And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.
They rose up early on the morrow. Rising early seems to have been a practice specially observed on days when solemn sacrifices were offered (Job 1:5).
Offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings. These, which were commanded to be offered only to God, were presented to the golden calf.
And the people sat down to eat and to drink - as was customary on the presentation of peace offerings (Deuteronomy 12:17: cf. Herodotus, b. 2:, ch. 40:); and thus they showed a desire to enjoy the same communion with this consecrated symbol that Aaron and the 70 elders had with the God of Israel, when they ate and drank in His presence (Exodus 24:11). They were in a state of great and exultant jubilee. There was nothing wrong in the indulgence of joyful feelings, for God Himself encouraged rejoicing after religious solemnities (Deuteronomy 12:7; Psalms 95:1). But there seems to have been at the same time much of the revelry that marked the feasts of the pagan; for it is added that, after they had 'eaten and drunk,' they 'rose up to play.'
Herodotus gives an account (b. 2:, ch. 59:-lxii.) of a solemn feast which the people of Egypt celebrated at the city of Bubastis in honour of the goddess Diana. 'To her (he says) they offer many sacrifices; and while the victim is burning they dance, and play a hundred antics, and drink more wine than in the whole year beside; for there convene there about 700,000 men and women, besides children.' In another feast to the goddess Isis, the same historian relates that they indulged in such impure rites that he shrunk from describing the scene, (cf. Herodotus, b. 5:, ch. 17:)