Commentary
Old Testament : Genesis
Exodus
Leviticus
Numbers
Deuteronomy
Joshua
Judges
Ruth
1 Samuel
2 Samuel
1 Kings
2 Kings
1 Chronicles
2 Chronicles
Ezra
Nehemiah
Esther
Job
Psalms
Proverbs
Ecclesiastes
The Song of Songs
Isaiah
Jeremiah
Lamentations
Ezekiel
Daniel
Hosea
Joel
Amos
Obadiah
Jonah
Micah
Nahum
Habakkuk
Zephaniah
Haggai
Zechariah
Malachi
![](images/minus.gif)
Text -- Exodus 32:4-35 (NET)
![](images/arrow_open.gif)
Strongs On/Off
Context
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 .
![](images/advanced.gif)
![](images/advanced.gif)
![](images/advanced.gif)
Names, People and Places, Dictionary Themes and Topics
![](images/arrow_open.gif)
Names, People and Places:
Dictionary Themes and Topics:
Aaron |
Calf |
Levite |
COVENANT, BOOK OF THE |
EXODUS, THE BOOK OF, 1 |
ISRAEL, RELIGION OF, 1 |
Tabernacle |
Israel |
ASIA MINOR, ARCHAEOLOGY OF |
LEVITICUS, 2 |
Revelation |
SACRIFICE, IN THE OLD TESTAMENT, 2 |
CALF, GOLDEN |
EXODUS, THE BOOK OF, 2 |
EZEKIEL, 2 |
Apostasy |
Backsliders |
Intercession |
Lies and Deceits |
Prayer |
more
![](images/cmt_minus_head.gif)
expand allCommentary -- Verse Notes / Footnotes
NET Notes -> Exo 32:4; Exo 32:4; Exo 32:4; Exo 32:4; Exo 32:4; Exo 32:5; Exo 32:5; Exo 32:5; Exo 32:5; Exo 32:5; Exo 32:6; Exo 32:6; Exo 32:7; Exo 32:7; Exo 32:8; Exo 32:9; Exo 32:9; Exo 32:9; Exo 32:10; Exo 32:11; Exo 32:12; Exo 32:12; Exo 32:12; Exo 32:12; Exo 32:12; Exo 32:13; Exo 32:13; Exo 32:13; Exo 32:15; Exo 32:17; Exo 32:18; Exo 32:18; Exo 32:18; Exo 32:18; Exo 32:18; Exo 32:19; Exo 32:19; Exo 32:20; Exo 32:20; Exo 32:20; Exo 32:22; Exo 32:22; Exo 32:24; Exo 32:24; Exo 32:25; Exo 32:25; Exo 32:26; Exo 32:26; Exo 32:27; Exo 32:27; Exo 32:27; Exo 32:28; Exo 32:28; Exo 32:29; Exo 32:29; Exo 32:30; Exo 32:30; Exo 32:30; Exo 32:31; Exo 32:32; Exo 32:32; Exo 32:32; Exo 32:34; Exo 32:34; Exo 32:35; Exo 32:35
NET Notes: Exo 32:4 The word could be singular here and earlier; here it would then be “this is your god, O Israel.” However, the use of “these” i...
![](images/cmt_minus.gif)
NET Notes: Exo 32:5 The word is חַג (khag), the pilgrim’s festival. This was the word used by Moses for their pilgrimage into the wilderness. Aaro...
![](images/cmt_minus.gif)
NET Notes: Exo 32:6 The form is לְצַחֵק (lÿtsakheq), a Piel infinitive construct, giving the purpose of their rising up aft...
![](images/cmt_minus.gif)
NET Notes: Exo 32:7 By giving the people to Moses in this way, God is saying that they have no longer any right to claim him as their God, since they have shared his hono...
![](images/cmt_minus.gif)
NET Notes: Exo 32:8 The verb is a perfect tense, reflecting the present perfect nuance: “they have turned aside” and are still disobedient. But the verb is mo...
![](images/cmt_minus.gif)
NET Notes: Exo 32:9 B. Jacob says the image is that of the people walking before God, and when he called to them the directions, they would not bend their neck to listen;...
![](images/cmt_minus.gif)
NET Notes: Exo 32:10 The imperative, from the word “to rest” (נוּחַ, nuakh), has the sense of “leave me alone, let me be....
![](images/cmt_minus.gif)
NET Notes: Exo 32:11 S. R. Driver (Exodus, 351) draws on Arabic to show that the meaning of this verb (חָלָה, khalah) was properly “mak...
![](images/cmt_minus.gif)
NET Notes: Exo 32:12 The verb “repent, relent” when used of God is certainly an anthropomorphism. It expresses the deep pain that one would have over a situati...
![](images/cmt_minus.gif)
![](images/cmt_minus.gif)
![](images/cmt_minus.gif)
NET Notes: Exo 32:17 See F. C. Fensham, “New Light from Ugaritica V on Ex, 32:17 (br’h),” JNSL 2 (1972): 86-7.
![](images/cmt_minus.gif)
NET Notes: Exo 32:18 See A. Newman, “Compositional Analysis and Functional Ambiguity Equivalence: Translating Exodus 32, 17-18,” Babel 21 (1975): 29-35.
![](images/cmt_minus.gif)
![](images/cmt_minus.gif)
NET Notes: Exo 32:20 Pouring the ashes into the water running from the mountain in the brook (Deut 9:21) and making them drink it was a type of the bitter water test that ...
![](images/cmt_minus.gif)
![](images/cmt_minus.gif)
NET Notes: Exo 32:24 Aaron first tried to blame the people, and then he tried to make it sound like a miracle – was it to sound like one of the plagues where out of ...
![](images/cmt_minus.gif)
NET Notes: Exo 32:25 The last two words of the verse read literally “for a whispering among those who rose up against them.” The foes would have mocked and der...
![](images/cmt_minus.gif)
NET Notes: Exo 32:26 S. R. Driver suggests that the command was tersely put: “Who is for Yahweh? To me!” (Exodus, 354).
![](images/cmt_minus.gif)
NET Notes: Exo 32:27 The phrases have “and kill a man his brother, and a man his companion, and a man his neighbor.” The instructions were probably intended to...
![](images/cmt_minus.gif)
![](images/cmt_minus.gif)
NET Notes: Exo 32:29 The text simply has “and to give on you today a blessing.” Gesenius notes that the infinitive construct seems to be attached with a vav (&...
![](images/cmt_minus.gif)
NET Notes: Exo 32:30 The form אֲכַפְּרָה (’akhappÿrah) is a Piel cohortative/imperfect. Here with on...
![](images/cmt_minus.gif)
NET Notes: Exo 32:31 As before, the cognate accusative is used; it would literally be “this people has sinned a great sin.”
![](images/cmt_minus.gif)
NET Notes: Exo 32:32 The book that is referred to here should not be interpreted as the NT “book of life” which is portrayed (figuratively) as a register of al...
![](images/cmt_minus.gif)
NET Notes: Exo 32:34 The Law said that God would not clear the guilty. But here the punishment is postponed to some future date when he would revisit this matter. Others h...
![](images/cmt_minus.gif)