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Matthew Henry

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Exodus 32:30-35

Moses, having executed justice upon the principal offenders, is here dealing both with the people and with God. I. With the people, to bring them to repentance, Exod. 32:30. 1. When some were slain, lest the rest should imagine that, because they were exempt from the capital punishment, they were therefore looked upon as free from guilt, Moses here tells the survivors, You have sinned a great sin, and therefore, though you have escaped this time, except you repent, you shall all likewise... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Exodus 32:30

And it came to pass on the morrow ,.... The eighteenth day of Tammuz it was, the same writers say, that Moses implored the mercy of God for Israel. Jarchi on Exodus 32:11 says it was on the seventeenth day the tables were broke, on the eighteenth the calf was burnt, and on the nineteenth that Moses went up to intercede for them: that Moses said unto the people, ye have sinned a great sin ; the sin of idolatry, see Exodus 32:21 from whence it appears, that all that were guilty of it... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Exodus 32:31

And Moses returned unto the Lord ,.... On the mount where he was in the cloud: and said, oh, this people have sinned a great sin ; which to following words explain; he confesses the same to God he had charged the people with in Exodus 32:30 , and have made them gods of gold ; the golden calf, which they themselves called "Elohim", gods. read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Exodus 32:32

Yet now, if thou will forgive their sin ,.... Of thy free grace, good will, and pleasure; it will redound to thy glory, men will praise thy name on account of it; these people will have great reason to be thankful, and will lie under great obligations to thee, to fear, serve, and glorify thee; and in particular it will be regarded by me as the highest favour that can be asked or granted: and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of the book which thou hast written ; not the book of the law,... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Exodus 32:33

And the Lord said unto Moses ,.... In answer to his request: whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book ; not that anyone that is really in the book of life is ever blotted out, or that anyone predestinated or ordained to eternal life ever perish: but some persons may think themselves, and they may seem to be written in that book, or to be among the number of God's elect, but are not, and turn out obstinate impenitent sinners, and live and die in impenitence and... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - Exodus 32:34

Therefore now go, lead the people unto the place of which I have spoken unto thee ,.... That is, to the land of Canaan, which he had promised to their fathers and to them, and had directed Moses to bring them to: behold, mine angel shall go before thee : and not I, as Jarchi interprets it; not the Angel of the covenant, and of his presence, as in Exodus 23:20 but a created angel, which, though a favour, was a lessening of the mercy before promised and granted; and which gave the... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Exodus 32:31

Moses returned unto the Lord - Before he went down from the mountain God had acquainted him with the general defection of the people, whereupon he immediately, without knowing the extent of their crime, began to make intercession for them; and God, having given him a general assurance that they should not be cut off, hastened him to go down, and bring them off from their idolatry. Having descended, he finds matters much worse than he expected, and ordered three thousand of the principal... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Exodus 32:32

Forgive their sin - ; and if not, blot me - out of thy book - It is probable that one part of Moses' work during the forty days of his residence on the mount with God, was his regulating the muster-roll of all the tribes and families of Israel, in reference to the parts they were respectively to act in the different transactions in the wilderness, promised land, etc.; and this, being done under the immediate direction of God, is termed God's book which he had written, (such muster-rolls, or... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Exodus 32:33

Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out - As if the Divine Being had said: "All my conduct is regulated by infinite justice and righteousness: in no case shall the innocent ever suffer for the guilty. That no man may transgress through ignorance, I have given you my law, and thus published my covenant; the people themselves have acknowledged its justice and equity, and have voluntarily ratified it. He then that sins against me, (for sin is the transgression of the law, 1 John... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - Exodus 32:34

Lead the people unto the place - The word place is not in the text, and is with great propriety omitted. For Moses never led this people into that place, they all died in the wilderness except Joshua and Caleb; but Moses led them towards the place, and thus the particle אל el here should be understood, unless we suppose that God designed to lead them to the borders of the land, but not to take them into it. I will visit their sin - I will not destroy them, but they shall not enter... read more

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