Exodus 32

Exodus 32:1

Acts (7:35-43): This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? the same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush. He brought them out, after that he had showed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red sea, and in the wilderness forty years. This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear. This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us: To whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt, Saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us: for as for this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him. [Exodus 32:1] And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands. Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness? Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them: and I will carry you away beyond Babylon.

Ephrem the Syrian: Bitter signs had accompanied [Israel] as far as the [Red] Sea so that they would fear [God]. And blessed wonders surrounded [Israel] in the desert waste so that they would be reconciled [to him]. But for want of faith [Israel] rejected [the signs] with the feeble excuse: “As for the man Moses who brought us out, we do not know what has become of him.” They no longer considered the triumphs that had accompanied them. They only saw that Moses was not near. And so, with this as a convenient excuse, they could draw near to the paganism of Egypt. Therefore Moses was not seen by them for a while, so that the calf could be seen with them [and] so that they could worship openly what they had been worshiping in their hearts.When their paganism came out of hiding and into the open, Moses also came out of hiding and into the open to deliver openly the penalty to those whose paganism had become unrestrained beneath the holy cloud that overshadowed them. God deprived the flock of its shepherd for forty days, so that it would show that it trusted securely in the calf as the god that had pastured it with every delight. It made as its shepherd a calf which could not even graze! Moses, who inspired fear in them, was taken away from them, so that idolatry, which fear of Moses had quieted in their hearts, would cry out from their own mouths. And they did cry out: “Make gods for us to lead us.” — HOMILY ON OUR LORD 17.3-18.1

Exodus 32:6

1 Corinthians (10:1-13): Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; And did all eat the same spiritual meat; And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ. But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted. Neither be ye idolaters, as were some of them; as it is written, The people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play. [Exodus 32:6] Neither let us commit fornication, as some of them committed, and fell in one day three and twenty thousand. Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents. Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come. Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.

Ambrose of Milan: But he who has engulfed and plunged himself in such wallowing places, falls also into the snare of unbelief; for the people sat down to eat and to drink, and required that gods should be made for them. Hereby the Lord teaches us that he who gives up his soul to these two kinds of vices, is stript of the garment, not of a woollen vest, but of living virtue; that clothing which is not temporal but eternal. — Letter 58.16

Clement of Alexandria: Of old, the Word educated through Moses and after that through the prophets; even Moses was in fact a prophet. For the law was the education of children difficult to control. “Having eaten their fill,” Scripture says, “they got up to play,” using a Greek word which means not food but cattle fodder, because of their irrational gorging.And since they were continually filling themselves without obeying reason and playing without listening to reason, the law and fear followed them to restrain them from sin and to encourage them to reform themselves. — The Instructor Book 1

Gregory the Dialogist: But it must be carefully noted what it means that the rich man placed in the fire asks for his tongue to be cooled. For it is the custom of sacred Scripture sometimes to say one thing, but to indicate another by that same saying. Now above the Lord had described this proud rich man not as given to talkativeness, but as feasting excessively. And He did not narrate that he sinned by talkativeness, but that he sinned by pride and greed through gluttony. But because talkativeness usually abounds at feasts, he who is said to have feasted wickedly here is reported to burn more grievously in his tongue in hell. For the sin of talkativeness first serves those who feast wickedly, and after talkativeness the levity of jesting also follows. For that jesting follows gluttony, sacred Scripture testifies, which says: “The people sat down to eat and drink, and they rose up to play.” But before the body is moved to play, the tongue is moved to jokes and empty words. — Forty Gospel Homilies, Homily 40

Exodus 32:7

Origen of Alexandria: Therefore just as the people are God’s when they do not sin but are no longer said to be his when they sin, so also the feats are the feats of sinners when they are hated by the Lord’s soul, but when they are ordained by the Lord, they are called the Lord’s. — COMMENTARY ON THE GOSPEL OF John 10.80

Exodus 32:9

Cassiodorus: So these sinners undergo a contrary experience: their necks which they fatally raised against the Lord are subjected to his sweet yoke with the humility which brings salvation. We recall that this often befell persecutors, so that having earlier maintained their idols by the most sacrilegious compulsion, they became proclaimers of our most holy religion. — EXPOSITION OF THE Psalms 128:4

Exodus 32:10

Augustine of Hippo: And in case you should suppose that he acted like this more from necessity than from charity, God actually offered him another people: “And I will make you,” he said, “into a great nation,” so leaving himself free to eliminate those others. But Moses wouldn’t accept this: he sticks to the sinners; he prays for the sinners. And how does he pray? This is a wonderful proof of his love, brothers and sisters. How does he pray? Notice something I’ve often spoken of, how his love is almost that of a mother. When God threatened that sacrilegious people, Moses’ maternal instincts were roused, and on their behalf he stood up to the anger of God. “Lord,” he said, “if you will forgive them this sin, forgive; but if not, blot me out from the book you have written.” What sure maternal and paternal instincts, how sure his reliance, as he said this, on the justice and mercy of God! He knew that because he is just he wouldn’t destroy a just man, and because he is merciful he would pardon sinners. — SERMON 88.24

Ephrem the Syrian: When he wished that [the fig tree] be uprooted, the event was similar to that earlier one, when the Father said to Moses, “Permit me to destroy the people.” He [thus] gave him a reason to intercede with him. Here too he showed the vinedresser that he wished to uproot it. The vinedresser made known his plea, and the merciful one showed his pity, that if, in a further year, [the fig tree] did not yield fruit, it would be uprooted. — COMMENTARY ON TATIAN’S DIATESSARON 14:27

Jerome: On another occasion God said to Moses, “Let me alone … that I may consume this people,” showing by the words “let me alone” that he can be withheld from doing what he threatens. The prayers of his servant hindered his power. Who, think you, is there now under heaven able to stay God’s wrath, to face the flame of his judgment and to say with the apostle, “I could wish that I myself were accursed for my brethren”? — LETTER 128.4

Jerome: Moses resisted God and prevented him from destroying his people when God said to him: “Let me alone, that I may strike this people.” Just see the power of Moses! What does God say to him? Let me alone; you are compelling me, your prayers, as it were, restrain me; your prayers hold back my hand. I shoot an arrow; I hurl a javelin; and your prayers are the shield of the people. Let me alone that I might strike down this people. Along with this, consider the compassionate kindness of God. When he says, “Let me alone,” he shows that if Moses will continue to importune him, he will not strike. If you, too, will not let me alone, I shall not strike; let me alone, and I shall strike. In other words, what does he say? Do not cease your persistent entreaty, and I shall not strike. — HOMILIES ON THE Psalms 26

Exodus 32:12

Cassiodorus: By his very love and charm he begs the Lord to temper his justice with a little gentleness, so that he can be prevailed upon by those sinners with whom he was known to be justly angry. But we must notice that he did not say, “Change your ways wholly” but “Change your ways a little,” for this is more profitable to us when some lash of tribulation afflicts us. Often when admonished we can gain pardon for our sins by a most wholesome conversion. — EXPOSITION OF THE Psalms 89:13

Exodus 32:14

Augustine of Hippo: Though we sometimes hear the expression “God changed his mind” or even read in the figurative language of Scripture that “God repented,” we interpret these sayings not in reference to the decisions determined on by almighty God but in reference to the expectations of man or to the order of natural causes. — City of God 14.11

Exodus 32:15

Augustine of Hippo: For if we should designate a number which signifies the law, what will it be except ten? For indeed we hold it as most certain that the Decalogue of the law, that is, those very well known ten commandments, were first written by the finger of God on two stone tablets. But the law, when grace gives no aid, makes transgressors and exists only in the letter. For because of this especially the apostle says, “The letter kills, but the spirit gives life.” Therefore let the spirit be added to the letter so that the letter may not kill him to whom the spirit does not give life, but that we may practice the commandments, not by our own strength but by the gift of the Savior. — TRACTATE ON THE GOSPEL OF John 122.8

Exodus 32:19

John Chrysostom: 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 has broken it, the father is not angry. For he indeed was busy writing, but they were not attending to him. Turning themselves other ways, [they] were committing disorder. And as in school they strike each other, so also on that occasion he bade them strike and slay each other. — HOMILIES ON Colossians 4

Exodus 32:20

Ambrose of Milan: Moses ground the head of the golden calf to powder, and cast it into water, and made the people drink of it; for their heart was hardened by the greatness of their perfidy, and he did thus that it might be softened and made refined by faith. Lastly, that woman who grinds meal well and fine shall be taken, but she who grinds ill shall be left. — Letter 64.3

Augustine of Hippo: Therefore perhaps that calf, being ground to powder, was cast into the water and given to the children of Israel to drink, that so the body of ungodliness might be swallowed up by Israel. — EXPLANATION OF THE Psalms 35:26

Augustine of Hippo: For Moses ground down the calf’s head, and sprinkled it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink it. All the unbelieving are ground: they believe by degrees; and they are drunk by the people of God and pass into Christ’s body. — EXPLANATION OF THE Psalms 89:23

Ephrem the Syrian: Moses pulverized the calf and made them drink it in the waters of testing, so that all who had lived to worship the calf would die by drinking it. — HOMILY ON OUR LORD 6.2

Exodus 32:23

Acts (7:35-43): This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? the same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of the angel which appeared to him in the bush. He brought them out, after that he had showed wonders and signs in the land of Egypt, and in the Red sea, and in the wilderness forty years. This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear. This is he, that was in the church in the wilderness with the angel which spake to him in the mount Sina, and with our fathers: who received the lively oracles to give unto us: To whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt, Saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us: for as for this Moses, which brought us out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him. [Exodus 32:23] And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands. Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the host of heaven; as it is written in the book of the prophets, O ye house of Israel, have ye offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness? Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god Remphan, figures which ye made to worship them: and I will carry you away beyond Babylon.

Exodus 32:25

Richard Challoner: The shame of the filth: That is, of the idol, which they had taken for their god. It is the usual phrase of the scripture to call idols filth and abominations.

Richard Challoner: Naked: Having lost not only their gold, and their honour, but what was worst of all, being stripped also of the grace of God, and having lost him.

Exodus 32:27

Caesarius of Arles: Behold true and perfect charity: he ordered the death of a few people in order to save six hundred thousand, with the women and children excepted. If he had not been aroused with zeal for God to punish a few men, God’s justice would have destroyed them all. — SERMON 40.1

Ephrem the Syrian: The sons of Levi, who rallied to Moses with drawn swords, attacked them. But the sons of Levi did not know whom they should kill, because those who had worshiped mixed with those who had not worshiped. But the One for whom distinctions are easy to make separated those who committed idolatry from those who had not, so that the innocent would be grateful that their innocence had not escaped the notice of the just one, and the guilty would be brought to justice because their crime had not escaped the judge. — HOMILY ON OUR LORD 6.2

Gregory the Dialogist: Let them hear how Moses, when he saw that God was angry with His people, and commanded swords to be taken for executing vengeance, declared those to be on God’s side who should smite the crimes of the offenders without delay, saying, If any man is the Lord’s, let him join himself to me; put every man his sword upon his thigh; go in and out from gate to gate through the midst of the camp, and slay every man his brother and friend and neighbour. For to put sword upon thigh is to set earnestness in preaching before the pleasures of the flesh; so that, when any one is earnest to speak holy words, he must needs have a care to subdue illicit suggestions. But to go from gate to gate is to run to and fro with rebuke from vice to vice, even to every one by which death enters in unto the soul. And to pass through the midst of the camp is to live with such impartiality within the Church that one who reproves the sins of offenders turns aside to shew favour to none. Whence also it is rightly added, slay every man his brother and friend and neighbour. He in truth slays brother and friend and neighbour who, when he finds what is worthy of punishment, spares not even those whom he loves on the score of relationship from the sword of his rebuke. If, then, he is said to be God’s who is stirred up by the zeal of divine love to smite vices, he surely denies himself to be God’s who refuses to rebuke the life of the carnal to the utmost of his power. — The Book of Pastoral Rule, Part 3, Chapter 25

Exodus 32:29

Gregory the Dialogist: It is therefore to be well weighed, when there is rest from chiding, how culpably peace is kept with the worst of men, if so great a prophet offered this as a sacrifice to God, that he excited the enmities of the wicked against himself for the Lord. Hence it is that the tribe of Levi, when they took their swords and passed through the midst of the camp because they would not spare the sinners who were to be smitten, are said to have consecrated their hands to God. Hence Phinehas, spurning the favour of his fellow-countrymen when they sinned, smote those who came together with the Midianites, and in his wrath appeased the wrath of God. — The Book of Pastoral Rule, Part 3, Chapter 22

Exodus 32:30

Jerome: By a threefold confession Peter blotted out his threefold denial. If Aaron committed sacrilege by fashioning molten gold into the head of a calf, his brother’s prayers made amends for his transgressions. If holy David, meekest of men, committed the double sin of murder and adultery, he atoned for it by a fast of seven days. — LETTER 77.4

Exodus 32:32

Ambrose of Milan: What reproaches Moses had to bear from his people! But when the Lord would have avenged him on those who reviled him, he often used to offer himself for the people that he might save them from the divine anger. What gentle words he used to address the people, even after he was wronged! He comforted them in their labors, consoled them by his prophetic declarations of the future and encouraged them by his works. And though he often spoke with God, yet he was inclined to address men gently and pleasantly. Worthily was he considered to stand above all men. For they could not even look on his face and refused to believe that his sepulcher was found. He had captivated the minds of all the people to such an extent that they loved him even more for his gentleness than they admired him for his deeds. — On the Duties of the Clergy 2.7.31

Ambrose of Milan: The greater the sin, the more worthy must be the prayers that are sought. For it was not any one of the common people who prayed for the Jewish people, but Moses, when forgetful of their covenant they worshiped the head of a calf. Was Moses wrong? Certainly he was not wrong in praying, who both merited and obtained that for which he asked. For what should such love not obtain as that of his when he offered himself for the people and said, “And now, if you will forgive their sin, forgive; but if not, blot me out of the book of life.” We see that he does not think of himself, like a man full of fancies and scruples, whether he may incur the risk of some offense, as Novatian says he dreads that he might. But rather, thinking of all and forgetful of himself, he was not afraid lest he should offend, so that he might rescue and free the people from danger and offense. — Concerning Repentance 1.9.42

Cassiodorus: What a holy man, most worthy of all praise! When he came down from Mt. Sinai to the camp and saw the people exultantly and sacrilegiously posturing before the idol, he was roused to anger, broke the tablets in front of them and ordered one or other of them to be slain by the sword. But when comprehensive disaster loomed, he prayed that he himself should be destroyed rather than that the entire nation should perish. Both attitudes were devoted and splendid. Moses was right to converse with the divine clemency, for he loved to carry out its decrees. At the same time that power is revealed by which we often escape the punishment of deserved death through the prayers of the saints. Not that anyone can change the Lord’s dispositions, but [we] must realize that the outcome is foreknown by him. — EXPOSITION OF THE Psalms 105:23

Jerome: He sought to imitate the shepherd who would, he knew, carry on his shoulders even the wandering sheep. “The good shepherd”—these are the Lord’s own words—“lays down his life for the sheep.” One of his disciples can wish to be anathema from Christ for his brothers’ sake, his kinsmen according to the flesh who were Israelites. If then Paul can desire to perish that the lost may not be lost, how much should good parents not provoke their children to wrath or by too great severity embitter those who are naturally mild. — LETTER 82.3

John Chrysostom: For such is the compassion of the saint that he thinks death with his children sweeter than life without them. He will also make the special season his advocate and shelter himself behind the sacred festival of the Passover and will remind the emperor of the season when Christ remitted the sins of the whole world. — HOMILIES CONCERNING THE STATUES 3.2

Exodus 32:34

Clement of Alexandria: In this passage, he teaches him the art of educating. And well he might, for it was through Moses, in fact, that the Lord of the ancient people was the educator of his children. It is in his own person, however, face to face, that he is the guide of the new people. — The Instructor Book 1

Exodus 32:35

Salvian the Presbyter: Thus is it written: “The Lord therefore struck the people for their guilt on the occasion of the calf which Aaron had made.” What greater and more manifest judgment could God have made regarding sinners than that punishment immediately follow their sins? Yet, since all were guilty, why was not condemnation visited on all? Because the good Lord struck some with the swords of his sentence in order to correct others by example and to prove to all at the same time, his judgment by correcting, his love by pardoning. When he punished, he judged; when he pardoned, he loved. His judgment and love were unequal: his love was more evident than was his severity. — THE GOVERNANCE OF GOD 1.11.48