INTRODUCTION TO EXODUS 32
This chapter gives an account of the idolatry of the Israelites making
and worshipping a golden calf, Exodus 32:1 the information of it God
gave to Moses, bidding him at the same time not to make any suit in
their favour, that he might consume them, and make a large nation... [ Continue Reading ]
AND WHEN THE PEOPLE SAW THAT MOSES DELAYED TO COME DOWN OUT OF THE
MOUNT,.... The time, according to the Targum of Jonathan, being
elapsed, which he had fixed for his descent, and through a
misreckoning, as Jarchi suggests; they taking the day of his going up
to be one of the forty days, at the end... [ Continue Reading ]
AND AARON SAID UNTO THEM,.... Perceiving that they were not to be
dissuaded from their evil counsel, and diverted from their purpose,
but were determined at all events to have an image made to represent
God unto them in a visible manner:
BREAK OFF THE GOLDEN EARRINGS WHICH ARE IN THE EARS OF YOUR W... [ Continue Reading ]
AND ALL THE PEOPLE BRAKE OFF THE GOLDEN EARRINGS, WHICH WERE IN THEIR
EARS,.... The men took off their earrings, and persuaded their wives
and children, or obliged them to part with theirs; though the Targum
of Jonathan says the women refused to give their ornaments to their
husbands, therefore all... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HE RECEIVED [THEM] AT THEIR HAND,.... For the use they delivered
them to him:
AND FASHIONED IT WITH A GRAVING TOOL, AFTER HE HAD MADE IT A MOLTEN
CALF; that is, after he had melted the gold, and cast it into a mould,
which gave it the figure of a calf, and with his tool wrought it into
a more a... [ Continue Reading ]
AND WHEN AARON SAW IT,.... In what form it was, and what a figure it
made, and how acceptable it was to the Israelites. The Targums of
Jonathan and Jerusalem paraphrase it,
"and Aaron saw Hur slain before him;''
for reproving them for their idolatry, as the Midrash e, quoted by
Jarchi, says: and A... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THEY ROSE UP EARLY IN THE MORNING,.... Being eager of, and intent
upon their idol worship:
AND OFFERED BURNT OFFERINGS; upon the altar Aaron had made, where they
were wholly consumed:
AND BROUGHT PEACE OFFERINGS: which were to make a feast to the Lord,
and of which they partook:
AND THE PEOPL... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE LORD SAID UNTO MOSES, GO, GET THEE DOWN,.... In Deuteronomy
9:12 it is added, "quickly", and so the Septuagint version here: this
was said after the Lord had finished his discourse with him, and had
given him the two tables of stone, and he was about to depart, but the
above affair happening... [ Continue Reading ]
THEY HAVE TURNED ASIDE QUICKLY OUT OF THE WAY WHICH I COMMANDED
THEM,.... The Targum of Jonathan adds, by way of explanation,
"on Sinai, saying, ye shall not make to yourselves an image, or
figure, or any similitude.''
This was the command God had given to them; this the way he had
directed them t... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE LORD SAID UNTO MOSES, I HAVE SEEN THIS PEOPLE,.... He had
observed their ways and works, their carriage and behaviour; he had
seen them before this time; he knew from all eternity what they would
be, that their neck would be as an iron sinew, and their brow brass;
but now he saw that in fact... [ Continue Reading ]
NOW, THEREFORE, LET ME ALONE,.... And not solicit him with prayers and
supplications in favour of these people, but leave him to take his own
way with them, without troubling him with any suit on their behalf;
and so the Targum of Jonathan,
"and now leave off thy prayer, and do not cry for them bef... [ Continue Reading ]
AND MOSES BESOUGHT THE LORD HIS GOD,.... As the Lord was the God of
Moses, his covenant God, and he had an interest in him, he made use of
it in favour of the people of Israel:
AND SAID, WHY DOTH THY WRATH WAX HOT AGAINST THY PEOPLE? so as to
think or speak of consuming them utterly; otherwise he k... [ Continue Reading ]
WHEREFORE SHOULD THE EGYPTIANS SPEAK AND SAY,.... Those that remained,
as the Targum of Jonathan, who were not drowned in the Red sea: a good
man will be concerned for the honour and glory of God among the
enemies of his people, that their mouths may not be opened to
blaspheme the Lord and speak ill... [ Continue Reading ]
REMEMBER ABRAHAM, ISAAC, AND ISRAEL, THY SERVANTS,.... The covenant he
made with them, the promise he had made unto them, with an oath
annexed to it:
TO WHOM THOU SWAREST BY THINE OWN SELF; which he did, because he could
swear by no greater; and for the confirmation of his covenant and
promise, see... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE LORD REPENTED OF THE EVIL WHICH HE THOUGHT TO DO UNTO HIS
PEOPLE. He did not do what he threatened to do, and seemed to have in
his thoughts and designs, but did what Moses desired he would, Exodus
32:12 not that any of God's thoughts or the determinations of his mind
are alterable; for the... [ Continue Reading ]
AND MOSES TURNED, AND WENT DOWN FROM THE MOUNT,.... He turned himself
from God, with whom he had been conversing forty days; his back was to
the ascent of the mount, and he turned himself in order to go down; or
"he looked" g, as a man considers what is to be done, as Aben Ezra
observes, and he saw... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE TABLES WERE THE WORK OF GOD,.... And not of angels or men; the
stones were made and formed by God into the shape they were:
AND THE WRITING WAS THE WRITING OF GOD, GRAVEN UPON THE TABLES; the
letters in which the law was written were of his framing, devising,
and engraving; and this was to... [ Continue Reading ]
AND WHEN JOSHUA HEARD THE NOISE OF THE PEOPLE, AS THEY SHOUTED,....
Dancing about the calf: when Moses went up into the mount, Joshua went
with him, and tarried in a lower part of the mount all the forty days
until he returned, see Exodus 24:13 though not so low as the bottom of
the mount where the... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HE SAID,.... Not Joshua, as Saadiah Gaon thinks, but Moses, in
answer to what Joshua had said:
[IT IS] NOT THE VOICE OF [THEM THAT] SHOUT FOR MASTERY; that have got
the better of it, and have obtained the victory, and shout on that
account; or, "not the voice of a cry of strength", or "of a str... [ Continue Reading ]
AND IT CAME TO PASS, AS SOON, AS HE CAME NIGH UNTO THE CAMP,.... To
the bottom of the mountain, and pretty near where the people were
encamped:
THAT HE SAW THE CALF, AND THE DANCING; the golden image of the calf,
and the people dancing about it, in honour of it, and as glad they had
got a symbol an... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HE TOOK THE CALF WHICH THEY HAD MADE, AND BURNT IT IN THE
FIRE,.... Melted it down into a mass of gold, whereby it lost its
form, and had no more the appearance of a calf:
AND GROUND IT TO POWDER; but how this was done is not easy to say,
whether by beating the mass of gold into thin plates, an... [ Continue Reading ]
AND MOSES SAID UNTO AARON,.... Having destroyed the calf, and thereby
expressed his abhorrence of their idolatry, he examines the principal
persons concerned, and inquires into the cause and reason of it, how
it came about; and begins with Aaron, though his own brother, with
whom along with Hur he h... [ Continue Reading ]
AND AARON SAID, LET NOT THE ANGER OF MY LORD WAX HOT,.... He addresses
him in a very respectful manner, though his younger brother, being in
a superior office, the chief ruler of the people, king in Jeshurun;
and he perceived a violent emotion rising in him, great indignation in
his countenance, and... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR THEY SAID UNTO ME, MAKE US GODS, WHICH SHALL GO BEFORE US,....
Which was true, Exodus 32:1 but then he should have told them, that
gods were not to be made; that what were made with hands were no gods,
and could not go before them; that the making of any image,
similitude, or representation of G... [ Continue Reading ]
AND I SAID UNTO THEM, WHOSOEVER HATH ANY GOLD, LET THEM BREAK IT
OFF,.... That is, any ear rings of gold, let them loose or take them
off their ears:
SO THEY GAVE [IT] ME; of their own accord, as if unasked by him,
though he had bid them bring it to him, Exodus 32:2:
THEN I CAST IT INTO THE FIRE;... [ Continue Reading ]
AND WHEN MOSES SAW THAT THE PEOPLE [WERE] NAKED,.... Not in their
bodies, being stripped of their ear rings; for parting with them was
not sufficient to denominate them naked in a corporeal sense; nor as
being without their armour, which was laid aside while they were
eating, and drinking, and danci... [ Continue Reading ]
THEN MOSES STOOD IN THE GATE OF THE CAMP,.... In one of the gates of
it; for it doubtless had more than one to go in and out of, as is
clear from Exodus 32:27 it being probably entrenched all around; here
Moses set himself, it being the usual place, as in cities, where the
people were summoned toget... [ Continue Reading ]
AND HE SAID UNTO THEM, THUS SAITH THE LORD GOD OF ISRAEL,.... The
following orders are given by Moses, not of himself the chief
magistrate, and as the effect of heat and passion, but there were from
the Lord, who was Israel's God and King; he had them expressly from
him, or by an impulse on his spir... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE CHILDREN OF LEVI DID ACCORDING TO THE WORD OF MOSES,.... They
girded their swords by their sides, went through the camp, and slew
their brethren, companions and neighbours, who were keeping holy day
in honour of the idol:
AND THERE FELL OF THE PEOPLE THAT DAY ABOUT THREE THOUSAND MEN; the
V... [ Continue Reading ]
FOR MOSES HAD SAID,.... To the Levites, when he first gave them their
orders:
CONSECRATE YOURSELVES TODAY TO THE LORD; devote yourselves to his
service, by obeying his orders, slaying those, or the heads of them,
who have cast so much contempt upon him as to worship the golden calf
in his room; and... [ Continue Reading ]
AND IT CAME TO PASS ON THE MORROW,.... The eighteenth day of Tammuz it
was, the same writers say, that Moses implored the mercy of God for
Israel. Jarchi on Exodus 32:11 says it was on the seventeenth day the
tables were broke, on the eighteenth the calf was burnt, and on the
nineteenth that Moses w... [ Continue Reading ]
AND MOSES RETURNED UNTO THE LORD,.... On the mount where he was in the
cloud:
AND SAID, OH, THIS PEOPLE HAVE SINNED A GREAT SIN; which to following
words explain; he confesses the same to God he had charged the people
with in Exodus 32:30:
AND HAVE MADE THEM GODS OF GOLD; the golden calf, which th... [ Continue Reading ]
YET NOW, IF THOU WILL FORGIVE THEIR SIN,.... Of thy free grace, good
will, and pleasure; it will redound to thy glory, men will praise thy
name on account of it; these people will have great reason to be
thankful, and will lie under great obligations to thee, to fear,
serve, and glorify thee; and in... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE LORD SAID UNTO MOSES,.... In answer to his request:
WHOSOEVER HATH SINNED AGAINST ME, HIM WILL I BLOT OUT OF MY BOOK; not
that anyone that is really in the book of life is ever blotted out, or
that anyone predestinated or ordained to eternal life ever perish: but
some persons may think them... [ Continue Reading ]
THEREFORE NOW GO, LEAD THE PEOPLE [UNTO THE] PLACE OF WHICH I HAVE
SPOKEN UNTO THEE,.... That is, to the land of Canaan, which he had
promised to their fathers and to them, and had directed Moses to bring
them to:
BEHOLD, MINE ANGEL SHALL GO BEFORE THEE: and not I, as Jarchi
interprets it; not the... [ Continue Reading ]
AND THE LORD PLAGUED THE PEOPLE,.... That is, continued so to do at
certain times, with the pestilence, or other calamities; for this
seems not to refer, as some think, to the slaughter of the 3000 men:
the reason follows,
BECAUSE THEY MADE THE CALF WHICH AARON MADE; that is, they provided
him with... [ Continue Reading ]