directions that the people should in any difficulty take the advice of Aaron and Hur (chap. xxiv. 14). It is not surprising, however, that, when the difficulty arose, Aaron alone was consulted. Aaron had been jointleader with Moses from the first (see chaps. iv. 29, 30, v. 1, 4, 20, &c.); Hur had only very recently been advanced into a position of authority (chaps. xvii. 10, xxiv. 14). He was, at the most, the Lepidus of the Triumvirate.

Up, make us gods.- Rather, make us a god. The religious condition of the Israelites during the sojourn in Egypt has been so entirely passed over in the previous narrative, that this request comes upon us as a surprise and a shock. True, there have been warnings against idolatry, reiterated warnings (chaps. xx. 4, 5, 23, xxiii. 32, 33), but no tendency towards it has manifested itself, no hint has been given that it was an immediate and pressing danger. When, however, we carefully scrutinise the rest of Scripture, we find reason to believe that a leaning towards idolatry had, in point of fact, shown itself among the people while they were in Egypt, and had even attained some considerable development. (See Lev. xvii. 7; Josh. xxiv. 14; Ezek. xx. 8, xxiii. 3.) This tendency had been checked by the series of extraordinary manifestations which had accompanied the exodus. Now, however, in the absence of Moses, in the uncertainty which prevailed as to whether he still lived or not, and in the withdrawal from the camp of that Divine Presence which had hitherto gone before them, the idolatrous instinct once more came to the front. The cry was raised, "make us a god"-make us something to take the place of the pillar of the cloud, something visible, tangible, on which we can believe the Divine Presence to rest, and which may go before us" and conduct us.

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This Moses, the man that brought us up -Contemptuous words, showing how shortlived is human gratitude, and even human respect. An absence of less than six weeks, and a belief that he was no more, had sufficed to change the great deliverer into “this Moses, the man who brought us up."

(2) And Aaron said... Break off the golden earrings. It is a reasonable conjecture that Aaron thought to prevent the projected idolatry by this requirement. Not having the courage to meet the demand of the people with a direct negative, he may have aimed at diverting them from their purpose by requiring a sacrifice which they would be unwilling to make, viz., the personal ornaments of their wives and children. The women might reasonably have been expected to resist, and the men to yield before such resistance; but the event proved otherwise.

Your sons.-Earrings are worn in the East almost as much by men as by women. Most Assyrian and some Egyptian monarchs are represented with them.

(3) All the people brake off the golden earrings.-Aaron had miscalculated the strength of the people's fanaticism. Not the slightest resistance was offered to his requirement, not the slightest objection

Aaron makes a Golden Calf.

brought them unto Aaron. (4) a 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 gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. (5) And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it; and Aaron

made. "All the people," with one accord, surrendered their earrings. Some measure is hereby afforded of the intensity of the feeling which was moving the people and urging them to substitute an idolatrous worship for the abstract and purely spiritual religion which had reigned supreme since their departure from Egypt.

(4) And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool.-Rather, and he received it (i.e., the gold) at their hand, and bound it in a bag. So Gesenius, Rosenmüller, Fürst, Knobel, Kurtz, Maurer, Scröder, Cook, &c. "Fashioned it with a graving tool" is a possible rendering of the Hebrew words, but will not suit here, since the next clause tells us that the image was a molten one, and if it had been intended to say that the image was first molten and then finished with a graving tool, the order of the two clauses would have been inverted. A similar phrase to that here used has the sense of "bound in a bag" in 2 Kings v. 23.

After he had made it a molten calf. This is a quite impossible rendering. The original gives "and," not "after." The action of this clause must either be simultaneous with that of the last or subsequent. Translate, and made it into a molten calf.

A molten calf.-It has been usual to regard the selection of the "calf" form for the image as due to Egyptian influences. But the Egyptian calf-worship, or, rather, bull-worship, was not a worship of images, but of living animals. A sacred bull, called Apis, was worshipped at Memphis, and another, called Mnevis, at Heliopolis, both being regarded as actual incarnate deities. Had Egyptian ideas been in the ascendant, it would have been natural to select a living bull, which

might have " "gone before the people literally. The "molten calf," which had no very exact counterpart in Egypt, perhaps points back to an older idolatry, such as is glanced at in Josh. xxiv. 14, where the Israelites are warned to "put away the gods which their fathers served on the other side of the flood," i.e., of the Euphrates. Certainly the bull form was more distinctive of the Babylonian and Assyrian than of the Egyptian worship, and it may he suspected that the emigrants from Chaldæa had clung through all their wanderings to the mystic symbolism which had been elaborated in that primæval land, and which they would contrast favourably with the coarse animal worship of Egypt. Chaldæa, the bull, generally winged and human-headed, represented the combination of wisdom, strength, and omnipresence, which characterises divinity; and this combination might well have seemed to carnal minds no unapt symbol of Jehovah.

In

These be thy gods.-Rather, This is thy god. (5) Aaron built an altar before it.Having once yielded to the popular cry, Aaron was carried on from one compliance to another. He caused the mould to be made for the idol, and the gold to be melted and run into it; and now he constructed, perhaps with his own hands, an altar of rough stones or turf (chap. xx. 24, 25), and placed it directly in front of the

made proclamation, and said, To morrow is a feast to the LORD. (6) And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the "people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.

(7) And the LORD said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves: (8) they have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and

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God's Anger thereat.

that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation.

1

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9. 13.

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image, thus encouraging the offering of sacrifice to it. Perhaps he flattered himself that by heading the movement he could control it, and hinder it from becoming downright apostacy from Jehovah. In his view no doubt the calf was an emblem of Jehovah, and the worship paid it was the worship of Jehovah. Hence the festival which he proclaimed was to be "a feast to Jehovah." But how little able he was to guide events, or to hinder the worst evils of idolatry from speedily manifesting themselves, appears from verses 6 and 25.

(6) They rose up early.-Impatient to begin the new worship. the people rose with the dawn, and brought offerings, and offered sacrifice. Whether Aaron took part in these acts-which constituted the actual worship of the idol-is left doubtful.

Burnt offerings, and peace offerings.— Sacrifices of both kinds were pre-Mosaical, not first originated by the Law, though deriving confirmation from it. Offerings of both kinds are noticed in Gen. iv. 3, 4; Exod. xviii. 12.

The people sat down to eat and to drink, and rose up to play.-A feast always followed a sacrifice (see chaps. xviii. 12, xxiv. 5, 11). In feasting therefore upon what they had offered, the Israelites did no wrong; but probably they indulged themselves in a license of feasting unsuited to a religious act, though common enough in the idol-festivals of the heathen. They "fed without fear" (Jude 12), transgressed the bounds of moderation, and turned what should have been a religious rite into an orgy. Then, having gratified their appetites and stimulated their passions, they ceased to eat and drink, and "rose up to play." The "play" included dancing of an indecent kind (verses 19, 25), and would probably have terminated, as the heathen orgies too often did, in the grossest sensualism, had not the descent of Moses from Sinai, and his appearance on the scene, put a stop to the unhallowed doings.

GOD'S OFFER TO MOSES.

(7) The Lord said unto Moses, Go, get thee down. Moses was, of course, wholly ignorant of all that had occurred in the camp. The thick cloud which covered the top of Sinai had prevented his seeing what

this evil against thy people. (13) Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have

Have corrupted themselves.-The form of the verb used (shikhêth) is active. We must supply “their way," or some similar phrase, after it. (Comp. Gen. vi. 12: "All flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.")

(8) These be thy gods.-Rather, This is thy god, as in verse 4.

(9) It is a stiff-necked people.-This phrase, afterwards so common (chaps. xxxiii. 3, 5, xxxiv. 5; Deut. ix. 6, 13, x. 16; 2 Chron. xxx. 8, xxxvi. 13; Ps. lxxv. 5; Jer. xvii. 23; Acts vii. 51), occurs here for the first time. It is generally explained as "obstinate," but rather means 66 perverse,' the metaphor being taken from the horse that stiffens his neck against the pull of the rein, and will not be guided by the rider. The LXX. omit the verse, for no intelligible reason.

(10) Let me alone.-This was not a command to abstain from deprecation, but rather an intimation that deprecation might have power to change God's purpose. Moses was tried by an offer which would have exalted him at the expense of the people. He was allowed to see that he might either sacrifice the people and obtain his own aggrandisement, or deny himself and save them. That he chose the better part redounds to his undying glory.

I will make of thee a great nation-i.e., I will put thee in the place of Abraham, make thee the father of the faithful, destroy all existing Israelites but thee and thine, and proceed de novo to raise up a "great nation" out of thy loins.

MOSES' REPLY, AND GOD'S "REPENTANCE."

(11-13) Moses has three arguments: (1) God has done so much for His people, that surely He will not now make all of none effect (verse 11); (2) their destruction will give a triumph to the Egyptians (verse 12); (3) it will nullify the promises made to Abraham,

spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever. (14) And the LORD repented of the evil which he thought to do unto his people.

(15) And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand: the tables were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other were they written. (16) And the a tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables. (17) And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said unto Moses, There is a noise of war in the

Isaac, and Jacob (Gen. xv. 5, xvii. 2—6, xxvi. 1, xxviii. 12, xxxv. 11), causing Moses to eclipse their glory, and to be looked upon as the true patriarch and progenitor of the " 'peculiar people" (verse 13). these arguments he adds entreaties that God will be merciful, and change His purpose (verse 12).

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(14) The Lord repented of the evil.-Moses' intercession was effectual. God spared the people at his desire. He is, therefore, said to have "repented"; not that He had really changed His purpose, for He had known from the beginning that Moses would intercede and that He would spare, but because He first announced a (conditional) purpose, and then announced a different one. The mode of speech is, as so frequently, anthropomorphic.

THE DESCENT OF MOSES FROM SINAI, AND THE SUPPRESSION OF THE IDOLATRY.

(15) And Moses turned-i.e., "returned," or "set out on his return," apparently without making any communication to Joshua, who was waiting for him not far off (see verse 17).

were in his hand.

The two tables In Deut. ix. 15 we read that the two tables were in his "two hands," which is more exact, and more as we should have expected.

The tables were written on both their sides.— Babylonian tablets and Assyrian monoliths have usually writing on both sides, Egyptian monoliths rarely. It has been calculated that the 172 words of the Decalogue could easily have been inscribed in letters of a fair size on the four surfaces indicated, if the tablets were 27 inches long by 18 inches broad, and that two tablets of this size could readily have been conveyed in a man's two hands (Keil).

(16) The tables were the work of God.Rosenmüller supposes this to mean merely that the size and shape of the stones was prescribed to Moses by God; but the natural meaning of the words is that God Himself fashioned them. This was not the case with the second tables (chap. xxxiv. 1, 4).

The writing was the writing of God.-See Note 3 on chap. xxxi. 18.

presence

(17) When Joshua heard.-Joshua's with Moses in the mount has not been indicated since chap. xxiv. 13. But it would seem that when Moses was summoned up into the cloud (chap. xxiv. 16) his faithful "minister" remained where he was, waiting for his master. He may have found shelter in some "cleft of the rock;" and the manna may have fallen

and Destroys the Calf.

camp. (18) And he said, It is not the voice of them that shout for mastery, neither is it the voice of them that cry for being overcome: but the noise of them that sing do I hear. (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. (20) And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and strawed it upon the water, and made the children of Israel drink of it.

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about him, and sufficed for his sustenance during the forty days and nights of his master's absence.

The noise of the people as they shouted."Shouting" was a feature of idolatrous rites (1 Kings xviii. 28; Acts xix. 34; Herod. ii. 60, &c.), and was in part a cause, in part a result, of the physical excitement which prevailed during such orgies. Joshua, unsuspicious of the real nature of the shouting, supposed, naturally enough, that the camp was attacked by an enemy, and that the noise was "a noise of war." But Moses, forewarned of the actual state of affairs (verses 7, 8), had probably a shrewd suspicion of the real nature of the sounds. He contented himself, however, with negativing his minister's conjecture. sing.-The Hebrew verb is the same in all three clauses. Translate: It is not the voice of them that cry for victory, nor is it the voice of them that cry for defeat; the voice of them that do I hear. Moses' sense of hearing conveys to him no positive result. We must remember that the camp was still distant, and that the sound was conveyed circuitously, since the descent from the Ras Sufsafeh is by a side valley, from which the sight of the plain is shut out (Stanley, Sinai and Palestine, p. 44).

(18) Shout. cry

cry

...

(19) And the dancing.-Heb., and dances. What Moses saw was "the calf" which had already been mentioned, and "dances" which had not been mentioned, but which were now going on after the usual fashion of idolatrous festivity. Such dancing among Oriental nations was uniformly of a lascivious character. (Comp. verse 25.)

He cast the tables out of his hands.-Comp. Deut. ix. 17. In righteous indignation, but perhaps with some revival of the hot temper which had led him astray in his younger days (chap. ii. 12).

(20) He took the calf.-To suppress the idolatry, the first step was to destroy the idol. Moses, who must have rallied to his side at once a certain number of the people, laid hold of the calf, and ordered its immediate destruction. He had it submitted to the action of fire, whereby its form was destroyed, and the material, as it would seem, calcined. This calcined material he reduced to a fine powder by rubbing or pounding, and then had the powder sprinkled on the surface of the stream which supplied the camp with water, that so the people might seem, at any rate, to swallow their own sin. Compare the action of Josiah (2 Kings xxiii. 6, 12). No doubt, the process of destruction took some time. It is not meant that it

Moses Rebukes Aaron, and

Kills Three Thousand Idolaters.

did this people unto thee, that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them? (22) And Aaron said, Let not the anger of my lord wax hot: thou knowest the people, that they are set on mischief. (23) For they said unto me, Make us gods, which shall go before us: for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him. (24) And I said unto them, Whosoever hath any gold, let them break it off. So they gave it me: then I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf.

(25) And when Moses saw that the people were naked; (for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among 1 their enemies :) (26) Then Moses stood

them.

was completed, but only that it was commenced, before Moses turned to other matters.

(21) Moses said unto Aaron, What did this people unto thee ?-The second step was to inquire how the idolatry came about; and here Moses very reasonably addressed himself to Aaron. Aaron had been left in charge of the people (chap. xxiv. 14), to advise them, direct them, control them, if necessary. How had he acquitted himself of this charge? had allowed the people to commit a great sin. What excuse could he offer for his conduct? Had the people injured him in any way? The question is asked ironically.

He

(22-24) Aaron's conduct was really without excuse; but he attempts two pleas-the first insufficient, the second false and fatuous. (1) The people compelled him; they were "set on mischief; they made the proposal-they would have it so. (2) He threw the gold into the furnace, and "it came out a calf," as if he had not ordered the construction of the mould. In Deuteronomy, Moses informs us that Aaron's whole conduct so angered God that God would have destroyed him but for his own intercession (Deut. ix. 20).

late

(25) When Moses saw that the people were naked.-Most modern commentators prefer to transthat 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.

(26) Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp. -The third and crowning step was now to be taken. Though the idol had been seized and its destruction commenced, though Aaron had been rebuked and put to shame, yet the revel continued. Once launched on an evil course, the bulk of the people persisted in it. Moses felt that God was openly insulted by such conduct, against which death was denounced by the Law (chap. xxii. 20), and which might at any moment pro

he said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbour. (28) And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men. (29) 2 For Moses had said, Consecrate yourselves to day to the LORD, even every man upon his son, and upon his brother; that he may bestow upon you a blessing this day. (30) And it came to pass on the mor

voke God to destroy the whole people (verse 10). He therefore proceeded to suppress the idolatry by a stern act of judicial severity-an execution on a large scale of those taken flagrante delicto. Standing in the gate-i.e., the principal gate of the camp, he summoned to his aid those who were on the Lord's side, and gave them orders to go through the camp from end to end, and put to death all whom they found still engaged in the mad revel.

All the sons of Levi.-This must not be understood literally. All the Levites would not have heard the summons of Moses, and some were evidently among those who persisted in idolatry (verses 27-29). In the language of the sacred writers, "all" constantly means "the greater part.'

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(27) Thus saith the Lord God.-Moses felt that he was divinely commissioned to perform this act of severity. The lives of all who had committed the idolatry were justly forfeit. Trial was unnecessary where the offence was being openly committed before the eyes of all. Such dancing and such shouting could not possibly be Jehovah-worship. It was by its very character idolatrous.

Go in and out from gate to gate...—i.e., "pass through the whole camp from end to end, visit all parts of it, and wherever you see the rites continuing, smite with the sword-smite, and spare not."

Slay every man his brother.-Comp. verse 26. The Levites who had rallied to the call of Moses might find their own brothers or their own sons among the idolaters. If they did, they were still to smite, though the offender was their near relative.

(29) For Moses had said, Consecrate yourselves.-Moses had explained to them that a brave behaviour under existing circumstances would be accepted as a "consecration," and would win for the tribe a semi-priestly character. His announcement was made good when the Levites were appointed to the service of the sanctuary in lieu of the firstborn (Numb. iii. 6—13). MOSES' INTERCESSION ON BEHALF OF THE

PEOPLE.

(30-35) When Moses had, on first hearing of God's intention to destroy the people, interceded for them (verses 11-13), his prayers had received no direct

row, 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. (31) And Moses returned unto the LORD, and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold. (32) Yet now, if thou wilt forgive their sin; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book which thou hast written. (33) And the LORD said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against

answer he had been left in doubt whether they were granted or no. Having now put an end to the offence, and to some extent punished it, he is bent on renewing his supplications, and obtaining a favourable reply. Once more he ascends into the mount to be quite alone, and so best able to wrestle with God in prayer; and this time he not merely intercedes, but offers himself as an atonement for the people, and is willing to be "blotted out of God's book," if on this condition they may be spared. God refuses the offer, but makes known to Moses that He relents-that He will spare the people, and allow them to continue their journey to the promised land; only He will send an angel to lead them instead of leading them Himself, and He will punish the sinners by a different punishment from that originally threatened (verse 10).

(31) Moses returned unto the Lord-i.e., reascended Sinai, to the place where he had passed the forty days and nights.

Gods of gold.-Rather, a god of gold. (Comp. Note 3 on verse 1.) The plural is one of dignity.

(32) If thou wilt forgive their sin.-Supply after the word "sin," "well and good," "I am content,' or some such phrase. Similar instances of aposiopesis will be found in Dan. iii. 15; Luke xiii. 9, xix. 42; John vi. 62; Rom. ix. 22. The usage is common among Orientals.

Blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book.Comp. Rom. ix. 1-3. Moses seems to have risen to the same height of self-abnegation as St. Paul, and to have willed to be "accursed from God for his brethren, his kinsmen according to the flesh." As his sacrifice could not have redeemed them (Ps. xlix. 7), God did not accept it in the literal sense; but the offer may have availed much towards the pardon of the people, and towards lightening the chastisement which they received (verses 34, 35).

(33) Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out.-Comp. Ezek. xviii. 4: "The soul that sinneth, it shall die." A mere man cannot take other men's sins on him, cannot relieve them of the penalties attached to sin, the worst of which is the depravation of the soul itself. Sin persisted in blots out from God's book by the absolute contradiction that there is between evil and good. Even Christ's merits cannot avail the sinner who does not put away his sin, detest it, abhor it, revolt from it. Only One who can implant a principle of life in man can save from death.

(34) Lead the people unto the place of which I have spoken-i.e., continue their leader until Palestine is reached. (See chaps. iii. 8, 17, vi. 4-8, &c.) Mine Angel shall go before thee.-So far as the form of the expression goes, the promise is, as nearly

God for the People.

as possible, a repetition of the original one, "Behold, I send an angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared (chap. xxiii. 20). But the meaning of the promise is wholly changed, as we learn from the opening paragraph of the ensuing chapter (chap. xxxiii. 1-3). The angel" now promised as a guide is not to be God Himself (“I will not go up in the midst of thee"), but a creature, between whom and God the distance is immeasurable.

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In the day when I visit I will visit their sin upon them.-All sin is followed by suffering; the sequence is inevitable. God had now consented to spare His people, and to take them back into favour; but they were not to expect that matters would be with them as if their sin had not taken place. It would still be "visited upon them"-not, indeed, by instant death, but still in some way or other. The weary waiting in the wilderness for forty years may have been a part of the punishment (Num. xiv. 33); but it may also have been inflicted on different persons in many different

THE HUMILIATION OF THE PEOPLE AT THE THREAT OF GOD'S WITHDRAWAL.

(1-6) If God consented at all to renew His covenant with the people, after they had so flagrantly broken it, the terms on which He would renew it were, in strict justice, purely optional. In the "Book of the Covenant" He had promised to go up with them by an Angel, in whom was His Name (chap. xxiii. 20-23): i.e., by His Son, the Second Person in the Holy Trinity. He now, to mark His displeasure, withdrew this promise, and substituted for the Divine presence that of a mere angel. "I will send an angel before thee" (verse 2); I will not go up in the midst of thee" (verse 3). Dimly the people felt the importance of the change, the vast difference between the angelic and the Divine, and “mourned" their loss (verse 4): mourned with some touch of real godly sorrow, and, as was the custom of the Orientals in mourning (Terent. Heaut. ii. 3, 47; Herodian. iv. 2, &c.), "put off their ornaments."

(1) The Lord said unto Moses.-In continuation and explanation of the words recorded in chap.