Exodus 32:17-20

32:17 When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, ¹  he said to Moses, “It is the sound of war in the camp!” 32:18 Moses ²  said, “It is not the sound of those who shout for victory, ³  nor is it the sound of those who cry because they are overcome, ⁴  but the sound of singing ⁵  I hear.” ⁶ 

32:19 When he approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses became extremely angry. ⁷  He threw the tablets from his hands and broke them to pieces at the bottom of the mountain. ⁸  32:20 He took the calf they had made and burned it in the fire, ground it ⁹  to powder, poured it out on the water, and made the Israelites drink it. ¹⁰ 

¹ sn See F. C. Fensham, “New Light from Ugaritica V on Ex, 32:17 (br’h),” JNSL 2 (1972): 86-7.

² tn Heb “he”; the referent (Moses) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

³ tn Heb “the sound of the answering of might,” meaning it is not the sound of shouting in victory (U. Cassuto, Exodus, 418).

⁴ tn Heb “the sound of the answering of weakness,” meaning the cry of the defeated (U. Cassuto, Exodus, 415).

⁵ tn Heb “answering in song” (a play on the twofold meaning of the word).

⁶ sn See A. Newman, “Compositional Analysis and Functional Ambiguity Equivalence: Translating Exodus 32, 17-18,” Babel 21 (1975): 29-35.

³ tn Heb “and the anger of Moses burned hot.”

⁴ sn See N. M. Waldham, “The Breaking of the Tablets,” Judaism 27 (1978): 442-47.

⁴ tn Here “it” has been supplied.

⁵ tn Here “it” has been supplied.