Exodus 32:25

And when Moses saw that the people [were] naked,.... Not in their bodies, being stripped of their ear rings; for parting with them was not sufficient to denominate them naked in a corporeal sense;

And when Moses saw that the people were naked; (for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies:) Naked - either unarmed and defenseless, or ashamed from a sense of guilt; stripped

i.e. That they were stripped both of their ornament, which was not so much the jewels of their ears, as the innocency of their minds and lives; and of their defence, to wit, of the favour and protection of God, by which alone they were secured from the Egyptians, and were to be defended against those many and mighty enemies towards whom they were about to march; and that being thus disarmed and helpless, they would be a prey to every enemy: when Moses considered this, he took the following course to cover their nakedness, to expiate their sins, to regain the favour of God, and by punishing the most eminent and incorrigible offenders, to bring the rest to repentance. Aaron had made them naked, as Ahaz is said to have made Judah naked, . Quest. How were they made naked or ashamed amongst their enemies, when at this time they were in their own camp, remote from all their enemies? Answ. He speaks not only of their present shame, but of their everlasting reproach, especially among their and God’ s enemies, who, being constant to their idols, would justly scorn the Israelites for their levity in forsaking their God so quickly and easily. See . But the Hebrew word may be, and is by some, translated thus, amongst those that do or shall rise up or be born of them i.e. that shall succeed them; for so the word rising is used . And so the Chaldee here renders it, amongst their generations; and the other Chaldee interpreter, and the Syriac, in their latter days, or in aftertimes. So the sense is, that Aaron had put a note of perpetual infamy upon them, even to all after-ages.

Exodus 32:25 And when Moses saw that the people [were] naked; (for Aaron had made them naked unto [their] shame among their enemies:)Ver. 25. Aaron had made them naked.] As Aaron’ s engraving instrument writes down his sin: so the confession of other more ingenuous Jews proclaims the Israelites, saying that, No punishment befalleth thee, O Israel, in which there is not an ounce of this calf. Mos. Gerund.

(25) When Moses saw that the people were naked.—Most modern commentators prefer to translate “that the people were licentious,” or “unruly.” But the rendering of the Authorised Version may be defended. In the lewd and excited dancing of idolatrous orgies, garments were frequently cast aside, and the person exposed indecently. Egyptian dancers are represented on the monuments with scarcely any clothing. Among their enemies.—Amalekites may have held many fastnesses among the hills, from which they may have been able to see what was going on in the camp.

Verse 25. Moses saw that the people were naked] They were stripped, says the Targum, of the holy crown that was upon their heads, on which the great and precious name [Ancient Hebrew] JEHOVAH was engraved. But it is more likely that the word פרע parua implies that they were reduced to the most helpless and wretched state, being abandoned by God in the midst of their enemies. This is exactly similar to that expression, 2 Chronicles 28:19: For the Lord brought Judah low, because of Ahaz king of Israel: for he made Judah NAKED, הפריע hiphria, and transgressed sore against the Lord. Their nakedness, therefore, though in the first sense it may imply that several of them were despoiled of their ornaments, yet it may also express their defenceless and abandoned state, in consequence of their sin. That they could not literally have all been despoiled of their ornaments, appears evident from their offerings. See Exodus 35:21, &c.

25–29. The people being in rebellion, the Levites, responding in a body to Moses’ appeal for help, seize their swords, and slay 3000 of them. For the zeal thus displayed on Jehovah’s behalf, they are rewarded with the priesthood. It is noticeable that, though Aaron is a ‘Levite’ (Exodus 4:17 : see note), the other ‘Levites’ here take part against him. For another view of these verses,—viz. that they are not in their original context, and that they describe the punishment, not for the worship of the Golden Calf, but for some independent act of rebellion against Jehovah,—see Di., C.-H., and McNeile (pp. xxxiv f., 207 f.).

25. Naked — This word, twice employed in this verse, indicates a letting the people loose from all restraint, and giving them over to licentious and dangerous revelling. See the note on ôøò, at Judges 5:1.