A (male) calf (as frisking round), especially one nearly grown (i.e. a steer )
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עֵגֶל (egel) is the Hebrew word for calf — and in the OT's theological memory, the egel is permanently associated with Israel's most catastrophic covenant failure: the golden calf at Sinai (Exod 32:4, egel ha-zahav). The calf is also a sacrificial animal (Lev 9:2), and the fatted calf is a symbol of celebration (Luke 15:23).
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Full entry for עֵגֶל (H5695) · Open the biblical lexicon
עֵגֶל (egel) is the Hebrew word for calf — and in the OT's theological memory, the egel is permanently associated with Israel's most catastrophic covenant failure: the golden calf at Sinai (Exod 32:4, egel ha-zahav). The calf is also a sacrificial animal (Lev 9:2), and the fatted calf is a symbol of celebration (Luke 15:23).
The BSB source-word alignment has 35 aligned rows for this entry. Common renderings include calf (6), calves (5), the calf (5), a calf (3), of a calf (2).
The source-word alignment first shows this entry at Exodus 32:4. Its strongest book concentrations include Exodus (6), Jeremiah (4), Hosea (3), Leviticus (3).
עֵגֶל (egel) is the Hebrew word for calf — and in the OT's theological memory, the egel is permanently associated with Israel's most catastrophic covenant failure: the golden calf at Sinai (Exod 32:4, egel ha-zahav). The calf is also a sacrificial animal (Lev 9:2), and the fatted calf is a symbol of celebration (Luke 15:23). But the theological weight of the word is carried by the golden calf episode and Jeroboam's replication of it at Bethel and Dan: the egel becomes the emblem of Israel's recurring temptation to replace the invisible YHWH with a visible, manageable image.
Exodus 32:4 gives egel its paradigm form: 'And he received from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made it into a golden calf (egel zahav). And they said: These are your gods (elohecha), O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.' Aaron's egel at Sinai is constructed while Moses is on the mountain receiving the Torah from YHWH. The image borrows the exodus-language ('who brought you out of Egypt' — the same words YHWH uses of himself in the Ten Commandments, Exod 20:2) and applies it to the egel. This is not Israel abandoning YHWH for a different deity so much as Israel replacing the invisible YHWH with a visible, controllable representation — and in doing so, violating the second commandment (Exod 20:4-5) that Moses is receiving at that very moment on the mountain.
1 Kings 12:28-29 gives egel its Jeroboam-replication form: 'So the king took counsel and made two calves of gold (egel zahav). And he said to the people, You have gone up to Jerusalem long enough. Behold your gods (elohecha), O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. And he set one in Bethel and the other he put in Dan.' Jeroboam's calves repeat Aaron's words exactly ('your gods who brought you out of Egypt') — Jeroboam is establishing a rival worship-system to Jerusalem, using the calf-image and the exodus-language of the Sinai apostasy. The deliberate echo is the narrator's theological verdict: Jeroboam did not create new idolatry; he re-created the original covenant-betrayal.
Jeremiah 34:18-19 gives egel its covenant-curse form: 'And the men who transgressed my covenant and did not keep the terms of the covenant that they made before me, I will make them like the calf (ha-egel) that they cut in two and passed between its parts.' The covenant-cutting ceremony (berith egel) is the ritual in which the parties to a covenant pass between the halves of a divided animal — the implicit curse is 'may this be done to me if I violate this covenant.' Judah's leaders made this covenant with their slaves (v. 8-10) and then revoked it. YHWH's judgment is: they will be given to their enemies like the egel they passed between.
For the preacher, עֵגֶל (egel) gives the congregation the paradigm case of covenant idolatry: not the abandonment of the exodus-narrative but its re-imaging — replacing the invisible God of the covenant with a visible, accessible substitute that can be managed and controlled.
עֵגֶל (egel) is currently indexed about 35 times in the local Hebrew index. Its theological center is the golden calf at Sinai (Exod 32:4 — the paradigm case of covenant idolatry) and Jeroboam's deliberate replication at Bethel and Dan (1 Kgs 12:28-29). Secondary uses: the sacrificial calf (Lev 9:2), the covenant-splitting calf (Jer 34:18-19), and the fatted calf of celebration (Amos 6:4; Luke 15:23 parallels the Hebrew egel with Greek moschos).
Psalm 106:19-20 is the canonical summary: 'They made a calf at Horeb and worshiped a metal image. They exchanged the glory of God for the image of a grass-eating ox.'
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!”
The paradigm egel: 'he fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf (egel zahav); they said: these are your elohim, O Israel, who brought you up from Egypt.' The theological offense is structural: Israel uses the exodus-language YHWH uses of himself (Exod 20:2) and applies it to the egel. This is not straightforward polytheism but a more subtle form of idolatry: the invisible God is replaced by a visible representation that can be managed.
The egel is the second commandment (Exod 20:4-5) violated in its most literal form, at the very moment Moses is receiving the Torah that contains that commandment.
After seeking advice, the king made two golden calves and said to the people, “Going up to Jerusalem is too much for you. Here, O Israel, are your gods, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”
Jeroboam's egel-replication: 'these are your elohim, O Israel, who brought you up from Egypt' — the identical formula as Exodus 32:4. Jeroboam is not coincidentally echoing Aaron; he is deliberately replicating the Sinai apostasy as a political-religious strategy to prevent northern Israel from going to Jerusalem for worship. The deliberate echo is the narrator's verdict: every generation's version of the egel is a replay of Sinai.
The two calves — Bethel (southern) and Dan (northern) — frame the entire Northern Kingdom's worship space with the egel-idolatry that YHWH condemns.
At Horeb they made a calf and worshiped a molten image.
The canonical summary of the egel: 'they made a calf (egel) at Horeb and worshiped a molten image (massekah).' Psalm 106's historical confession of Israel's failures gives the golden calf its canonical theological verdict in v. 19-20: 'They exchanged (vayamiru) their glory (keboddam) for the image (temunah) of an ox that eats grass.' The exchange is the theological category: Israel had YHWH's glory and traded it for an ox-image.
The same exchange-language (antikatalepso) is used in Romans 1:23: 'they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things' — Paul reads the egel as the paradigm case for all subsequent idolatry.
And those who have transgressed My covenant and have not fulfilled the terms of the covenant they made before Me, I will treat like the calf they cut in two in order to pass between its pieces.
The covenant-curse egel: 'I will make them like the egel (calf) that they cut in two and passed between its parts.' Jeremiah 34's oracle against covenant-breakers uses the egel-splitting ceremony — the standard ancient Near Eastern covenant ritual (Gen 15:9-17: YHWH's covenant with Abram uses the same ceremony) — as the vehicle of the curse. Those who passed between the egel-halves and then violated the covenant will be given to their enemies 'as prey' (v.
20: Leavakim lahem) like the egel itself. The egel both formalizes the covenant and, when the covenant is violated, becomes the image of the violators' fate.
With what shall I come before the Lord when I bow before the God on high? Should I come to Him with burnt offerings, with year-old calves?
The sacrificial egel as liturgical question: 'shall I come before him with aglei (calves) a year old?' Micah 6:6-8 is the covenant-lawsuit that asks what YHWH really requires: burnt offerings, calves, thousands of rams, rivers of oil, the firstborn? YHWH's answer (v. 8) rejects the liturgical escalation and calls for justice, covenant-love, and humility. The egel here is the sacrificial animal — not the idolatrous image — but in the context of Micah's lawsuit, the multiplied egel-offerings are inadequate substitutes for covenant obedience.
The egel in the sanctuary cannot replace justice in the market.
BSB source-word alignment connects this entry to exact verse rows, English rendering, source form, transliteration, and parsing.
How English Renders ItA compact distribution from source-word alignment before the full evidence tables.
Hebrew word. Young bovine denoting vigor and fertility; theologically freighted by idolatry (golden calf) and sacrifice.
Young bovine denoting vigor and fertility; theologically freighted by idolatry (golden calf) and sacrifice.
a (male) calf (as frisking round), especially one nearly grown (i.e. a steer) BDB: calf Usage: bullock, calf.
How this word appears across different grammatical cases and numbers.
Selected passage-level study witnesses for this word. This section is not the full occurrence list.
Showing 2 selected witnesses from 35 lexical occurrence verses.
עֵגֶל is built from this root:
Central symbol of false worship. Hosea 10:1-8
Symbol of idolatrous worship. Hosea 8:1-7
Compound and idiomatic phrases that include this word. Follow a link to study the phrase and how its parts work together.
עֵגֶל (egel) gives the congregation the paradigm case of idolatry — and its most illuminating feature is that the golden calf was not the replacement of YHWH with a completely different deity. Aaron used the exodus-language YHWH uses of himself: 'these are your gods who brought you out of Egypt' (Exod 32:4). The idolatry was the substitution of the invisible, uncontrollable, speaking God of Sinai with a visible, present, silent image that could be managed on Israel's terms.
The egel-idolatry is always this: not the abandonment of the exodus-narrative but its re-imaging — keeping the story while replacing the God. Jeroboam's calves at Bethel and Dan (1 Kgs 12:28-29) repeat the formula word for word, which is the narrator's verdict: every generation finds its own egel. Paul reads the golden calf as the template for all subsequent idolatry in Romans 1:23 — 'they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things' — the same exchange as Psalm 106:20 ('they exchanged their glory for the image of an ox').
The congregation's egel is not necessarily a literal image: it is whatever replaces the invisible, sovereign, speaking God with something visible, manageable, and silent. The prodigal son's father kills the fatted calf (moschos/egel equivalent, Luke 15:23) not to worship it but to celebrate — the egel-celebration that should have happened at Sinai finally happens in the presence of the Father who runs to welcome the returning son.
Exod.32.4
עֵגֶל (egel, H5695) is the young male bovine — a calf or young steer. The feminine form is עֶגְלָה (eglah, H5697, heifer — used for the heifer whose neck is broken in the unsolved murder ceremony, Deut 21:3-4, and for Samson's riddle, Judg 14:18). The egel ha-zahav (H5695+H2091, golden calf) is the compound that appears in Exod 32:4, 8; Deut 9:16, 21; Neh 9:18.
Psalm 106:19 uses the simple egel (calf) and the related massekah (molten image). In NT Greek, the primary heir is moschos (G3448, calf/young bull) — used in Acts 7:41 ('they made a calf [moschos] in those days and offered a sacrifice to the idol' — Stephen's speech reading the egel as Israel's defining rejection of YHWH's mediated presence) and in Luke 15:23, 27, 30 (the fatted calf/moschos of celebration in the prodigal son parable).
Hebrews 9:12, 19 use the moschos-blood as the type that Christ's blood fulfills.
Acts 7:41 is the NT's most direct egel-reference outside the Gospels: Stephen's speech to the Sanhedrin cites the golden calf as Israel's paradigm rejection of YHWH's mediated presence ('they made a calf in those days, and offered a sacrifice to the idol and were rejoicing in the works of their hands'). Stephen places the egel in the line of Israel's successive rejections: rejecting Joseph (v.
9), Rejecting Moses (v. 25-28), rejecting the tabernacle's mediated presence (v. 41-43), rejecting the prophets (v. 52), and now rejecting Jesus. Romans 1:23 is Paul's canonical application of Psalm 106:20: 'they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things' — Paul reads the egel-exchange as the template for all post-fall idolatry, including the sophisticated versions that do not involve literal calf-images.
1 Corinthians 10:7 applies the golden calf directly to the Corinthian situation: 'Do not be idolaters as some of them were; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play' (quoting Exod 32:6). The egel-party at Sinai is Paul's warning to the Corinthians who think they can participate in idol-feasts without consequence. Hebrews 9:12-14 uses the blood of bulls and calves (tauron kai trachon haima) as the OT type that Christ's blood fulfills: 'if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ...
Purify our conscience.'
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