Exodus 32:10

32:10 So now, leave me alone ¹  so that my anger can burn against them and I can destroy them, and I will make from you a great nation.”

Exodus 4:14

4:14 Then the Lord became angry with ²  Moses, and he said, “What about ³  your brother Aaron the Levite? ⁴  I know that he can speak very well. ⁵  Moreover, he is coming ⁶  to meet you, and when he sees you he will be glad in his heart. ⁷ 

Exodus 32:19

32:19 When he approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses became extremely angry. ⁸  He threw the tablets from his hands and broke them to pieces at the bottom of the mountain. ⁹ 

[32:10]  ¹ tn The imperative, from the word “to rest” (נוּחַ, nuakh), has the sense of “leave me alone, let me be.” It is a directive for Moses not to intercede for the people. B. S. Childs (Exodus [OTL], 567) reflects the Jewish interpretation that there is a profound paradox in God’s words. He vows the severest punishment but then suddenly conditions it on Moses’ agreement. “Let me alone that I may consume them” is the statement, but the effect is that he has left the door open for intercession. He allows himself to be persuaded – that is what a mediator is for. God could have slammed the door (as when Moses wanted to go into the promised land). Moreover, by alluding to the promise to Abraham God gave Moses the strongest reason to intercede.

[4:14]  ² tn Heb “and the anger of Yahweh burned against.”

[4:14]  ³ tn Heb “Is not” or perhaps “Is [there] not.”

[4:14]  ⁴ sn S. R. Driver (Exodus, 29) suggests that the term “Levite” may refer to a profession rather than ancestry here, because both Moses and Aaron were from the tribe of Levi and there would be little point in noting that ancestry for Aaron. In thinking through the difficult problem of the identity of Levites, he cites McNeile as saying “the Levite” referred to one who had had official training as a priest (cf. Judg 17:7, where a member of the tribe of Judah was a Levite). If it was the duty of the priest to give “torah” – to teach – then some training in the power of language would have been in order.

[4:14]  ⁵ tn The construction uses the Piel infinitive absolute and the Piel imperfect to express the idea that he spoke very well: דַבֵּר יְדַבֵּר (dabber yÿdabber).

[4:14]  ⁶ tn The particle הִנֵּה (hinneh) with the participle points to the imminent future; it means “he is about to come” or “here he is coming.”

[4:14]  ⁷ sn It is unlikely that this simply means that as a brother he will be pleased to see Moses, for the narrative has no time for that kind of comment. It is interested in more significant things. The implication is that Aaron will rejoice because of the revelation of God to Moses and the plan to deliver Israel from bondage (see B. Jacob, Exodus, 93).

[32:19]  ³ tn Heb “and the anger of Moses burned hot.”

[32:19]  ⁴ sn See N. M. Waldham, “The Breaking of the Tablets,” Judaism 27 (1978): 442-47.