What sort of "revelry" did they indulge in? (Exodus 32:6)
What sort of "revelry" did they indulge in? (Exodus 32:6) The Golden Calf 32 When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods[g] who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.” 2 Aaron answered them, “Take off the gold earrings that your wives, your sons and your daughters are wearing, and bring them to me.” 3 So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron. 4 He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, “These are your gods,[h] Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.” 5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf and announced, “Tomorrow there will be a festival to the Lord.” 6 So the next day the people rose early and sacrificed burnt offerings and presented fellowship offerings. Afterward they sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry. 7 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, because your people, whom you brought up out of Egypt, have become corrupt. 8 They have been quick to turn away from what I commanded them and have made themselves an idol cast in the shape of a calf. They have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and have said, ‘These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.’ 9 “I have seen these people,” the Lord said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people. 10 Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.”
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Asked November 14 2018
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Jack Gutknecht
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Tim Maas
Aaron had declared a "feast" or "festival" following the offering of sacrifices to the golden calf idol that he had made (Exodus 32:5). The passage in question mentions singing (Exodus 32:18), dancing (Exodus 32:19) (both apparently of a raucous, unrestrained nature), and sexual misconduct (Exodus 32:25). (The King James Version notes specifically that the people were naked.) As several translations express it, they were "running wild", with a complete loss of self-control or restraint. It would also seem reasonable to conclude that the "drinking" that the people did (Exodus 32:6) was of alcohol, resulting in drunkenness and loss of any personal sense of inhibition.
Leslie Coutinho
The Israelites' not having Moses for a while in their midst frustrated them, not knowing what to do, which in turn made them to go to Aaron to make a god who would go before them. A god for them was a deity which they were so commonly used to see among the people in revelry for all the years that they spent in Egypt. The common revelry practice in Egypt indulged in festive mood of dancing, drinking and partying to their false idols. But the revelry the Israelites indulged in after the cry of the children of Israel was heard (Exodus 3:9) was in giving in what they don't own but was borrowed from the Egyptians (Exodus 3:22) on the word of Moses (Exodus 12:35-36) for God knew that they would need provisions for their journey. The God that they believed was when Moses and Aaron spoke and showed them the signs that they believed and worshiped bowing down without an idol. (Exodus 4:31) And now they wanted to see an idol who would lead them, and to make them this idol they strip themselves of not only their ornaments and jewels (Exodus 32:25) but also their favor and protection of God by which they were secured from the Egyptians and the mighty enemies they would be facing on their journey to the promise land.
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