Bible Strands
Psalms 106:19
At Horeb they made a calf and worshiped a molten image.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist addresses the assembled congregation, recounting the historical moment Israel turned to idolatry immediately after the Exodus.
The words — The Hebrew עֵ֥גֶל ('E.gel) literally means "calf," and מַסֵּכָֽה (ma.se.Khah) denotes a "molten image" or cast idol.
The thread — The text points to Exodus 32:4 and Exodus 32:35 for the calf's fabrication and subsequent plague, and to Deuteronomy 9:8 for the Horeb provocation.
Why it lands — The passage states that Israel exchanged divine deliverance for a visible substitute, requiring the reader to identify where they prioritize created forms over covenant faithfulness.
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
King James Version
They made a calf in Horeb, and worshipped the molten image.
Cross-references
- 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 32:35 And the LORD sent a plague on the people because of what they had done with the calf that Aaron had made.
- Deuteronomy 9:8 At Horeb you provoked the LORD, and He was angry enough to destroy you.
- 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.”
- Deuteronomy 9:21 And I took that sinful thing, the calf you had made, and burned it in the fire. Then I crushed it and ground it to powder as fine as dust, and I cast it into the stream that came down from the mountain.
- 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,
- Acts 7:41 At that time they made a calf and offered a sacrifice to the idol, rejoicing in the works of their hands.
- 1 Corinthians 10:7 Do not be idolaters, as some of them were. As it is written: “The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry.”