Nehemiah 9:18

Even when they cast for themselves an image of a calf and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,’ and when they committed terrible blasphemies,

Berean Standard Bible

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Study note

Setting — The prayer leader recounts Israel’s wilderness rebellion to God, specifically highlighting the moment the people forged a calf and claimed it was their deliverer from Egypt. This confession occurs within a broader recital of ancestral sins and God’s sustained mercy.

The words — עֵגֶל ('E.gel) denotes a calf, and מַסֵּכָה (ma.se.Khah) specifies a molten metal image. Together they record the physical object the people fashioned and worshipped.

The thread — This event is cross-referenced at Exodus 32:4, Exodus 32:31, and Psalm 106:19, where the same calf-making and blasphemous declaration are repeatedly cited as a defining moment of wilderness apostasy.

Why it lands — The text demands a reader confront the reality of substituting created forms for the true deliverer. It establishes a baseline of human idolatry against which God’s patient guidance must be measured.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Hebrew words

אַ֗ף'Afeven כִּֽי־ki-for עָשׂ֤וּ'a.Suthey had madeלָהֶם֙la./Hemfor/ themselvesעֵ֣גֶל'E.gela calf of מַסֵּכָ֔הma.se.Khahmolten metal וַיֹּ֣אמְר֔וּva/i.Yo.me.Ruand/ they had said זֶ֣הzehthis אֱלֹהֶ֔יךָ'e.lo.Hei./kha[is] god/ your אֲשֶׁ֥ר'a.Sherwho הֶעֶלְךָ֖he.'el./Khahe brought up/ you מִמִּצְרָ֑יִםmi./mitz.Ra.yimfrom/ Egypt וַֽיַּעֲשׂ֔וּva/i.ya.'a.Suand/ they had done נֶאָצ֖וֹתne.'a.Tzotblasphemies גְּדֹלֽוֹת׃ge.do.Lotgreat

King James Version

Yea, when they had made them a molten calf, and said, This is thy God that brought thee up out of Egypt, and had wrought great provocations;

Cross-references

Psalms 106:19 At Horeb they made a calf and worshiped a molten image.
Exodus 32:4 He took the gold from their hands, and with an engraving tool he fashioned it into a molten calf. And they said, “These, O Israel, are your gods, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”
Exodus 32:31 So Moses returned to the LORD and said, “Oh, what a great sin these people have committed! They have made gods of gold for themselves.
Deuteronomy 9:12 And the LORD said to me, “Get up and go down from here at once, for your people, whom you brought out of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. How quickly they have turned aside from the way that I commanded them! They have made for themselves a molten image.”
Ezekiel 20:7 And I said to them: ‘Each of you must throw away the abominations before his eyes, and you must not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.’