Exodus 32:15-20

32:15 Moses turned and went down from the mountain with ¹  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, ²  he said to Moses, “It is the sound of war in the camp!” 32:18 Moses ³  said, “It is not the sound of those who shout for victory, ⁴  nor is it the sound of those who cry because they are overcome, ⁵  but the sound of singing ⁶  I hear.” ⁷ 

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  32:20 He took the calf they had made and burned it in the fire, ground it ¹⁰  to powder, poured it out on the water, and made the Israelites drink it. ¹¹ 

[32:15]  ¹ tn The disjunctive vav (ו) serves here as a circumstantial clause indicator.

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

[32:18]  ³ tn Heb “he”; the referent (Moses) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[32:18]  ⁴ tn Heb “the sound of the answering of might,” meaning it is not the sound of shouting in victory (U. Cassuto, Exodus, 418).

[32:18]  ⁵ tn Heb “the sound of the answering of weakness,” meaning the cry of the defeated (U. Cassuto, Exodus, 415).

[32:18]  ⁶ tn Heb “answering in song” (a play on the twofold meaning of the word).

[32:18]  ⁷ sn See A. Newman, “Compositional Analysis and Functional Ambiguity Equivalence: Translating Exodus 32, 17-18,” Babel 21 (1975): 29-35.

[32:19]  ⁴ tn Heb “and the anger of Moses burned hot.”

[32:19]  ⁵ sn See N. M. Waldham, “The Breaking of the Tablets,” Judaism 27 (1978): 442-47.

[32:20]  ⁵ tn Here “it” has been supplied.

[32:20]  ⁶ tn Here “it” has been supplied.