Exodus 32:5

“And when Aaron saw it, etc.] In what form it was, and what a figure it made, and how acceptable it was to the Israelites. The Targums of Jonathan and Jerusalem paraphrase it, “and Aaron saw Hur slain before him;” for reproving them for their idolatry, as the Midrash f943, quoted by Jarchi, says: and Aaron fearing they would take away his life if he opposed them, he built an altar before it; that sacrifice might be offered on it to it: and Aaron made proclamation, and said, tomorrow [is] a feast to the Lord; that is, he gave orders to have it published throughout the camp, there would be solemn sacrifices offered up to the Lord, as represented by this calf, and a feast thereon, which was a…”

“Aaron made proclamation, and said, To-morrow is a feast to the Lord--a remarkable circumstance, strongly confirmatory of the view that they had not renounced the worship of Jehovah, but in accordance with Egyptian notions, had formed an image with which they had been familiar, to be the visible symbol of the divine presence. But there seems to have been much of the revelry that marked the feasts of the heathen.”

“In all probability these three chapters originally formed a distinct composition. The main incidents recorded in them follow in the order of time, and are therefore in their proper place as regards historical sequence. The golden calf - The people had, to a great extent, lost the patriarchal faith, and were but imperfectly instructed in the reality of a personal unseen God. Being disappointed at the long absence of Moses, they seem to have imagined that he had deluded them, and had probably been destroyed amidst the thunders of the mountain Exodus 24:15-18. Accordingly, they gave way to their superstitious fears and fell back upon that form of idolatry which was most familiar to them (see…”

“And Aaron built an altar before it, and proclaimed a feast - A feast of dedication; yet he calls it a feast to Jehovah; for, as brutish as they were, they did not design to terminate their adoration in the image; but they made it for a representation of the true God, whom they intended to worship in and through this image. And yet this did not excuse them from gross idolatry, no more than it will excuse the Papists, whose plea it is, that they do not worship the image, but God by the image; so making themselves just such idolaters as the worshippers of the golden calf, whose feast was a feast to Jehovah, and proclaimed to be so, that the most ignorant and unthinking might not mistake it.…”

“32:5 Aaron attempted to control the process, but he was actually abdicating leadership by simply doing what he thought the people wanted. • Although the idol was referred to as “the gods” (32:4), Aaron also implied that it was a physical manifestation of the Lord.”

“Aaron: Sa1 14:35; Kg2 16:11; Hos 8:11, Hos 8:14 made proclamation: Lev 23:2, Lev 23:4, Lev 23:21, Lev 23:37; Kg1 21:9; Kg2 10:20; Ch2 30:5 a feast: Exo 32:4, Exo 10:9, Exo 12:14; Kg1 12:32, Kg1 12:33; Co1 5:8 Exodus 32:6”