Exodus 32:35

Exo 32:35 And the LORD plagued the people, because they made the calf, which Aaron made.

Ver. 35. They made.] {See Trapp on "Exo 32:1"}

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

This declareth how grievous a sin idolatry is, seeing that at Moses’ prayer God would not fully remit it.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

the Lord plagued the people, because they made the calf--No immediate judgments were inflicted, but this early lapse into idolatry was always mentioned as an aggravation of their subsequent apostasies.

Next: Exodus Chapter 33

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 35. The Lord plagued the people] Every time they transgressed afterwards Divine justice seems to have remembered this transgression against them. The Jews have a metaphorical saying, apparently founded on this text: "No affliction has ever happened to Israel in which there was not some particle of the dust of the golden calf."

1. THE attentive reader has seen enough in this chapter to induce him to exclaim, How soon a clear sky may be overcast! How soon may the brightest prospects be obscured! Israel had just ratified its covenant with Jehovah, and had received the most encouraging and unequivocal pledges of his protection and love. But they sinned, and provoked the Lord to depart from them, and to destroy the work of his hands. A little more faith, patience, and perseverance, and they should have been safely brought into the promised land. For want of a little more dependence upon God, how often does an excellent beginning come to an unhappy conclusion! Many who were just on the borders of the promised land, and about to cross Jordan, have, through an act of unfaithfulness, been turned back to wander many a dreary year in the wilderness. Reader, be on thy guard. Trust in Christ, and watch unto prayer.

2. Many people have been greatly distressed on losing their baptismal register, and have been reduced in consequence to great political inconvenience. But still they had their lives, and should a living man complain? But a man may so sin as to provoke God to cut him off; or, like a fruitless tree, be cut down, because he encumbers the ground. Or he may have sinned a sin unto death, 1Jo 5:16-17, that is, a sin which God will punish with temporal death, while he extends mercy to the soul.

3. With respect to the blotting out of God's book, on which there has been so much controversy, Is it not evident that a soul could not be blotted out of a book in which it had never been written? And is it not farther evident from Ex 32:32-33, that, although a man be written in God's book, if he sins he may be blotted out? Let him that readeth understand; and let him that standeth take heed lest he fall. Reader, be not high-minded, but fear. See Clarke on Ex 32:32, and "Ex 32:33".

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(35) The Lord plagued the people.—We are not to understand by this (with Kalisch) that a pestilence was sent, but only that sufferings of various kinds befell those who had worshipped the calf, and were, in fact, punishments inflicted on them for that transgression.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

35. The verse seems here out of place (so Di.): perhaps it originally formed the sequel to v. 20 (We., Bä.). It does not read like a description of the punishment threatened at the end of v. 34.

which Aaron made] The words read like a scribe’s correction of the less exact ‘they made’ just before.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount,.... The time, according to the Targum of Jonathan, being elapsed, which he had fixed for his descent, and through a misreckoning, as Jarchi suggests; they taking the day of his going up to be one of the forty days, at the end of which he was to return, whereas he meant forty complete days; but it is not probable that Moses knew himself how long he should stay, and much less that he acquainted them before hand of it; but he staying longer than they supposed he would, they grew uneasy and impatient, and wanted to set out in their journey to Canaan, and to have some symbol and representation of deity to go before them:

the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron; who with Hur was left to judge them in the absence of Moses: it was very likely that they had had conferences with him before upon this head, but now they got together in a tumultuous manner, and determined to carry their point against all that he should say to the contrary:

and said unto him, up; put us off no longer, make no more delay, but arise at once, and set about what has been once and again advised to and importuned:

make us gods which shall go before us; not that they were so very stupid to think, that anything that could be made with hands was really God, or even could have life and breath, and the power of self-motion, or of walking before them; but that something should be made as a symbol and representation of the divine Being, carried before them; for as for the cloud which had hitherto gone before them, from their coming out of Egypt, that had not moved from its place for forty days or more, and seemed to them to be fixed on the mount, and would not depart from it; and therefore they wanted something in the room of it as a token of the divine Presence with them:

for as for this Moses; of whom they speak with great contempt, though he had been the deliverer of them, and had wrought so many miracles in their favour, and had been the instrument of so much good unto them:

the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt; this they own, but do not seem to be very thankful for it:

we wot not what is become of him; they could scarcely believe that he was alive, that it was possible to live so long a time without eating and drinking; or they supposed he was burnt on the mount of flaming fire from before the Lord, as the Targum of Jonathan expresses it.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Struck, with some judgment, not specified; (Lyranus) or perhaps, the various punishments which were inflicted on the Hebrews in the wilderness, were all partly designed to chastise this first act of idolatry. Calmet explains this of the devastation caused by the Levites, as he supposes the narration of Moses does not deserve the order of time. He thinks Moses expostulated with the people, and was then sent by God to punish them; and while they were unarmed, (chap. xxxiii. 5,) the Levites fell upon them. Then Moses removed the tabernacle out of the camp, and obtained of God that he would go before them, and not an angel only, ver. 34. and chap. xxxiii. 17. Moses continued full forty days, standing or lying prostrate on the mount, before the Lord, to obtain the pardon of his people, Deuteronomy ix. 25. and x. 10. At the expiration of which term he returned, with an order to prepare two other tables of stone, on which, after a supplication of the same length of time, he obtained the law to be again engraven, chap. xxxiv. 28. The favour cost him therefore 120 days’ earnest prayer; and yet how little are we touched with God’s mercy, in giving us his law! (Haydock)

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

This relates either to the destruction of three thousand of them by the Levites, or rather to the future plagues, in which God also reckoned with them for this sin.

Because they made the calf; they made it because they urged

Aaron to make it, as Judas is said to purchase the field, Act 1:18, which was purchased by his money; and Aaron made it, by giving command to make it. The Chaldee, Syriac, Arabic, and Samaritan render the words thus,

they worshipped or sacrificed to the calf which Aaron made. And the word which signifies to make, is oft used for worshipping or sacrificing, as Exo 10:25; Jdg 13:15; 1Ki 18:26.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

35. Plagued — This implies that the severe blow ministered by the Levites (27-29) was followed by still other visitations of penal wrath.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The Lord plagued, or "strucki.e. , "punished" the people. There is nothing in the expression which requires us to understand the sending of a pestilence.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And the Lord plagued the people - Probably by the pestilence, or some other infectious disease. Thus Moses prevailed for a mitigation of the punishment, but could not wholly turn away the wrath of God.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

"Thus Jehovah smote the people because they had made the calf." With these words the historian closes the first act of Moses' negotiations with the Lord on account of this sin, from which it was apparent how God had repented of the evil with which He had threatened the nation (Exo 32:14). Moses had obtained the preservation of the people and their entrance into the promised land, under the protection of God, through his intercession, and averted from the nation the abrogation of the covenant; but the covenant relation which had existed before was not restored in its integrity. Though grace may modify and soften wrath, it cannot mar the justice of the holy God. No doubt an atonement had been made to justice, through the punishment which the Levites had inflicted upon the nation, but only a passing and imperfect one. Only a small portion of the guilty nation had been punished, and that without the others showing themselves worthy of forgiving grace through sorrow and repentance. The punishment, therefore, was not remitted, but only postponed in the long-suffering of God, "until the day of retribution" or visitation. The day of visitation came at length, when the stiff-necked people had filled up the measure of their sin through repeated rebellion against Jehovah and His servant Moses, and were sentenced at Kadesh to die out in the wilderness (Num 14:26.). The sorrow manifested by the people (Exo 33:4), when the answer of God was made known to them, was a proof that the measure was not yet full.

Keil & Delitzsch — Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament (1861–1891) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API. (Old Testament only.)

ויגף ה' את העם AND THE LORD PLAGUED THE PEOPLE — This was death inflicted by the heavenly Judge on those to whose offence there had been witnesses but no legal caution (cf. Rashi on v. 20).

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

AND THE ETERNAL SMOTE THE PEOPLE. Scripture does not state how many died in this plague, as it stated the number of those that fell by the hand of the sons of Levi,. and as it mentioned in the case of the plague about the matter of Korah,. and in connection with the Baal of Peor, 25:9: And those that died by the plague were twenty and four thousand. the reason perhaps being that those here did not all die in one plague, but they were smitten and died prematurely, something like it said, but the Eternal shall smite him, or his day shall come to die. Perhaps Scripture did not bother to number them, for similarly it did not number those that died in the plague at Taberah, and at Kibroth-hattaavah, where it says, and the Eternal smote the people with a very great plague., 33. Those that fell, however, through the sons of Levi He counted in their honor, thus saying that they slew many of the people but yet they did not fear them, for they trusted in the Eternal.

BECAUSE THEY MADE THE CALF. This means that they were not amongst those who worshipped it or sacrificed to it, but they were the men who “made” it, that is to say, they were the ones who gathered around Aaron and brought him the gold. Now since Scripture states that they were punished for making the calf, not for worshipping it, and in reality they did not make it, it explains further, which Aaron made, meaning that Aaron made it at their command.But Onkelos translated [the expression, because they ‘made’ the calf], “because they ‘worshipped’ the calf which Aaron made.” By this Onkelos intended to explain that the ones who died in the plague were those who embraced and kissed it, and were pleased with the calf. Now [although the same term asah (“did”) is mentioned in both cases, because they ‘made’ the calf, which Aaron ‘made’], Onkelos did not feel obliged to translate both alike [but instead he translated: “because they ‘worshipped’ the calf, which Aaron ‘made’ “]. A similar case [of Onkelos’ rendition] is the verse, and whatsoever they ‘did’ there, he was the ‘doer’ of it, which he translated: “and whatsoever they did there ‘was done’ by his command.” This plague occurred after Moses had punished the worshippers and prayed for Israel, saying, and if not, blot me, I pray Thee, out of Thy book. For because Moses had shown his readiness to give his life for them, the Holy One, blessed be He, had mercy upon them, and told him to bring them up to the Land, and that He would send an angel before them; but since He wanted to take away from them part of the great sin, in order that they should be worthy [to go up to the Land], He sent upon them this plague. Or it may be that He had decreed this plague upon them [before Moses’ prayer] and the plague had already begun, and after that He said again to Moses, Go up hence, thou and the people, Verse 1. meaning, that the plague will not blot out their sin from before Me so that I should again dwell in their midst. He mentioned though, unto the land of which I swore unto Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, Verse 1. and further said, and I will drive out the Canaanite, etc.; for on account of the plague which He brought or decreed upon them, part of their sin was blotted out, and He was partially appeased to them, in remembering the merit of the patriarchs, and [promising] that He would fulfill to them the oath He had taken to bring them unto a good land, a land flowing with milk and honey. Thus He hinted to Moses that the earth [i.e., the land of Canaan] would not become corrupt nor would it be defiled under the inhabitants thereof on account of their sin, and that He would drive out all the six nations whose land they were originally promised. And He also said by way of pacification, for I will not go up in the midst of thee, this being to your benefit, lest I consume thee in the way, because of your stiff-neckedness.Thus there were here two punishments for Israel: firstly, that He would not cause His Divine Glory to dwell amongst them, and secondly, that He would send an angel before Moses until the nations would be driven out; but He did not promise them after they would inherit the Land even an angel to help them, for this is why He mentioned in the way [lest I consume thee ‘in the way’]. It is with reference to all this that Scripture says, And when the people heard these evil tidings, they mourned; and no man put on him his ornaments, Verse 4. — just as mourners. But G-d is merciful, abounding in compassion, and when He saw that they mourned, He said again by way of mercy, Say unto the children of Israel etc., Verse 5. for up till now He had used the terms, thy people, and the people, Verse 1. but now He mentioned them by their beloved name, and He commanded Moses to tell them that it was to their benefit that He would not go up in their midst, in order that He should not consume them in one moment. However, they have done well in repenting and mourning for their sin. So should they always do, and I will know what to do unto them., Verse 5. That is to say, I will visit their sin in accordance with My knowledge of their mourning and repenting their sin, since it is I Who tries the heart and searches the kidneys. By way of the Truth, [the mystic teachings of the Cabala], the expression, that I may know what to do unto thee, Verse 5. means that He will do unto them in the knowledge of mercy, similar to what is said, and if not, I will know, as I have already explained., Verse 20. Vol. I, p. 245.

Ramban (Nachmanides) on the Tanakh — English translation: “Commentary on the Torah by Ramban (Nachmanides). Translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel. New York, Shilo Pub. House, 1971-1976” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.