Exodus 32:15

_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._ Moses turned, and went down from the mount. The plain Er-Rabeh is not visible from the top of Jebel Musa, nor can the mount be descended on the side toward that valley; hence, Moses and his companion, who on duty had patiently waited his return in the hollow of the mountain's brow, heard the shouting sometime before they actually saw the camp. THE TWO TABLES OF THE TESTIMONY WERE IN HIS HAND - (see the note at Exodus 24:12; Exodus 31:18.) THE TABLES WERE WRITTEN ON BOTH THEIR SIDES. The Jewish doctors, who say that it was done with a sapphire from the throne of God

15._And Moses turned, and went down, from the mount _Moses comes down by God’s command to be a spectator of this wicked revolt, that the enormity of the act might the more arouse him both to disgust and detestation of the crime, and to the endeavor to find a remedy for it. Although, however, God had pronounced sentence of rejection against the people, He still leaves the tables that testified of the covenant untouched in the hands of Moses, not that He wished them to remain whole, as we shall soon see, but that first the sight of them, and then the breaking of them, might inspire the apostates with greater horror, whose madness had otherwise stupified them. Why the Law was divided into two tables has been elsewhere seen, viz., because it first sets forth piety and the worship of God; and, secondly, prescribes the rule of righteous living between man and man, and instructs us in the mutua...

15-20 What a change it is, to come down from the mount of communion with God, to converse with a wicked world. In God we see nothing but what is pure and pleasing; in the world nothing but what is sinful and provoking. That it might appear an idol is nothing in the world, Moses ground the calf to dust. Mixing this powder with their drink, signified that the backslider in heart should be filled with his own ways....

Verse Exodus 32:15. _THE TABLES WERE WRITTEN ON BOTH THEIR SIDES_] If we take this literally, it was certainly a very unusual thing; for in ancient times the two sides of the same substance were never written over. However, some rabbins suppose that by the _writing_ _on both sides_ is meant the letters were _cut through_ the tables, so that they might be read on both sides, though on one side they would appear reversed. Supposing this to be correct, if the letters were the same with those called _Hebrew_ now in common use, the ס _samech_, which occurs twice, and the final ם _mem_ which occurs _twenty-three_ times in the ten commandments, both of these being _close_ letters, could not be cut through on both sides without falling out, unless, as some of the Jews have imagined, they were held in by miracle; but if this ancient character were the sa...

The faithfulness of Moses in the office that had been entrusted to him was now to be put to the test. It was to be made manifest whether he loved his own glory better than he loved the brethren who were under his charge; whether he would prefer that he should himself become the founder of a “great nation,” or that the Lord’s promise should be fulfilled in the whole people of Israel. This may have been especially needful for Moses, in consequence of his natural disposition. See Numbers 12:3; and compare Exodus 3:11. With this trial of Moses repeated in a very similar manner Numbers 14:11, may be compared the trial of Abraham Genes

EXPOSITION MOSES BREAKS THE TWO TABLES. The entire conference between God and Moses being now ended, Moses hastened to descend from the mount, and interpose in the crisis that had arisen, he took carefully the two tables of stone, which he had received, in his two hands (Deuteronomy 9:15), and set out on his return to the camp. On the way, he fell in with Joshua, who must have been on the watch for his descent, and the two proceeded together. When a certain portion of the distance had been traversed, the sounds of the festivity which was going on in the camp reached their ears; and Joshua, mistaking the nature of the shouts, suggested that fighting was in progress (verse 17). Moses, however, better instructed in the actual nature of the proceedings (verses 7, 8), caught their character

AND MOSES TURNED, AND WENT DOWN FROM THE MOUNT,.... He turned himself from God, with whom he had been conversing forty days; his back was to the ascent of the mount, and he turned himself in order to go down; or "he looked" g, as a man considers what is to be done, as Aben Ezra observes, and he saw that he was obliged to go down in haste: AND THE TWO TABLES OF THE TESTIMONY [WERE] IN HIS HAND; or hands, as in Exodus 32:19 for they were, perhaps, as much as he could carry in both hands, being of stone, as in Exodus 31:18 on which was written the law, the "testimony" of the will of God with respect to what was to be done or not done: THE LETTERS WERE WRITTEN ON BOTH THEIR SIDES, ON THE ONE SIDE AND ON THE OTHER WERE THEY WRITTEN; some think that the engraving of the lette

Exodus 32:1. _And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, 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._ What a terrible speech to be made by the people whom God had chosen to be his own! «Make us gods. Make our Creator.» How could that be? Exodus 32:2. _And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me._ Poor Aaron! He never had the backbone of his brother Moses. He was a better speaker; but oh, the poverty of his heart! He yields to the will of these idolatrous peo

4. ISRAEL ‘S SIN AND REBELLION CHAPTER 32 _ 1. The people in rebellion (Exodus 32:1)_ 2. Jehovah threatens his wrath (Exodus 32:7) 3. Moses beseeches Jehovah (Exodus 32:11) 4. Moses descends and in the camp (Exodus 32:15) 5. Moses' offer and failure (Exodus 32:30) This chapter records the breaking of the covenant by Israel ‘s sin, rebellion against Jehovah, and idolatry. Here we find man's heart fully uncovered, that wicked heart of unbelief. What manifestations of God's power they had seen! Their eye

EXODUS 32:1 E, EXODUS 32:7 Rje, EXODUS 32:15 E, EXODUS 32:25 J, EXODUS 32:30 E s, EXODUS 32:35 E. THE GOLDEN CALF. Exodus 32:32 stand between the instructions for the Tent and their fulfilment. Their religious value is high and clear. But their literary growth has been too complex to trace here (_see_ Driver, CB 346ff.). It is po