Exodus 32:15-20
New English Translation
15 Moses turned and went down from the mountain with[a] the two tablets of the testimony in his hands. The tablets were written on both sides—they were written on the front and on the back. 16 Now the tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets. 17 When Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted,[b] he said to Moses, “It is the sound of war in the camp!” 18 Moses[c] said, “It is not the sound of those who shout for victory,[d] nor is it the sound of those who cry because they are overcome,[e] but the sound of singing[f] I hear.”[g]
19 When he approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses became extremely angry.[h] He threw the tablets from his hands and broke them to pieces at the bottom of the mountain.[i] 20 He took the calf they had made and burned it in the fire, ground it[j] to powder, poured it out on the water, and made the Israelites drink it.[k]
Read full chapterFootnotes
- Exodus 32:15 tn The disjunctive vav (ו) serves here as a circumstantial clause indicator.
- Exodus 32:17 sn See F. C. Fensham, “New Light from Ugaritica V on Ex, 32:17 (brʿh),” JNSL 2 (1972): 86-7.
- Exodus 32:18 tn Heb “he”; the referent (Moses) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
- Exodus 32:18 tn Heb “the sound of the answering of might,” meaning it is not the sound of shouting in victory (U. Cassuto, Exodus, 418).
- Exodus 32:18 tn Heb “the sound of the answering of weakness,” meaning the cry of the defeated (U. Cassuto, Exodus, 415).
- Exodus 32:18 tn Heb “answering in song” (a play on the twofold meaning of the word).
- Exodus 32:18 sn See A. Newman, “Compositional Analysis and Functional Ambiguity Equivalence: Translating Exodus 32, 17-18, ” Babel 21 (1975): 29-35.
- Exodus 32:19 tn Heb “and the anger of Moses burned hot.”
- Exodus 32:19 sn See N. M. Waldham, “The Breaking of the Tablets,” Judaism 27 (1978): 442-47.
- Exodus 32:20 tn Here “it” has been supplied.
- Exodus 32:20 tn Here “it” has been supplied.sn Pouring the ashes into the water running from the mountain in the brook (Deut 9:21) and making them drink it was a type of the bitter water test that tested the wife suspected of unfaithfulness. Here the reaction of the people who drank would indicate guilt or not (U. Cassuto, Exodus, 419).
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