At Horeb they made a calf and worshiped a molten image.
Parallel translations
- WEB They made a calf in Horeb, and worshiped a molten image.
- KJV They made a calf in Horeb, and worshipped the molten image.
- NKJV They made a calf in Horeb, And worshiped the molded image.
- NASB ¶They made a calf in Horeb, And worshiped a cast metal image.
- NLT The people made a calf at Mount Sinai; they bowed before an image made of gold.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
At Horeb they made a calf and worshiped a molten image. It matters because it recalls Israel's grievous descent into idolatry.
Overview
While Moses was on Sinai, Israel made and worshiped the golden calf (Exodus 32:1-6). They broke the covenant they had just received, exchanging the living God for an idol. This rebellion stands as a defining example of the human heart's bent toward false worship.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 8
- Exod 32:35And the LORD sent a plague on the people because of what they had done with the calf that Aaron had made.
- Exod 32:4–8He took the gold from their hands, and with an engraving tool he fashioned it into a molten calf. And they said, “These, O Israel, are your gods, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”
- Neh 9:18Even when they cast for themselves an image of a calf and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,’ and when they committed terrible blasphemies,
- Deut 9:8At Horeb you provoked the LORD, and He was angry enough to destroy you.
- Acts 7:41At that time they made a calf and offered a sacrifice to the idol, rejoicing in the works of their hands.
- 1 Cor 10:7Do not be idolaters, as some of them were. As it is written: “The people sat down to eat and to drink, and got up to indulge in revelry.”
- Deut 9:12–16And the LORD said to me, “Get up and go down from here at once, for your people, whom you brought out of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. How quickly they have turned aside from the way that I commanded them! They have made for themselves a molten image.”
- Deut 9:21And I took that sinful thing, the calf you had made, and burned it in the fire. Then I crushed it and ground it to powder as fine as dust, and I cast it into the stream that came down from the mountain.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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Christ at the center
The Psalms are Christ's own prayer book and a gallery of his portraits — the suffering one of Psalm 22, the risen Lord of Psalm 16, the priest-king of Psalm 110, the Son to whom the nations are given.
How Psalms 106:19 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.