In Exodus 32, does 'rose up to play' mean the Israelites held an orgy?
Robert Sungenis answers yes, probably: "rose up to play" in Exodus 32 points to a ritual orgy learned from the surrounding pagans, which explains God's great anger. He notes that Paul uses the same language in 1 Corinthians 10, recording that twenty-three thousand died in one day, as a warning to Corinthians with similar sexual sins.
A viewer notes that some translations render 'rose up to play' in Exodus 32:6 as 'orgy' and asks whether the Israelites were having an orgy under Mount Sinai.
Answer
Yes, probably so. The Israelites learned this from the pagan nations around them, who would have open, ritual sexual displays, so orgy is probably the best word. For God to become as angry as he did in Exodus 32, you really have to do something terribly serious. When Moses came down after forty days with God's commandments and confronted Aaron, Aaron claimed the gold just fell off the people and out popped a golden calf. Paul picks up on this event in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, using the same language, the people rose up to play, which is definitely sexual in nature, and he notes that God killed twenty-three thousand in one day. Paul brings it up precisely because the Corinthians were having the same kind of sexual problems, as we see in 1 Corinthians 5 with the man sleeping with his stepmother. So yes, Exodus 32, read alongside the surrounding chapters and Paul, points to serious sexual sin, an orgy, at the foot of the mountain.