Exodus 32:26 — meaning, Hebrew and Greek word study, commentary
Exodus 32:26
Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, Who is on the LORD’s side? let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him.
to stand · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
gate
בְּשַׁ֣עַרbe.Sha.'ar
H8179
an opening · preposition + noun, common masculine singular construct
camp
הַֽמַּחֲנֶ֔הha.ma.cha.Neh
H4264
an encampment (of travellers or troops) · definite article + noun, common feminine singular absolute
said
וַיֹּ֕אמֶרvai.Yo.mer
H559
to say (used with great latitude) · conjunction + verb, qal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine singular
LORD’s
לַיהוָ֖הla.Yah.weh
H3068
Jehovah · preposition + proper noun, a title
sons
בְּנֵ֥יbe.Nei
H1121
a son (as a builder of the family name) · noun, common masculine plural construct
Levi
לֵוִֽיle.Vi
H3878
Levi · proper noun, a man's name
gathered
וַיֵּאָסְפ֥וּvai.ye.'a.se.Fu
H622
to gather for any purpose · conjunction + verb, niphal sequential imperfect, 3rd person masculine plural
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
2 Kings 9:32 And he lifted up his face to the window, and said, Who is on my side? who? And there looked out to him two or three eunuchs.
Matthew 12:30 He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.
Joshua 5:13 And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho, that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a man over against him with…
2 Samuel 20:11 And one of Joab’s men stood by him, and said, He that favoureth Joab, and he that is for David, let him go after Joab.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on Exodus 32:21-29
Moses, having shown his just indignation against the sin of Israel by breaking the tables and burning the calf, now proceeds to reckon with the sinners and to call them to an account, herein acting as the representative of God, who is not only a holy God, and hates sin, but a just God, and is engaged in honour to punish it, Isa 59:18. Now,
I. He begins with Aaron, as God began with Adam, because he was the principal person, though not first in the transgression, but drawn into it. Observe here,
1. The just reproof Moses gives him, Exo 32:21. He does not order him to be cut-off, as those (Exo 32:27) that had been the ring-leaders in the sin. Note, A great deal of difference will be made betwe…
Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said--The camp is supposed to have been protected by a rampart after the attack of the Amalekites.
Who is on the Lord's side? let him come unto me--The zeal and courage of Moses was astonishing, considering he opposed an intoxicated mob. The people were separated into two divisions, and those who were the boldest and most obstinate in vindicating their idolatry were put to death, while the rest, who withdrew in shame or sorrow, were spared.
Adam Clarke on Exodus 32:26
Who is on the Lord's side? - That is, Who among you is free from this transgression? And all the sons of Levi, etc. - It seems they had no part in this idolatrous business.
John Gill on Exodus 32:26
Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp,.... In one of the gates of it; for it doubtless had more than one to go in and out of, as is clear from Exodus 32:27 it being probably entrenched all around; here Moses set himself, it being the usual place, as in cities, where the people were summoned together on important occasions, and justice and judgment were administered:
and said, who is on the Lord's side? let him come unto me; who is for the worship of the true God, and him only, and against the worship of a gold calf, or any other idol, and is zealous for the glory of God, and the honour of his name:
and all the sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him; that is, all those that h…
The Church Fathers
As the Scripture says before Aaron rampaged the people, we can rightly ask why no punishment is applied to him, nor when Moses commanded to kill everyone who found the Levites when going from door to door armed by the camp, nor when later what the Scripture says happened: And the Lord punished the people for the making of the calf that Aaron did (Ex 32,35), especially considering that here the same thing is emphasized, repeating the same idea. Indeed, the Scripture does not say: And the Lord punished the people for the making of the calf which they had made, but Aaron did. And yet, Aaron is not punished. Moreover, what God had ordained about his priesthood before committing that sin was fulfilled. But God commanded that he and his children wash themselves. And in this way they received priestly ordination. God knows who he forgives until he changes for the better, and also knows who he forgives temporarily, even though he knows in advance that he is not going to change for the better, and he also knows who does not forgive, so that he can change for the better, and knows who does not forgive so he does not even wait for his change. And all this comes from what the Apostle says with admiration: How unsearchable are his judgments and searchable his ways! 149 (Ex 33.1). Come on, come up from here, you and your people, that you brought from the land to Egypt. God, angry, seems to say: You and your people, that you took. Because, otherwise, he would have said: You and my people that I brought from the land to Egypt. They, when they asked for the idol, said: Well, to Moses, this man who brought us out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what happened to him. (Ex 32,1.23) They had failed to entrust their release to a man. God replies to them: You and your people, which you brought out of the land of Egypt, which is a matter of reprobation for them, not for Moses. For Moses did not intend anything other than to place his hope in the Lord, not in him, and to believe that they had been freed from that bondage by the mercy of the Lord, to give him thanks for it. But the merit of Moses before God, as his most faithful servant, was so great by the grace of God, that God said to him: Leave me, and I will destroy them with anger. In relation to this word: Leave me, it seems absurd to think that it is the expression of both the one who commands and the one who begs.…
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
Gate — (1.) Of cities, as of Jerusalem (Jer. 37:13; Neh. 1:3; 2:3; 3:3), of Sodom (Gen. 19:1), of Gaza (Judg. 16:3). (2.) Of royal palaces (Neh. 2:8). (3.) Of the temple of Solomon (1 Kings 6:34, 35; 2…
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…
Calf Of Gold · Making of: Israel punished for — Making of: Israel punished for
Decision · Exhibited in: Being on the Lord’s side — Exhibited in: Being on the Lord’s side
Desert, Journey Of Israel Through The · People punished for idolatry — People punished for idolatry
Gates · Made to: Camps — Made to: Camps
Levites · Religious zeal of — Religious zeal of
Levites, The · Zeal against idolatry a cause of their appointment — Zeal against idolatry a cause of their appointment
Reproof · .Moses, of the Israelites — .Moses, of the Israelites
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).
And when Moses saw that the people were naked The vengeance is here recorded which Moses employed to expiate the sin; not that this punishment was satisfactory, as they call it, before God; but because it was useful to efface the memory of their guilt; or at any rate was profitable, as an example. For by the slaughter of three thousand of them, they were reminded that they all had deserved the same. Nor can it be doubted but that he cleansed the camp of the chief authors of the evil, in order that God might be more inclined to pardon. First, therefore, the cause is set forth, whereby he was inflamed to such severity, viz., because he saw the people in such a state of nakedness, as to be even…
Moses then turned to the unbridled nation, whom Aaron had set free from all restraint, "for a reproach among their foes," inasmuch as they would necessarily become an object of scorn and derision among the heathen on account of the punishment which their conduct would bring down upon them from God (compare Exo 32:12 and Deu 28:37), and sought to restrain their licentiousness and ward off the threatened destruction of the nation through the infliction of a terrible punishment. If the effect of this punishment should show that there were still some remains of obedience and faithfulness towards God left in the nation, Moses might then hope, that in accordance with the pleading of Abraham in Gen…
Moses had asked God to spare the people, but now he called on those who followed the Lord to kill those who had sinned. The Levites (32:26) were willing to confront the sin that Aaron had let loose. Although Moses commanded them to kill everyone (32:27), the number 3,000 (32:28) makes it clear that the word everyone had a restricted meaning. The reference to your own sons and brothers suggests that as Aaron had led in the idolatry, many of the Levites had led in the worship of the idol, and they were the ones that the rest of the Levites killed. Aaron may have escaped because God had already designated him as high priest (28:1).
Rashi on Exodus 32:26
מי לה' אלי means, WHOEVER IS FOR THE LORD let him come TO ME.
כל בני לוי ALL THE SONS OF LEVI — All the sons — from this we may gather that all the tribe of Levi remained worthy men (consequently “slay every man his brother” in the next verse can refer only to one who was his brother from the same mother, as explained by Rashi there) (Yoma 66b).
