memphis, under whose form, Osiris was worshipped; or perhaps Mnevis, the sacred ox of Heliopolis, which was also dedicated to Osiris, and honoured with a reverence next to that paid to Apis. These animals, as representatives of Osiris, were worshipped as gods throughout the land of Egypt. As Apis was the chief of the two living representatives of Osiris, and the one most generally known, we may confine our attention to him, especially as there seems to have been little difference between the two, or in the observances of which they were the object. Apis was a living bull, possessing certain marks which identified him as the representative of Osiris. These marks were-that it was black, with the exception of a triangular (or square) white spot on the forehead. It had also the figure of an eagle (or, as some say, a crescent) on the back; the hairs of the tail double, and a knot, or something, under the tongue in the form of a beetle. When a creature answering this description was found, he was conducted with great state and infinite rejoicing to the temple of Osiris, and was kept there in an apartment ornamented with gold, and was there worshipped till death, when he was buried with great solemnity and mourning, after which another bull with the same marks was sought for. Several years sometimes elapsed before it could be found; but when this happened there was a great festival throughout the country-such a festival, probably, as that with which the Israelites welcomed the image. It is said that Apis was not allowed to live beyond a certain age, on attaining which he was drowned in a sacred fountain. While he lived, he might always be seen through the window of his apartment, and was sometimes brought out to gratify the curiosity of strangers. It is a singular fact, and in some measure diminishes our surprise at the conduct of the Israelites, that foreigners, who, although idolaters themselves, were generally quite sensible of the grossness of the Egyptian idolatry, seem to have concurred in speaking with great respect of the deified bull. Pliny relates, with much solemnity, that Apis refused food from the hand of Germanicus, who died soon after. Herodotus, long before

that, relates how the Persian king Cambyses inflicted on the Egyptian god a wound in the thigh, of which he died; and, farther on, when he comes to mention how that king himself received his death, from a wound accidentally inflicted by his own sword, fails not to call attention to the fact that the wound was in the very same part of the body in which he had himself wounded the Egyptian god.

Thus, as the Israelites were tainted with the idolatry of Egypt, and as Apis was one of the most conspicuous objects in the idolatrous system, a sufficient explanation seems to be given of the direction taken by the first apostacy of the Israelites from Him who had recently given them such large and manifest evidence of his mercy and regard. To render the identification of the calf' with Apis more complete, it may be proper to add, that while the bull was worshipped in person at Memphis, he had in other places representative images, sometimes in the form of a bull, but also, and perhaps more frequently, in a human figure with a bull's head. Several of the ancient Fathers speak of the 'golden calf' as an image of the latter description, and it has been so represented by many painters; but it seems rather to have been an image of the bull itself. What a rooted predilection for the worship of Apis the Hebrews entertained, is evinced by the facility with which king Jeroboam (who had resided in Egypt) was enabled, several centuries later, to lead Israel to sin by worshipping the golden calves which he set up in Dan and Bethel; and the worship of which seems to have prevailed generally among the ten tribes to the time of the captivity.

5. To-morrow is a feast to the LORD.-Under all the circumstances, this is a most remarkable expression; and will probably favour the conclusion that the crime of the Hebrews consisted not in an utter apostacy from Jehovah to the gods of Egypt, but in an unauthorised, and indeed interdicted, intrusion of Egyptian ideas and practices into the worship of Jehovah. If they had wholly forsaken the Lord, what interest had they in his feast to be held on the morrow? It would therefore seem that, as they had formerly worshipped Osiris through Apis, so now they purposed to worship Jehovah through the same sensible symbol. This view we seem also to gather from other passages of Scripture, as Ps. cvi. 20, They changed their glory (the invisible Jehovah) into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass.' This was a monstrous desecration, and directly counter to the divine command. See Deut. iv.

12-23; where Moses repeatedly reminds them that, in that awful day when the law was delivered on Sinai, they saw no shape-no manner of similitude,-only they heard a voice; and as repeatedly cautions them against making an image of any shape whatever. This remarkable passage seems to imply, not merely an interdiction of images in honour of false gods, but also the introduction of images as symbols or representatives of Jehovah under the idea of doing him honour, or of diminishing the distance between the worshippers and the worshipped, by the intervention of a sensible image. In fact, all image-worship, with whatever ulterior object, seems to have been considered idolatry, and as such liable by the law to capital punishment. This sufficiently accounts for the strong terms of reprobation with which the worship of the golden calf is on all occasions mentioned; while at the same time we cannot gather from the terms in which the intention is expressed, that it was intended as an act of total apostacy from God; or, from the terms in which censure is conveyed, that it was regarded otherwise than as the unworthy act and dangerous practice of a disobedient, but not an apostatizing, people. But although not perhaps, in its first intention, an act of entire departure from God, it was a great step towards total apostacy; for the mind would soon learn to rest on the visible symbol, and then the step to new gods and new images was narrow, and easy to take. This was the great danger and its reality is evinced by the addiction of the ten tribes-which worshipped the calves in Dan and Bethel -to Baal, Moloch, and the other gods of the neighbouring nations. In estimating the great difficulty which was experienced in leading the Israelites to entertain proper ideas of God as a spiritual being, and to honour him as such, we are apt to form too low an idea of their character, from judging them by the standard which Christianity has produced; without sufficiently considering that the new principle required them to dismiss all the ideas and practices in which they had been brought up; and that all the nations known to them were wholly immersed in idolatry, and afforded no example of worship and conduct in any degree resembling that which was required from themselves.

15. The tables were written on both their sides.'-It is a very remarkable fact that the earliest notices of writing, whether hieroglyphic or alphabetic, do not, as we might naturally expect, exhibit the characters as being formed by an easy process on soft and ductile substances, but as being cut, with labour and difficulty, on the smoothed surface of rocks, or on tablets or columns of stone. This seems the reverse of the natural order, in which we generally find the easiest things attempted the soonest. But writing is distinguished from all other arts not more in its objects than in the order of its progress. Its course has been contrary to that of all other arts. Statuary, for instance, proceeded from figures moulded in clay to wood, metal, and stone; whilst writing appears to have begun with stone, and, having been successively exemplified on soft metals and wood, proceeded to the skins of animals, to the leaves of trees, and has arrived at paper. A little reflection renders the cause of this difference obvious. The original appliIcation of this greatest of the arts, was not to purposes of familiar communication or popular instruction. These uses were not connected with its origin, but resulted from it. The original purpose to which it was applied was to transmit laws and the memory of great events to future times. Before writing was known, men sought to obtain the same result by erecting altars, pillars, and other monuments-by giving expressive names to particular sitesand by founding commemorative institutions: in all cases trusting that the memory of the fact or event would become associated in men's minds with the erection, the name, or the institution. Hence it was natural that, in the first instance, the art of writing should be applied to stone, in order to give it at the same time a permanent and a distinct character to the few and brief, but important, facts which the primitive men desired to make known to future ages, and which the most lasting of their previous monuments and institutions had failed to transmit with precision. The

monuments remained, while the memories connected with them perished. Hence it is that all our existing information points to stone, as the substance on which the art of writing was first employed; and men continued to engrave important documents on stone, in times long subsequent to that in which writing was made subservient to the intercourse of life and the service of literature. Ancient inscriptions on the surface of perpendicular rocks are still found in different parts of Asia, many of them of such early date that the knowledge of the characters in which they were written is lost. Inscriptions on columns probably formed an improvement on this primitive mode of writing. If there were not reason to doubt its accuracy, a statement made by Josephus on this subject would be highly interesting. He says that the descendants of Seth, the son of Adam, understanding, from a prophecy of the great ancestor of mankind, that the world was at one time to be destroyed by water, and another time by fire, erected two pillars, one of stone to resist the water, and the other of brick to resist the fire; and that they inscribed on these pillars their discoveries in astronomy, to transmit them to the men who might afterwards occupy the world. There is nothing very improbable in this, in itself, although it is rendered doubtful by collateral circumstances. The art of forming characters on stone and brick is of unknown antiquity; and astronomical discoveries were among the earliest that it was thought desirable to record. The ancient Babylonians are said to have registered on bricks their early astronomical observations; and, whatever the inscriptions may purport, it is certain that large bricks, covered with inscriptions, are still very commonly found among the ruins in Babylonia. With regard to inscribed pillars and tablets of stone, a great number of illustrative instances might be quoted to show in what manner they were in the earliest times employed. Goguet, who has enumerated the most prominent examples, observes that there was nothing in all antiquity more famous than the columns erected by Osiris, Bacchus, Sesostris, and Hercules, to perpetuate the remembrance of their respective expeditions. Still more renowned were the pillars or tables of stone on which Thoth, the Egyptian Hermes, is said to have written his theology and the history of the first ages. In Crete there existed very ancient columns, charged with inscriptions detailing the ceremonies practised in the sacrifices of the Corybantes. In the time of Demosthenes there still existed at Athens a law of Theseus inscribed on a stone pillar: and Goguet is disposed to think that the ancient fable about Atlas entrusting the pillars of the world to Hercules, means no more than that Atlas explained to the son of Jupiter the purport of the mysteries and science inscribed on certain pillars. Origine des Lois, i. 204,

1820.

A similar custom prevailed among the ancient Arabians. Ibn Mokri, in illustrating the Arabian proverb, More durable than what is engraven on stone,' observes that the inhabitants of Southern Arabia were accustomed, in the remotest ages, to inscribe laws and wise sayings on stone (Burder's Oriental Literature, i. 198). Even in China, the most ancient monuments of literature were inscribed on large and hard stones. Goguet observes, that although the people of the north of Europe seem to have had but little intercourse with the nations of Asia and Africa, their history equally evinces that, in the primitive times, the usage equally existed of writing upon pillars of stone whatever was thought worthy of being transmitted to future ages. Olaus Magnus mentions pillars forty feet high, on which rude inscriptions were found. The early inscribed pillars, of which so much mention is made, were less probably round than square, or pyramidal, and differed nothing in principle from tablets, being, in fact, tablets in the form best calculated to keep them fixed and conspicuous in the open air. This was not the intention of the Decalogue inscription, which was to be portable, and to be treasured up, and was therefore written on tablets. We read of three copies, all written on stone: the first, which was broken by Moses; another, written to supply the place of the former; and a third, which Joshua inscribed on the stones at Mount Ebal (Josh. viii. 32). Job also, at a period supposed to

be still earlier than that in which Moses lived, expresses a desire that his words should be cut deep in the rock for ever' (ch. xix. 24). Stones, then, whether as rocks, pillars, or tablets, were the books of the most ancient people, through which they sought to preserve their laws, public acts, treaties, the history of facts, and the most important discoveries. Although the earliest Scripture notices of writing exhibit its earliest form, this does not imply that no other form was known at the times under consideration. Other forms are mentioned in the book of Job; and even in the Pentateuch books' are several times mentioned. The short and comprehensive Decalogue only was inscribed on stone, the more detailed law being, as a whole, written in a book, by the express command of God. (Exod. xvii. 14; Deut. xvii. 18, and xxxi. 24. See the note on this last text; and respecting inscriptions on rocks, see the note on Job xix. 24.)

20. He took the calf which they had made and burnt it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and strawed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it?'According to this version, Moses burnt the golden calf in the fire; nor does this translation vary from that given by the Vulgate. It would seem, indeed, that all the translators had anticipated the notion of the celebrated Stahl, who, in his treatise Vitulus aureus in igne combustus, is of opinion that the idol was reduced to powder by calcination. But the words should be rendered and he melted it in the fire, not he burnt it in the fire. The gold, after it had been first melted, might undoubtedly have been calcinated by a second process, and by the means of fire; but how, by any method of calcination, could it be brought to such a state that, when it was ground down and thrown in the water, it could become potable? That Moses did render gold potable is a fact not to be questioned. Now, one of these two things necessarily follows either Moses worked a miracle, or he must have possessed a very great

knowledge of chemistry. There is no appearance of any miraculous intervention of Providence upon this occasion. We must then admit that the effect was produced by the operation of natural causes. The means of rendering gold potable have been shown by Stahl, and perhaps still better by Boerhaave; but these means are such that only an able chemist could have discovered them. It is in vain to argue that the knowledge of the means in question could not have existed in the time of the Hebrew legislator: if we admit the facts, we must admit the knowledge. (See Drummond's Origines, ii. 272.) The knowledge which Moses may have possessed doubtless arose from his being 'learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians' (Acts vii. 22); and this fact, therefore, evinces the great progress in natural science which had, at a very early period, been made by that people.

1

"

32. If thou wilt forgive their sin-; and if not.'The most ancient versions supply the ellipsis of the text by adding the word 'forgive' after sin.' If we thus recover a word which the original has lost, it is well; but if the word be merely an addition to supply an apparent deficiency in the text, we could very well afford to dispense with its assistance; the suspension of the meaning seems to us far more expressive than any word which could be introduced to fill it up. Blot me .. out of thy book, which thou hast written.' -This is thought to contain an allusion to the rolls or public registers in which the names of the people were entered under their respective tribes. This was the book of the living, and when any man died his name was erased. The idea of the text will then seem to be, that Moses attributes such a book to God, and desires rather to have his name blotted from it-that is, to die-than witness the destruction of his people. This explanation removes the difficulty resulting from the common interpretation, that Moses desired to have his name blotted from the book of eternal life.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

1 The Lord refuseth to go as he had promised with the people. 4 The people mourn thereat. 7 The tabernacle is removed out of the camp. 9 The Lord talketh familiarly with Moses. 12 Moses desireth to see the glory of God.

AND the LORD said unto Moses, Depart, and go up hence, thou and the people which thou hast brought up out of the land of Egypt, unto the land which I sware unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, 'Unto thy seed will I give it :

2 *And I will send an angel before thee; and I will drive out the Canaanite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite:

3 Unto a land flowing with milk and honey: for I will not go up in the midst of thee; for thou art a stiffnecked people: lest I consume thee in the way.

4 ¶ And when the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned and no man did put on him his ornaments.

5 For the LORD had said unto Moses, Say unto the children of Israel, Ye are a stiff

necked people: I will come up into the midst of thee in a moment, and consume thee: therefore now put off thy ornaments from thee, that I may know what to do unto thee.

6 And the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments by the mount Horeb.

7 ¶ And Moses took the tabernacle, and pitched it without the camp, afar off from the camp, and called it the Tabernacle of the congregation. And it came to pass, that every one which sought the LORD went out unto the tabernacle of the congregation, which was without the camp.

8 And it came to pass, when Moses went out unto the tabernacle, that all the people rose up, and stood every man at his tent door, and looked after Moses, until he was gone into the tabernacle.

9 ¶ And it came to pass, as Moses entered into the tabernacle, the cloudy pillar descended, and stood at the door of the tabernacle, and the LORD talked with Moses.

10 And all the people saw the cloudy pillar stand at the tabernacle door: and all the