THE GOLDEN CALF IN PSALM 22

George W. Coats

The narrative in Exodus 32 describes the tragic event in Israel's wilderness experience marked by construction of the Golden Calf. According to the tale in these verses, Moses had left the people, apparently in the care of Aaron, in order to climb the Mountain for an audience with God. The problem posed by the narrative, the plot at the foundation of the tale, emerges with clarity in the first verses of the unit. Now anxious because Moses tarried so long on the Mountain, the people address Aaron with instructions designed to resolve the source of their anxiety: "Up! Make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him." In the face of their anxiety, the people call for Aaron to construct gods who could continue the leadership for the people in their journey through the wilderness. The present form of the text interprets this speech as rank heresy. Not only do the people request construction of an object that would serve as leader of the exodus and wilderness journey, an object defined as gods and thus as an idol that violates the second commandment, but they also identify the object as "gods" and thus violate the first commandment. Indeed, the noun is plural, constructed with a plural verb. The first commandment prohibits service of other gods, a noun also clearly defined as plural by the plural adjective that follows it. From the point of view of the storyteller, the event highlights the tragic apostasy of the people that violates the critical first two items in the Mosaic decalogue. Yet, it is important to note that the call for construction of gods to effect the leadership of the people in the wilderness journey is

1 2

not a call for replacement of the Lord as the God of the event. To be sure, the people ask for gods. But the gods defined by the people would replace Moses, not the Lord. "Up! Make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him. (Exodus 32:1)" The tradition carried by the narrative rests on an assumption that the "gods" to be constructed stand in very close association with Moses. Is it possible that behind the present polemic in the narrative lies a tradition that accepted a positive role for the golden calf in Israel's cult? Is it possible that positive tradition recognized a close association between the golden calf requested here and Moses? Was the object at one time, perhaps before its interpretation as an object of apostasy that would replace the absent Moses, a symbol of Moses' leadership? Perhaps the allusion to Moses in this verse, zeh moseh hä>Κ, hides a reference to the God of Moses: "This one of the man Moses who brought us up out of the land of Egypt...." Moses responds to God's announcement that the people have become apostate with the golden calf by interceding for the people and in fact securing their pardon, at least for the moment. God's intention was to destroy the apostates and begin a new with Moses. But Moses announces his unity with the worshippers of the golden calf and wins a stay of execution. Then Moses and Joshua descend the Mountain in order to confront the people involved with the new object that serves as leader for the people in the wilderness journey. In the descent, Joshua responds to the noise from the camp with an apparent foreboding announcement. "There is a noise of war in the camp." The noise, in Hebrew, the voice, qo Aof the people is iden- tified as the "voice" of war, the qol milhamah. But the play on the voice as the term for the noise coming from the foot of the mountain only highlights Moses' response to the event. "It is not the voice (qôn of shouting for victory. It is not the voice (qôn of shouting for defeat. It is the voice (qot7 of shouting that I hear." This strange exchange, a picturesque definition of the noise from the camp that.leaves the final stage unqualified in its effort to color the sound from the camp, fits into the picture of rank apostasy in the celebration with the golden calf. The following verses