Exodus 32:30

32:30 The next day Moses said to the people, ¹  “You have committed a very serious sin, ²  but now I will go up to the Lord – perhaps I can make atonement ³  on behalf of your sin.”

Exodus 32:35

32:35 And the Lord sent a plague on the people because they had made the calf ⁴  – the one Aaron made. ⁵ 

[32:30]  ¹ tn Heb “and it was on the morrow and Moses said to the people.”

[32:30]  ² tn The text uses a cognate accusative: “you have sinned a great sin.”

[32:30]  ³ tn The form אֲכַפְּרָה (’akhappÿrah) is a Piel cohortative/imperfect. Here with only a possibility of being successful, a potential imperfect nuance works best.

[32:35]  ⁴ tn The verse is difficult because of the double reference to the making of the calf. The NJPS’s translation tries to reconcile the two by reading “for what they did with the calf that Aaron had made.” B. S. Childs (Exodus [OTL], 557) explains in some detail why this is not a good translation based on syntactical grounds; he opts for the conclusion that the last three words are a clumsy secondary addition. It seems preferable to take the view that both are true, Aaron is singled out for his obvious lead in the sin, but the people sinned by instigating the whole thing.

[32:35]  ⁵ sn Most commentators have difficulty with this verse. W. C. Kaiser says the strict chronology is not always kept, and so the plague here may very well refer to the killing of the three thousand (“Exodus,” EBC 2:481).