Nehemiah 9:18

18 Even when they had cast an image of a calf for themselves and said, "This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,' and had committed great blasphemies,

Nehemiah 9:18 Meaning and Commentary

Nehemiah 9:18

Yea, when they had made them a molten calf
In imitation of the Apis, or ox of the Egyptians:

and said, this is thy god that brought thee out of Egypt;
or the image of thy god, as the Arabic version, see ( Exodus 32:4 ) ,

and had wrought great provocations;
of all which nothing was greater than idolatry.

Nehemiah 9:18 In-Context

16 "But they and our ancestors acted presumptuously and stiffened their necks and did not obey your commandments;

17 they refused to obey, and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them; but they stiffened their necks and determined to return to their slavery in Egypt. But you are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and you did not forsake them.

18 Even when they had cast an image of a calf for themselves and said, "This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,' and had committed great blasphemies,

19 you in your great mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness; the pillar of cloud that led them in the way did not leave them by day, nor the pillar of fire by night that gave them light on the way by which they should go.

20 You gave your good spirit to instruct them, and did not withhold your manna from their mouths, and gave them water for their thirst.