Unto Aaron] Aaron and Hur had been left in charge by Moses; see Exodus 24:14. Make us gods] RM 'a god.' The Hebrew word for God has a plural form. In making this demand it is doubtful whether the people intended to abandon the worship of Jehovah altogether, or wished simply to have a visible representation of Him, in other words, whether their sin was a breach of the first commandment of the Decalogue or the second. The words of Aaron in Exodus 32:4-5 seem to indicate that he at least regarded the golden bull as an image of the true God; but in Exodus 32:8 the people are charged with deserting Jehovah for another god. The one sin naturally leads to the other. The worship of God by means of images degrades God, and the image gradually usurps His place in the mind of the worshipper. See on Exodus 15:11; Exodus 20:3; Exodus 20:4.
Related Commentaries of Exodus 32:1
Exodus 32:1
1 And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, 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.