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CALF, THE GOLDEN
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See also:CALF, THE See also:GOLDEN , a molten See also:image made by the Israelites when See also:Moses had ascended the See also:Mount of Yahweh to receive the See also:Law (Ex. xxxii.). Alarmed at his lengthy See also:absence the See also:people clamoured for " gods " to See also:lead them, and at the instigation of See also:Aaron, they brought their See also:jewelry and made the calf out of it. This was celebrated by a sacred festival, and it was only through the intervention of Moses that the people were saved from the wrath of Yahweh (cp. Dent. ix. 19 sqq.). Nevertheless 3000 of them See also:fell at the hands of the See also:Levites who, in See also:answer to the See also:summons of Moses, declared themselves on the See also:side of Yahweh. The origin of this particular See also:form of See also:worship can scarcely be sought in See also:Egypt; the See also:Apis which was worshipped there was a live See also:bull, and image-worship was See also:common among the Canaanites in connexion with the cult of See also:Baal and See also:Astarte (qq.v.). In See also:early See also:Israel it was considered natural to worship Yahweh by means of images (cp. the See also:story of See also:Gideon, Judg. viii. 24 sqq.), and even to Moses himself was attributed the See also:bronze-See also:serpent whose cult at See also:Jerusalem was destroyed in the See also:time of See also:Hezekiah (2 See also:Kings xviii. 4, Num. xxi. 4-9). The condemnation which later writers, particularly those imbued with the spirit of the Deuteronomic See also:reformation, pass upon all image-worship, is in See also:harmony with the See also:judgment upon See also:Jeroboam for his innovations at See also:Bethel and See also:Dan (1 Kings xii. 28 sqq., xvi. 26, &c.). But neither See also:Elijah nor See also:Elisha raised a See also:voice against the cult; then, as later, in the time of See also:Amos, it was nominally Yahweh-worship, and See also:Hosea is the first to regard it as the fundamental cause of Israel's misery.
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