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Texts -- Exodus 32:2-35 (NET)

Context
32:2 So Aaron said to them, “Break off the gold earrings that are on the ears of your wives , your sons , and your daughters , and bring them to me.” 32:3 So all the people broke off the gold earrings that were on their ears and brought them to Aaron . 32:4 He accepted the gold from them , fashioned it with an engraving tool , and made a molten calf . Then they said , “These are your gods , O Israel , who brought you up out of Egypt .” 32:5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it, and Aaron made a proclamation and said , “Tomorrow will be a feast to the Lord .” 32:6 So they got up early on the next day and offered up burnt offerings and brought peace offerings , and the people sat down to eat and drink , and they rose up to play . 32:7 The Lord spoke to Moses : “Go quickly, descend , because your people , whom you brought up from the land of Egypt , have acted corruptly . 32:8 They have quickly turned aside from the way that I commanded them– they have made for themselves a molten calf and have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it and said , ‘These are your gods , O Israel , which brought you up from the land of Egypt .’” 32:9 Then the Lord said to Moses : “I have seen this people . Look what a stiff-necked people they are! 32:10 So now , leave me alone so that my anger can burn against them and I can destroy them, and I will make from you a great nation .” 32:11 But Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God and said , “O Lord , why does your anger burn against your people , whom you have brought out from the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand ? 32:12 Why should the Egyptians say , ‘For evil he led them out to kill them in the mountains and to destroy them from the face of the earth ’? Turn from your burning anger , and relent of this evil against your people . 32:13 Remember Abraham , Isaac , and Israel your servants , to whom you swore by yourself and told them, ‘I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven , and all this land that I have spoken about I will give to your descendants , and they will inherit it forever .’” 32:14 Then the Lord relented over the evil that he had said he would do to his people . 32:15 Moses turned and went down from the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hands . The tablets were written on both sides – they were written on the front and on the back. 32:16 Now the tablets were the work of God , and the writing was the writing of God , engraved on the tablets . 32:17 When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted , he said to Moses , “It is the sound of war in the camp !” 32:18 Moses said , “It is not the sound of those who shout for victory , nor is it the sound of those who cry because they are overcome , but the sound of singing I hear .” 32:19 When he approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing , Moses became extremely angry . He threw the tablets from his hands and broke them to pieces at the bottom of the mountain . 32:20 He took the calf they had made and burned it in the fire , ground it to powder , poured it out on the water , and made the Israelites drink it. 32:21 Moses said to Aaron , “What did this people do to you, that you have brought on them so great a sin ?” 32:22 Aaron said , “Do not let your anger burn hot , my lord ; you know these people , that they tend to evil . 32:23 They said to me, ‘Make us gods that will go before us, for as for this fellow Moses , the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt , we do not know what has happened to him.’ 32:24 So I said to them, ‘Whoever has gold , break it off .’ So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire , and this calf came out .” 32:25 Moses saw that the people were running wild , for Aaron had let them get completely out of control , causing derision from their enemies . 32:26 So Moses stood at the entrance of the camp and said , “Whoever is for the Lord , come to me.” All the Levites gathered around him, 32:27 and he said to them, “Thus says the Lord , the God of Israel , ‘Each man fasten his sword on his side , and go back and forth from entrance to entrance throughout the camp , and each one kill his brother , his friend , and his neighbor .’” 32:28 The Levites did what Moses ordered , and that day about three thousand men of the people died . 32:29 Moses said , “You have been consecrated today for the Lord , for each of you was against his son or against his brother , so he has given a blessing to you today .” 32:30 The next day Moses said to the people , “You have committed a very serious sin , but now I will go up to the Lord – perhaps I can make atonement on behalf of your sin .” 32:31 So Moses returned to the Lord and said , “Alas , this people has committed a very serious sin , and they have made for themselves gods of gold . 32:32 But now , if you will forgive their sin …, but if not , wipe me out from your book that you have written .” 32:33 The Lord said to Moses , “Whoever has sinned against me– that person I will wipe out of my book . 32:34 So now go , lead the people to the place I have spoken to you about. See , my angel will go before you. But on the day that I punish , I will indeed punish them for their sin .” 32:35 And the Lord sent a plague on the people because they had made the calf – the one Aaron made .

Pericope

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(Note: In "active" or "on" condition, the hymns music will be played automatically when mouse hover on a hymns title)
  • [Exo 32:29] I’ll Live For Him
  • [Exo 32:29] Savior, While My Heart Is Tender
  • [Exo 32:26] Who Is On The Lord’s Side?
  • [Exo 32:26] Who Will Follow Jesus?
  • [Exo 32:26] Who’s On The Lord’s Side?

Questions

Resources/Books

Expository Notes on the Bible (Constable)

  • One of the significant changes in the emphasis that occurs at this point in Genesis is from cursing in the primeval record to blessing in the patriarchal narratives. The Abrahamic Covenant is most important in this respect. H...
  • Joseph awakened his brothers' guilty consciences when he put his brothers in prison as spies after they had come to Egypt for grain. His keeping Simeon hostage while allowing the others to bring Benjamin back pricked their co...
  • Jacob blessed all 12 of his sons and foretold what would become of each of them and their descendants. He disqualified Reuben, Simeon, and Levi from leadership and gave that blessing to Judah. He granted the double portion to...
  • Exodus embraces about 431 years of history, from the arrival of Jacob and his family in Egypt (ca. 1876 B.C.) to the erection of the tabernacle in the wilderness of Sinai (ca. 1445 B.C.). However 1:1-7 is a review of Jacob's ...
  • I. The liberation of Israel 1:1-15:21A. God's preparation of Israel and Moses chs. 1-41. The growth of Jacob's family 1:1-72. The Israelites' bondage in Egypt 1:8-223. Moses' birth and education 2:1-104. Moses' flight from Eg...
  • 3:1-12 Horeb is another name for Sinai (v. 1). It probably indicates a range of mountains rather than a particular mountain peak. The writer called it "the mountain of God"because it was the place where God later gave the Mos...
  • Again the Israelites complained because there was no water to drink when they camped at Rephidim (cf. 15:24). At Marah there was bad water, but now there was none.". . . the supreme calamity of desert travellers befell them--...
  • The Lord had liberated Israel from bondage in Egypt, but now He adopted the nation into a special relationship with Himself."Now begins the most sublime section in the whole Book. The theme of this section is supremely signif...
  • 23:13 This verse is a summary warning against idolatry (cf. 20:22-23)."The continual return to the theme of idolatry throughout this section of the book is preparation and background for an appreciation of the incident of the...
  • "The great event in chapter 24 is the climax of the Book of Exodus."41324:1-8 The remaining verses in this section contain God's directions to Moses personally. He, Aaron, Aaron's two eldest sons, and 70 of the elders of Isra...
  • Moses stayed in the heights of the mountain 40 days and nights while God gave him the stone tablets of the law and all the details of the tabernacle and its worship. Thus Moses was completely dependent on God. Now that Israel...
  • The Israelites carried out the instructions given here later. The record of this seven-day ritual appears in Leviticus 8. I shall defer comment since Moses explained the offerings and procedures specified in this chapter more...
  • "As a sign of the Noahic covenant is the rainbow (Gen. 9:13), and as the sign of the Abrahamic covenant is circumcision (Gen. 17:11), the sign of the Mosaic covenant is the observance and celebration of the Sabbath day (Exod....
  • "If a narrative paradigmatic of what Exodus is really about were to be sought, Exod 32-34 would be the obvious first choice."That these chapters are paradigmatic of Israel's relationship with Yahweh throughout the OT is also ...
  • "Throughout the remainder of the Pentateuch, the incident of the worship of the golden calf cast a dark shadow across Israel's relationship with God, much the same way as the account of the Fall in Genesis 3 marked a major tu...
  • God's recounting the news of the golden calf to Moses gives the reader the divine perspective on Israel's sin. Moses stressed three points in this pericope."These three points--idolatry of the golden calf, Israel's stiff-neck...
  • Moses broke the tablets of the law (v. 19) symbolizing the fact that Israel had broken its covenant with Yahweh. He then proceeded to destroy the golden calf, the symbol of the illicit covenant into which they had entered (cf...
  • The Levites were Moses' closest kinsmen. Perhaps it was for this reason, as well as their loyalty to the Lord, that they sided with Moses. Their decision and obedience (v. 28) demonstrated their faith in God. They chose to go...
  • To make atonement (v. 30) means to obtain a covering for sin.We see Moses' great love for the Israelites as their mediator in his willingness to die for them (cf. Rom. 9:3). Being blotted out of God's book may refer to physic...
  • Breaking God's covenant resulted in the Israelites' separation from fellowship with Him. It did not terminate their relationship with Him, but it did hinder their fellowship with Him. Similarly when Christians sin we do not c...
  • The Israelites erected the tabernacle on the first day of the first month, almost exactly one year after the Israelites left Egypt (vv. 2, 17). This was about nine months after Israel had arrived at Mt. Sinai (cf. 19:1).First...
  • Ironically the first sacrifice Aaron had to offer was a calf, as if to atone for making the golden calf (cf. Exod. 32). The sinfulness of man is clear in that Aaron had to offer many different offerings to cover his sins and ...
  • We move from public regulations in chapter 16 to intimate regulations in chapter 18 with chapter 17 providing the transition. In contrast to the first sixteen chapters, chapter 17 says very little about the role of the priest...
  • "This section . . . consists of a list of twenty-one (3x7) laws. These laws are broken up into smaller units by the sevenfold repetition of the phrase I am the LORD (your God)' (19:3, 4, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18)."225"I am the Lord...
  • Note the recurrance of a key word in the Pentateuch in verse l: toledot."For the first time after the formative events of the Exodus deliverance and the revelation on Mount Sinai, the people of Israel are organized into a hol...
  • God ordered that priests should announce His movement of the people by blowing two silver trumpets because the Israelites would not watch the cloud continuously. The blasts from the trumpets would reach the farthest tents in ...
  • 14:1-4 God had just proved His supernatural power to the Israelites three times since the nation had left Sinai (chs. 11-12). There was no excuse for this failure to trust Him to lead them victoriously into Canaan.14:5-9 Mose...
  • Moses interceded again much as he had done at Sinai (cf. Exod. 32:11-13). Moses based his appeal on God's reputation among the Egyptians (vv. 13-14) and the other nations (vv. 15-16). He also cited God's promise that He would...
  • The fact that God granted the people pardon in response to Moses' intercession is another indication of His grace (vv. 20-21).The failure of the Israelites would not frustrate God's purpose to manifest His glory throughout th...
  • Having received their sentence from the Lord, the people then presumptuously proceeded to go up on their own to take the land (vv. 40-42)."They are like children who had broken a valuable vase and decided to make it better' b...
  • "As the laws increase and the constraints grow, the people seem less willing or less capable of following them. At this point in the narrative we see that the whole order of the priesthood is thrown open to direct confrontati...
  • This chapter contains one of the great failures of Israel that followed one of its great blessings.238As God was preparing to bless His people they were preparing to disobey Him."So now we come to the ultimate rebellion of Is...
  • Moses turned in his address from contemplating the past to an exhortation for the future. This section is the climax of his first speech."The parallel between the literary structure of this chapter and that of the Near Easter...
  • "From a literary standpoint Deut 9:1-10:11 is a travel narrative much like Deut 1:6-3:29, with which, in fact, it shares much in common. For example, both are introduced (1:1-5; 9:1-6) and concluded (3:29; 10:11) by a setting...
  • After receiving the reminder of his death and as one of his final official acts as Israel's leader, Moses pronounced a prophetic blessing on the tribes of Israel (cf. Gen. 49)."In the ancient Near East, a dying father's final...
  • "This chapter [five] records four experiences which God brought to Joshua and the people, each one centered about a token, or symbol . . . The Token of Circumcision: Restoration to covenant favor (5:2-9) . . . The Token of Bl...
  • At Jericho, Israel learned God's strength. At Ai, she learned her own weakness. She could only conquer her enemies as she remained faithful to God's covenant."We are never in greater danger than right after we have won a grea...
  • The writer told us nothing about Micah's background except that he originally lived in the Hill Country of Ephraim with or near his mother (vv. 1-2). Micah's name means "Who is like Yahweh."As is true of so many details in th...
  • Verses 1-6 stress the sin of self-styled worship. Verses 7-13 emphasize the folly of self-determined service.The writer did not call the young Levite who came to live with Micah a priest. He was evidently not a descendant of ...
  • "In the short pericope 13:7b-15a obedience was the stone on which Saul stumbled; here it is the rock that crushes him."147Chapter 15 records one of the battles Saul had with the Amalekites, Israel's enemy to the south (cf. 14...
  • During its history the Northern Kingdom had three capitals: first Shechem (v. 25), then Tirzah (14:17; 15:33), and finally Samaria (16:23-24). Perhaps the king strengthened Penuel in west-central Gilead as a Transjordanian pr...
  • In this section the writer catalogued Israel's transgressions of God's Word that resulted in her going into captivity. Ironically Israel's last king had sought help from Egypt from which Israel had fled 724 years earlier.They...
  • Apparently David received an answer to his petition. It may have come through a prophet or just the inner conviction that he would recover. In any case he closed the psalm with a warning to his adversaries (v. 7) to get out o...
  • 69:13-15 David wanted deliverance from a premature death and a word from the Lord that would enable him to know what to do.69:16-18 The king based his petition on the loyal love and compassion of God. He asked God to redeem h...
  • 106:6 The psalmist confessed that Israel had been unfaithful to God. This was true of his own generation as it had been true of former generations. This confession introduced a review of specific iniquities and wickedness.106...
  • 38:1 The phrase "In those days"identifies the reign of Hezekiah, the Judean king mentioned in the preceding chapters. Since the Lord added 15 years to Hezekiah's life (v. 5), and since Hezekiah died about 686 B.C.,373the time...
  • The national defeat pictured in this lament was a serious one. It may have been the first Babylonian invasion of Judah in 597 B.C., which resulted in severe destruction and exile for some Judeans.14:17 Jeremiah was to tell th...
  • 20:30 Ezekiel was to ask his hearers if they planned to defile themselves and to prostitute themselves to things the Lord detested as their ancestors had done.20:31 They were defiling themselves by practicing child sacrifice....
  • "Often the prophets are inspired to compose attacks on the leadership of Israelite society. The reason for this phenomenon is clear enough: the nation could never have become sufficiently corrupt to merit the outpouring of Go...
  • 23:1-3 The Lord gave Ezekiel a story about two sisters who had one mother (cf. Jer. 3:7). These young girls became prostitutes in Egypt and allowed men to fondle their breasts. That is, they allowed the Egyptians to become in...
  • "The next verses in the chapter are among the most glorious in the entire range of revealed truth on the subject of Israel's restoration to the Lord and national conversion."46536:22-23 Ezekiel was to tell the Israelites that...
  • This is the sixth and last message that Ezekiel received from the Lord the night before the refugees reached the exiles with the message that Jerusalem had fallen (cf. 33:21-22). It too deals with God's plans for Israel in th...
  • The Book of Ezekiel begins with a vision of God's glory (ch. 1), records the departure of God's glory (chs. 8-11), and ends with another vision of God's glory (chs. 40-48). This is the longest vision outside the Book of Revel...
  • Having laid a foundation for appeal in his confession (vv. 4-14) Daniel now proceeded to petition God to restore His people to the Promised Land.9:15 He first referred to the Exodus as a former demonstration of God's power an...
  • 8:1 The Lord commanded Hosea to announce coming judgment by telling him to put a trumpet to his lips. The blowing of the shophar announced that an invader was coming (cf. 5:8). Israel's enemy would swoop down on the nation as...
  • 5:25 The Lord now returned to explain further what He did not want (vv. 21-23). With another rhetorical question (cf. v. 20) the Lord asked if His people really worshipped Him with their animal sacrifices and grain offerings ...
  • 7:1 Sovereign Yahweh showed Amos a mass of locusts swarming in the springtime after the first harvest and before the second. The Lord was forming this swarm of locusts. The very first crops harvested in the spring went to fee...
  • References to the work and word of the Lord frame this section. Obadiah announced that a reversal of rolls was coming for Edom and all the nations.v. 15 "The day of the Lord"here is a future day in which God will reverse the ...
  • 2:1 Habakkuk compared himself to a sentinel on a city wall watching the horizon for the approach of a horseman. He purposed to watch and wait expectantly for the Lord to reply to this second question, as He had the first, so ...
  • The priests and the kings in Israel were responsible for justice in the nation (cf. Deut. 17:9; 2 Sam. 15:2-3), though neither group could prevent wickedness from proliferating. The sixth and seventh visions deal with the rem...
  • 12:1 "The burden . . . concerning Israel"introduces chapters 12-14 as "The burden . . . against the land of Hadrach"(9:1) did chapters 9-11. By describing Yahweh as the creator of the heavens, earth, and man, Zechariah remind...
  • Whereas the emphasis in Malachi's argument shifts at this point somewhat from the sins of the priests to their possible fate, there is a continuing emphasis on their sins. In the preceding section (1:6-14) the cultic activity...
  • That another oracle is in view is clear from the question and answer format that begins this pericope, as it does the others. Verse 17 contains the question and answer, and the discussion follows in 3:1-6. The Israelites' cha...
  • The Lord had said that Israel's earlier history was a time when the priests and the people of Israel pleased Him (v. 4). Now He said that those early days were short-lived (cf. Exod. 32:7-9). In contrast to His faithfulness (...
  • Upon hearing the Lord's rebuke through His prophet, some of Malachi's hearers who genuinely feared the Lord got together. Evidently they discussed Malachi's message and agreed among themselves that they needed to repent. Yahw...
  • Luke gave his readers an overview of Jesus' ministry (4:14-5:11) and then presented His relationship to His opponents (5:12-6:11). Next he described Jesus' relationship with His disciples (6:12-49). He arranged his material t...
  • Luke stressed the joy that the Seventy experienced because they participated in God's program. As we have noted before, Luke often referred to the joy that Jesus brought to people (cf. 1:14, 46; 24:52; et al.). In view of Jes...
  • Stephen continued dealing with the Mosaic period of Israel's history, but focused more particularly now on Moses' teaching, the Mosaic Law. This is what the Jews of his day professed to venerate and follow exactly, but Stephe...
  • 9:1 The apostle opened his discussion of God's relations with Israel very personally by sharing his heart for his own people. Some might have thought that Paul hated the Jews since he had departed from Judaism and now preache...
  • Though idolatry was the cause of Israel's failure and the focus of Paul's warning to this church, four other evil characteristics of Israel also seem to have marked the Corinthians. These characteristics also resulted in the ...
  • The Philippian Christians were special favorites of the apostle Paul. Their response to the gospel and their subsequent progress in the faith were exemplary. However the connections between Paul and Philippi that the New Test...
  • "The author steadily develops his argument that Jesus is supremely great. He is greater than the angels, the author of a great salvation, and great enough to become man to accomplish it. Now the author turns his attention to ...
  • Again the change in genre, this time from exhortation to exposition, signals a new literary unit within the epistle. Here the writer proceeded to expound the reliability of God's promise to Christians through Jesus Christ's h...
  • The writer proceeded to explain the superiority of the New Covenant by comparing it with the Old Covenant using the figure of two mountains: Sinai and Zion.12:18-21 These verses describe the giving of the Old Covenant at Mt. ...
  • Peter proceeded to clarify the nature of the church and in doing so explained the duty of Christians in the world.2:9 All the figures of the church that Peter chose here originally referred to Israel. However with Israel's re...
  • Jesus Christ held out blessings for the faithful few in the congregation to stimulate the rest to repent. White garments symbolic of one's works (19:8) are pure and free of defilement (cf. 7:9, 13; 19:14; Matt. 22:11-12). Sar...

Expositions Of Holy Scripture (Maclaren)

  • Exodus 32:1-8; 32:30-35It was not yet six weeks since the people had sworn, All that the Lord hath spoken will we do, and be obedient.' The blood of the covenant, sprinkled on them, was scarcely dry when they flung off allegi...
  • Exodus 32:15-26Moses and Joshua are on their way down from the mountain, the former carrying the tables in his hands and a heavier burden in his heart,--the thought of the people's swift apostasy. Joshua's soldierly ear inter...
  • He dashes the tables on the rock, as if to break the record of the useless laws which the people have already broken, and, with his hands free, flings himself without pause into the midst of the excited mob. Exodus 32:19-20, ...
  • Exodus 32:12-23The calf worship broke the bond between God and Israel. Instead of His presence, an angel' is to lead them, for His presence could only be destruction. Mourning spreads through the camp, in token of which all o...
  • In the former chapter, we had the very sublimity of intercession, in which the stern avenger of idolatry poured out his self-sacrificing love for the stiff-necked nation whom he had had to smite, and offered himself a victim ...
  • If the promise of Exodus 32:14 is taken as referring to the people, there is nothing additional asked in this second stage, and the words of Exodus 32:17, this thing also,' are inexplicable. Observe that with me' in Exodus 32...
  • Mark the recurrence of the word turn,' employed in Jonah 3:8-10 in reference to men and to God. Mark the bold use of the word repent,' applied to God, which, though it be not applied to the Ninevites in the previous verses, i...
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