Exodus 32:4

Summary

The verse narrates Aaron receiving gold from the people, shaping it with a tool, and casting it into the form of a calf. The people then declare this object to be the "gods" that brought them out of Egypt.

Key words

• yiqqach ("he took", H3947H) — qal narrative verb, continuing the story sequence with "and then he took."
• yatsar ("he fashioned", H6696C) — qal narrative verb describing the shaping action; the root relates to forming or molding.
• chereth ("tool/engraving instrument", H2747) — masculine singular noun, object of the preposition ba ("with the"), naming the implement used.
• egel ("calf of", H5695) — masculine singular noun in construct state, meaning it is grammatically bound to the following word massekhah.
• massekhah ("molten metal/casting", H4541A) — feminine singular noun, completing the construct phrase "calf of molten-metal," i.e., a calf made by casting.
• eloheikha ("your gods", H0430J) — masculine plural noun in construct form with the suffix kha ("your"), used in the people's declaration.

What the text says

The Hebrew sentence chain uses five consecutive narrative verbs joined by the va- prefix (H9001): yiqqach ("he took"), yatsar ("he fashioned"), ya'aseihu ("he made it"), and yo'meru ("they said"). This chain structure presents the actions as a rapid, sequential narrative: taking, shaping, making, and speaking follow one another without interruption.

The phrase egel massekhah (H5695 + H4541A) is a construct pair, literally "calf of casting/molten-metal," indicating the calf's material composition rather than describing it with a separate adjective. The object markers oto (H0853 + H9033, "it," referring to the gold) and hu (H9033, "it," referring to the calf) track the referent across the verbs of shaping and making.

In the people's declaration, eleh ("these", H0428) is a demonstrative particle pointing to the object just made, followed by the construct phrase eloheikha Yisrael ("gods of you, Israel"), where eloheikha (H0430J) is plural in form with a second-person singular suffix. The relative clause introduced by asher ("who/that", H0834A) modifies this phrase, using the hiphil perfect he'elukha ("they brought you up", H5927H) — a causative form indicating an action already completed, describing what these "gods" reportedly did.

Differences between versions

The Hebrew text does not explicitly name "gold" as the object taken; it only says mi-yadam ("from their hand", H3027I + H9028). The LXX and Vulgate likewise omit an explicit noun for gold at this point, matching the Hebrew's implicit reference. However, some translations (BSB, SBLIBRE) insert "gold" explicitly, clarifying the referent from context (established earlier in the chapter) though it is not a word present in this specific verse's Hebrew or Greek/Latin text.