Êxodo 32:17

When Joshua heard. — Joshua’s presence with Moses in the mount has not been indicated since Êxodo 24:13. But it would seem that when Moses was summoned up into the cloud (Êxodo 24:16) 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 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 Reis 18:28; Atos 19:34; 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 (Êxodo 32:7), had probably a shrewd suspicion of the real nature of the sounds. He contented himself, however, with negativing his minister’s conjecture.