Arcana Coelestia # 10511
10511. 'Because they made the calf' means on account of the worship brought about by hellish love. This is clear from the meaning of 'the calf' as the delight belonging to self-love, dealt with above in 10407, so that 'making the calf' means worship brought about by the delight belonging to that love, or what amounts to the same thing, worship brought about by that love. The fact that this love is a hellish one has been shown very often. The reason why the expression 'making the calf' means worship is that the making of it entails all that has been stated in verses 4-6 of the present chapter regarding the veneration and worship of it.
Exodus 32:4-6
4
He received what they handed him, and fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made it a molten calf; and they said, "These are your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt."
5
When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made a proclamation, and said, "Tomorrow shall be a feast to Yahweh."
6
They rose up early on the next day, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.
