Exodus 32:19 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Exodus 32:19
And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses’ anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount.
to approach (causatively · verb, qal perfect, 3rd person masculine singular
camp
הַֽמַּחֲנֶ֔הha.ma.cha.Neh
H4264
an encampment (of travellers or troops) · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
saw
וַיַּ֥רְאvai.Yar'
H7200
to see · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
calf
הָעֵ֖גֶלha.'E.gel
H5695
a (male) calf (as frisking round) · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
dancing
וּמְחֹלֹ֑תu.me.cho.Lot
H4246
a dance · conjunction + noun, common feminine plural absolute
Moses’
מֹשֶׁ֗הmo.Sheh
H4872
Mosheh · proper noun, a man's name
anger
אַ֣ף'af
H639
properly · noun, common masculine singular construct
hot
וַיִּֽחַרvai.yi.char-
H2734
to glow or grow warm · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
cast
וַיַּשְׁלֵ֤ךְvai.yash.Lekh
H7993
to throw out · conjunction + verb, hiphil sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
tables
הַלֻּחֹ֔תha.lu.Chot
H3871
probably meaning to glisten · definite article + noun, common feminine plural absolute
hands
מִיָּדָיו֙mi.ya.dov
H3027
a hand (the open one (indicating power · preposition + noun, common both genders dual construct + pronominal suffix, 3rd person masculine singular
brake
וַיְשַׁבֵּ֥רvay.sha.Ber
H7665
to burst (literally or figuratively) · conjunction + verb, piel sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
beneath
תַּ֥חַתTa.chat
H8478
the bottom (as depressed) · noun, common masculine singular construct
mount
הָהָֽרha.Har
H2022
a mountain or range of hills (sometimes used figurative… · definite article + noun, common masculine singular absolute
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
Deuteronomy 9:16-17 And I looked, and, behold, ye had sinned against the LORD your God, and had made you a molten calf: ye had turned aside quickly out of the w…
Exodus 15:20 And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with danc…
Exodus 32:4-6 And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy go…
Exodus 32:11 And Moses besought the LORD his God, and said, LORD, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the…
Numbers 12:3 (Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.)
Deuteronomy 27:26 Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them. And all the people shall say, Amen.
2 Samuel 6:14 And David danced before the LORD with all his might; and David was girded with a linen ephod.
Jeremiah 31:32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt;…
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Exodus 32:15-20
Here is, I. The favour of God to Moses, in trusting him with the two tables of the testimony, which, though of common stone, were far more valuable than all the precious stones that adorned the breast-plate of Aaron. The topaz of Ethiopia could not equal them, Exo 32:15, Exo 32:16. God himself, without the ministry either of man or angel (for aught that appears), wrote the ten commandments on these tables, on both their sides, some on one table and some on the other, so that they were folded together like a book, to be deposited in the ark.
II. The familiarity between Moses and Joshua. While Moses was in the cloud, as in the presence-chamber, Joshua continued as near as he might, in the anti…
Moses' anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands--The arrival of the leader, like the appearance of a specter, arrested the revellers in the midst of their carnival, and his act of righteous indignation when he dashed on the ground the tables of the law, in token that as they had so soon departed from their covenant relation, so God could withdraw the peculiar privileges that He had promised them--that act, together with the rigorous measures that followed, forms one of the most striking scenes recorded in sacred history.
Adam Clarke on Exodus 32:19
He saw the calf, and the dancing - Dancing before the idol takes place in almost every Hindoo idolatrous feast - Ward.
He cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them - He might have done this through distress and anguish of spirit, on beholding their abominable idolatry and dissolute conduct; or he probably did it emblematically, intimating thereby that, as by this act of his the tables were broken in pieces, on which the law of God was written; so they, by their present conduct, had made a breach in the covenant, and broken the laws of their Maker. But we must not excuse this act; it was rash and irreverent; God's writing should not have been treated in this way.
John Gill on Exodus 32:19
And it came to pass, as soon, as he came nigh unto the camp,.... To the bottom of the mountain, and pretty near where the people were encamped:
that he saw the calf, and the dancing; the golden image of the calf, and the people dancing about it, in honour of it, and as glad they had got a symbol and representation of God to go before them; and so the Egyptians did before the golden ox; as Philo says, before observed:
and Moses's anger waxed hot: he fell into a passion of indignation at the sight of such execrable idolatry, though he was so meek a man, and though he had himself expostulated with the Lord why his wrath should wax hot against this people; but, when he saw it with his own eyes…
The Church Fathers
And Moses broke their tablet, having written for them, as it were, certain words; just as a schoolmaster would do, who having taken up the writing tablet, and found it badly written, throws away the tablet itself, desiring to show great anger; and if he have broken it, the father is not angry. For he indeed was busy writing, but they not attending to him, but turning themselves other ways, were committing disorder. And as in school, they strike each other, so also, on that occasion, he bade them strike and slay each other.
Moses, angry, seems to have thrown to the ground and smashed the tablets of the covenant written by the finger of God. In spite of everything, the renewal of the covenant is represented with great mystery, because the Old Testament was to be abolished and the New established. It should be noted, however, how much he tried to intercede for the people before God who was so severe in punishing them. I have already stated elsewhere, in the work against the Manichaean Faustus, what I think it means that Moses reduced the molten calf to dust, throwing it into the fire and scattering the dust in the water (Cf Ex 32,20), which he then gave to drink. village. 145 (Ex 32.24). And they gave it to me, and I put it on the fire and this calf came out. Aaron makes a very brief summary, and does not say what he had done to get the molten calf out. Or has he lied, apologizing for fear, as if he had thrown the gold to perish in the fire and without it pretending it came out the shape of a calf? It is not credible that he said this inside, precisely because Moses could not hide what was inside the man with whom God spoke, and Moses does not accuse his brother of being a liar. 146 (Ex 32.25). And Moses saw that the people were unrestrained, because Aaron had unbridled them to make their adversaries happy. It is necessary to notice how all the evil that the people did is attributed to Aaron, who agreed with them to do what they had impiously asked. The Scripture says rather that Aaron rampaged them, for giving in to their demands, and not that they would rampage themselves for having asked such a great evil.
The Church Fathers: public-domain translations (Ante-Nicene and Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers), verse-indexed by SermonIndex (CC BY 4.0).
Dictionary and topics
Dance — Found in Judg. 21:21, 23; Ps. 30:11; 149:3; 150:4; Jer. 31:4, 13, etc., as the translation of hul, which points to the whirling motion of Oriental sacred dances. It is the rendering of a word…
Fast — The sole fast required by the law of Moses was that of the great Day of Atonement (q.v.), Lev. 23:26-32. It is called “the fast” (Acts 27:9). The only other mention of a periodical fast in the Old…
Levite — A descendant of the tribe of Levi (Ex. 6:25; Lev. 25:32; Num. 35:2; Josh. 21:3, 41). This name is, however, generally used as the title of that portion of the tribe which was set apart for the…
Levites — (descendants of Levi). Sometimes the name extends to the whole tribe, the priests included, (Exodus 6:25; Leviticus 25:32; Numbers 35:2; Joshua 21:3,41) etc; sometimes only to those members of the…
Amusements And Pleasures, Worldly · Formed a part of idolatrous worship — Formed a part of idolatrous worship
Amusements And Worldly Pleasures · Formed a part of idolatrous worship — Formed a part of idolatrous worship
And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp He who had before humbly pleaded for the safety of the people, now, when he sees the calf, bursts forth into rage, and the hideousness of the crime awakens him to different feelings. Now, since anger is here mentioned with praise, the stoics must abandon their paradox, that all the passions (motus animi) are vicious. I allow, indeed, that whilst men are led by nature, they are never angry without vice; because they always exceed due bounds, and often also do not aim at a proper object. But it must be observed that this occurs from the corruption of nature; and, consequently, anger is not in itself or absolutely to be condemned. For t…
But when he came nearer to the camp, and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned, and he threw down the tables of the covenant and broke them at the foot of the mountain, as a sign that Israel had broken the covenant.
Tyndale Open Study Notes on Exodus 32:19
While the act of smashing the tablets might simply have been a reaction of fury, it might also have been Moses’ way of saying that the covenant with God was now irrevocably broken. God later reminded Moses rather pointedly that Moses was the one who had smashed the tablets (see 34:1).
Rashi on Exodus 32:19
וישלך מידו AND HE CAST [THE TABLETS] OUT OF HIS HAND — He said: “What is the law regarding the Paschal lamb which is only one of the commandments? The Torah states: (Exodus 12:43) “No stranger shall eat thereof”! (cf. Rashi on that verse: a stranger means one who has enstranged himself by his doings from his Father in heaven — an apostate). “But the whole Torah is here (written on the tablets) and all the Israelites are apostates, can I possibly give it (the Torah) to them?!” (Shabbat 87a).
תחת ההר BENEATH THE MOUNTAIN — i. e. at the foot of the mountain.
Idolatry · .Singing and dancing — .Singing and dancing
Reproof · .Moses, of the Israelites — .Moses, of the Israelites
Table · .Were broken — .Were broken
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
