What Does Exodus 32:5 Mean in the King James?
And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation, and said, To morrow is a feast to the LORD.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
Aaron proclaims a feast to the LORD while placing the altar before the calf, keeping the words and the altar’s direction in view at once.
THE MEANING
This verse speaks wherever a sacred announcement and its altar point in different directions. The feast is proclaimed “to the LORD,” while the altar stands before the calf; both facts remain visible in the same scene.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that naming a rite for the LORD, by itself, proves what stands at its center.
THE ROOT
וַיִּקְרָא
wayyiqraʾ
GROWS FROM
קרא
q-r-ʾ
qaraʾ (קָרָא) means to call, summon, or proclaim.
The Hebrew verb behind “made proclamation” is qaraʾ (קָרָא), “to call, summon, or proclaim.” Its branch miqraʾ (מִקְרָא), “a convocation or gathering called together,” shows that Aaron’s words do more than describe a feast: they call people together under the LORD’s name.
ALSO GROWS
miqraʾ: Convocation or public gathering; something called together.
מִקְרָא
It shows how a call can gather people around the feast Aaron announces.
qoreʾ: One who calls or reads.
קֹרֵא
The caller gives the announcement its public voice and names the gathering.
מִזְבֵּחַ
mizbēaḥ
GROWS FROM
זבח
z-b-ḥ
zāvaḥ (זָבַח) means to slaughter or sacrifice.
The Hebrew word mizbēaḥ (מִזְבֵּחַ), “altar,” grows from the root zāvaḥ (זָבַח), “to slaughter or sacrifice.” The altar’s name carries the action of sacrifice within it, so the verse places that act before the calf even as the feast is verbally dedicated to the LORD.
ALSO GROWS
zāvaḥ: To slaughter or sacrifice.
זָבַח
The verb reveals the sacrificial action carried by the altar’s root.
zevaḥ: A sacrifice or slaughter offering.
זֶבַח
The noun names what is brought to the altar whose placement the verse emphasizes.
THE PATTERN
Ritual language alone does not establish what a sacrifice serves or whether a feast is received.
Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.I hate, I despise your feast days, and I will not smell in your solemn assemblies.But I say, that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils.THE THREAD
And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the LORD.Both verses use qaraʾ (קָרָא), “to call or proclaim”: Genesis says people call upon the LORD’s name, while Aaron proclaims a feast to the LORD. The pairing brings the invoked name and what gathers people around an altar into the same frame.
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