Exodus 32

Chap. XXXIII. ver. 2.—an angel] By an angel here is meant one of God’s ministering servants; and not the Angel mentioned chap. xxiii. 20, as is evident from comparing the text. Bp. Kidder.

Exodus 32:4

4. — and fashioned it with a graving tool.] That is, after he had cast it in a mould, he fashioned and polished it with a proper tool. Bp. Patrick, Dr. Wells. The original word probably signifies here, not “a graving tool,” as we render it: it is used in a very different sense, 2 Kings v. 23: it there signifies “a bag” or “little chest;” and by an easy metaphor from this use of it, it may denote a mould made to shut up like a chest, to contain and form the metal to be poured into it. By a slight correction of the text, the verse would run thus: “And he received (it, that is, the gold) at their hands; and they formed it in a mould, and they made a molten calf; and they said, This is thy god, O Israel.” The verse would thus agree to what is suggested in other places, that Aaron indeed received the gold that was brought him; but that the forming of it in the mould, and the making it into a calf, and proclaiming it a god, was not done by Aaron, but by others; by the workmen or artificers, and the people. Notwithstanding this, whatever may hence be offered in mitigation of Aaron’s fault, yet certainly all will be too little to prove him innocent; and agreeably to this, we find a great share of the guilt was imputed to him: “The Lord was very angry with him to have destroyed him; but that Moses prayed for him,” Deut. ix. 20. Shuckford.

Aaron shrunk from the importunity perhaps from the threats, of the people; as if He, that forbade other gods, could not have maintained His own act and agent against men. Sudden fears, when they have possessed weak minds, lead them to shameful errours. Importunity or violence may lessen, but they cannot excuse a fault. Wherefore was he a governour, but to repress their disordered motions? Facility of yielding to a sin or courting it with our voluntary suit, is a higher degree of evil: but even at last to be won by sin, is deserving of condemnation. Bp. Hall.

— a molten calf.] Such as they had seen worshipped by the Egyptians. Servitude was the least evil that Israel received from Egypt: for that made them have recourse continually to the true God: but this idolatrous example led them to a false one. The very sight of evil is dangerous; and it is hard for the heart not to run into those sins, to which the eye and ear are inured: not out of love, but out of custom, we fall into some offences. How many have fallen into a fashion of swearing, scoffing, drinking, out of the usual prac-

Exodus 32:5

5. — To morrow is a feast to the Lord.] Not to the golden calf, but to the Creator of the world, whom they worshipped in this image. Notwithstanding which, this was no better than an idol, Acts vii. 41; and they were gross idolaters, Ps. cvi. 19, 20; 1 Cor. x. 7. Bp. Patrick. The words of the second commandment express very strongly the great care of God to free His people from idolatry; and very clearly forbid not only making and worshipping representations of false gods, but any representation of God at all. And to show yet more fully, that even those of the true God are prohibited by it, Moses in Deuteronomy, immediately after mentioning the delivery of the Ten Commandments, adds with respect to the second, “Take therefore good heed unto yourselves, for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the Lord spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire: lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure,” Deut. iv. 12—16. And when the Israelites made a golden calf in the wilderness, though evidently their design was to represent by it, not a false object of worship, but THE LORD, (in the original it is AROGUEA,) who brought them out of the land of Egypt; yet they were charged with it, and punished for it, as a breach of their covenant with God: and Moses accordingly broke on that occasion the two tables of the Commandments, which were on their part the conditions of that covenant. Again, in aftertimes, when the kings of Israel set up the same representation of the true God at Dan and Beth-el; the Scripture constantly speaks of it, as the leading sin, from which all the rest of their idolatries, and at last their utter destruction, proceeded. For from worshipping the true God by an image, they soon came to worship the images of false gods too: and from thence fell into all sorts of superstition, and all sorts of wickedness. Abp. Secker.

It being the fact, that the idolatry of the Israelites consisted, not in worshipping a false deity, but in making an image to the true and living God; and this fact being expressly condemned as idolatry by the Apostle, 1 Cor. x. 7; the Papists are hence unanswerably charged with idolatry for their image worship, and they can in no wise justify themselves; for what they can offer, if it might be admitted, would vindicate the Israelites as well as them. Shuckford.

Exodus 32:6

6. — and the people sat down to eat and to drink.] Of the peace offerings, of which they had a part, according to God’s own directions: and “rose up to play;” to express their joy by musick, dancing, and other signs of mirth. Bp. Patrick. This mirth was an attendant upon their idolatrous worship; and is expressed in the Hebrew by a word, that is sometimes applied to other kinds of wantonness: idolatry being frequently compared to such illicit commerce, Gen. xxxix. 17. Bp. Kidder.

Exodus 32:7

7. — thy people.] The Lord, as a jealous God, for God is angry with the Israelites: but is appeased by Moses. the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves:

Exodus 32:9

9. — a stiffnecked people.] Stubborn and unwilling to obey. This expression is frequent in Scripture; and bears allusion to unnamed heifers, which draw back their neck and shoulders, when put under the yoke, instead of going quietly forward. Bp. Patrick.

Exodus 32:10

10. Now therefore let me alone.] As yet, Moses had said nothing: before he opens his mouth, God prevents his importunity, as foreseeing that holy violence, which the requests of Moses would offer to Him. Moses stood trembling before the Majesty of his Maker, and yet bears Him say, “Let Me alone.” The mercy of our God hath, as it were, submitted His power to the faith of men: the fervent prayers of the faithful bold the hands of the Almighty. As we find it afterwards said of Christ, that “He could do no miracle among his countrymen, because of their unbelief;” so now we hear God, as if He could not do execution upon Israel because of Moses’s faith, say, “Let Me alone, that I may consume them.” Bp. Hall.

— I will make of thee a great nation.] On this occasion Moses gave a signal proof of his love for his people, by interceding for them with the Lord; and of his own disinterestedness, in refusing the tempting offer of the Almighty, to adopt his family in their room, and make of them “a great nation.” He prayed that God would “blot him out of His book,” or take away his life, if He would not forgive “the great sin of his people;” and prevailed with God to alter His determination of withdrawing His presence from them, and sending an inferior angel to conduct them to the land of promise.

And can we have a stronger proof of his veracity and strict fidelity as an historian, than his recording a fact so disgraceful to his people, whom he loved so tenderly? A fact, which the Jewish historian, Josephus, has passed over in total silence; as he has also that other of the VOL. I.

dians speak, and say, For mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people.

Exodus 32:11

11. — Moses besought the Lord] How graciously doth Moses strive with God against his own preferment! If God had threatened, “I will consume thee, and make of them a mighty nation,” I doubt whether he could have been more moved. The more a man can leave himself behind him, and aspire to a care of the community, the more spiritual he is. Nothing makes a man so good a patriot as religion. Bp. Hall.

— which thou hast brought forth &c.] Moses here beseeches the Lord upon three several grounds: 1st, He intreats that God would not on a sudden destroy those, whom He had employed so much power to preserve: 2dly, He urges as a reason, lest the Egyptians should be led into misbelief, and say, that He had brought the Israelites out, not from love to them, but from the wish to destroy them: 3dly, He reminds Him as the chief ground of hope, of the promise formerly made to their forefathers, Gen. xv. 5; xxii. 17, &c. Bp. Patrick.

Exodus 32:12

12. Wherefore should the Egyptians speak,] Moses saw that the eyes and tongues of all the world were intent upon Israel; a people so miraculously fetched from Egypt; whom the sea gave way to, whom heaven fed, whom the rock watered, whom the fire and cloud guarded, which heard the audible voice of God. He knew withal, how ready the world would be to misconstrue, and how the heathens would be ready to cast imputations of levity or impotence upon God; and then he says, “What will the Egyptians say?” Happy is that man, who can make God’s glory the scope of all his actions and desires: neither cares for his own welfare, nor fears the miseries of others, but with respect to God in both. Bp. Hall.

Exodus 32:14

14. — the Lord repented] Did not go on to bring that evil on the Israelites, which He had conditionally threatened against them. Bp. Hall.

Exodus 32:15

15. — on both their sides:] Not on their forepart and backpart: but on both of their leaves, which were

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Exodus 32:19

19.—he cast the tables &c.] He did this, not till he came nigh the camp, so that the people might see with what indignation their wickedness filled him. We never find that he is blamed for breaking the tables: whence it is concluded, that he did it, either by Divine impulse and instruction, or from a proper and virtuous feeling. Bp. Patrick.

Exodus 32:20

20.—ground it to powder.] Probably by means of a file, or by having it beaten out into thin plates. Stackhouse.

For Moses, single and alone, to take their golden calf, and destroy it before their faces, was an example of a noble and undaunted resolution, which ought to animate the acts of all persons in authority, especially in the cause of God. Wogan.

—made the children of Israel drink of it.] He did not constrain them; but as they had no other water, they could not avoid, when they were thirsty, to drink from the brook with this mixture. Bp. Patrick.

The dust is cast into the water, which they had received not long before out of the rock in that dry and barren place; thereby to upbraid their unthankfulness, which in the same place, where they had received so great a benefit, forgat God, and fell away from Him. Willet.

Exodus 32:24

24.—then I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf.] It seems to be the design of Aaron to plead, that he was not actually the maker of the image; but that other persons were the founders of it. He repre-

sents, that they required him to make them a god; that hereupon he asked them for materials; that they brought him their gold; “then,” says he, “I cast it into the fire;” I delivered it out of my hands to the use it was designed for, into the furnace in which it was to be melted; “and there came out this calf:” that is, I was no further concerned in what was done; the next thing I saw was the calf. What was done further, was done by others, not by me: the workmen made the calf, and brought it to me. Shuckford.

Exodus 32:25

25.—that the people were naked; &c.] Or deprived of the Divine protection: Aaron having laid them open by this sin to the scorn of all their enemies, who should hear of such a shameful revolt from their God. Bp. Patrick. After the unhallowed sacrifice they had risen up to wanton play, singing, and dancing, according to the obscene Egyptian rites, by which Aaron “made them naked to their shame.” Dr. Hales. Perhaps also the verse is intended to express, 1. That the people were upon no guard; in no posture of defence; under no direction or command of their proper officers; but were scattered up and down the plain at their games, as their fancy led them; and so were in no formed body, to be able to make head against an enemy. And, 2. That they were free of their armour, or unarmed, “naked” in this sense; not clothed to defend themselves against any violence that might be offered to them. This was the condition, in which Moses found them exposed “to their shame,” or in a “shameful” manner “amongst their enemies.” Shuckford.

Moses prayeth for the people. The tabernacle is removed. Before CHRIST 1491.

morrow, that Moses said unto the people, Ye have sinned a great sin: and now I will go up unto the LORD; peradventure I shall make an atonement for your sin.

Exodus 32:32

32.—blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book] The expression of “blotting out of the book of life” is of the same import with those phrases so frequently used in the Old Testament, of “blotting out from the face of the earth,” and “blotting out one’s name from under heaven:” and the desire of Moses signifies, that he was willing to submit to a temporal death, that his nation might be saved from a temporal ruin. Abp. Tillotson.

So in Numb. xi. 15. it is, “Kill me, I pray thee, out of hand.” The expression is an allusion to the custom of registering the people, as in Numbers, chap. i. and as more at large in Esra and Nehemiah afterwards; and blotting out every one’s name as fast as they died. Pyle. God hath no need of a book to register and record any of His purposes: but the Scripture uses the language of men, according to the practice of the Jews, who, to this day, retain the same form of speech. Bp. Patrick.

This was the highest possible expression of Moses’s

nananite, the Amorite, and the Hittite, and the Perizzite, the Hivite, and the Jebusite: