EXPOSITION. Vers. 7-H,.-T.IIE 111'.TERCJ:SBION OF MOSES. been false to his past, and wanting in tender- Moses, in Sinai, was so far removed from the ness towards those who were at once his wards camp, and the cloud so shut out his vision of and his countrymen. His own glory naturally it, that he had neither seen nor heard anything drew him one way, his affection for Israel the unusual, a.nd was wholly ignorant of what had other. It is to his eternal honour that he happened, until God declared it to him (vers. chose the better part; declined to be put in 7, S). After decla.riJlg it, God 8.IlllDunced his. Abraham's place, and generously interceded intention of des~oying the people for their for his nation (vers. 11-13). He thereby apostasy, a.nd fulfilling his promise to Abraham placed himself among the heroes of humanity, by raising up a" great nation" out of the seed and ga.ve additional strength and dignity to of Moses (ver. HI). No doubt this constituted his own cha.racter. a great trial of the prophet's ehe.ra.oter. He Ver. 7.-Go► descand.-i.e., "make haste to might, wit~out sin, have acquiesced in th& descend-do not tarry-there is need of thy punishment af the people- as deserved, and immediate presence." Thy people, which have accepted the promise ma.de to himself as thou broughtest, etc. Words calculated to a fresh instance of God's goodness to him. awe.ken the tenderness between which and There would have been BDthing wrong in self-love the coming struggle was to be. Ver. 8,-They have. turned aaide quiokly. this; but it would have shown that he fell A few weeks have sufficed to make them for- short of the heroic type, belonged to the or- get their solemn pledges (eh. m. 8; =iv. dinary run of mortals, was of the common 3), and fly in the face of a plai.n unmistakable " delf," not of "the precious porcelain of hu- commandment. A malten calf. In the con- man clay.• God's trial of him gave him an temptuous language of Holy Scripture when spea.k.ing of idols, such an emblematic figure opportunity of rising above this ; and he re- as the Babvlonion man-bull would be a mere sponded to it. From the time that he reached " calf." That the figure ma.de by Aaron is full manhood ( eh. ii. 11) he had cast in his called always" a molten calf "-literally, '' a lot with his nation ; he had been appointed calf of fusion "-disposes of the theory of Keil, their leader ( eh. iii. 10); they ha.d accepted that it was of carved wood covered with gold him as such (eh. iv. 31); he had led them plates hammered on to it. These be thy gods, which have brought thee. Rather, "This is out of Egypt and brought them to Sinai ; if thy god, which has brought thee." The plur11l he had looked coldly on them now, and readily must be regarded as merely one of dignity. separated his fate from theirs, he would have Ver. 9. - A aillfnecked people. Thi~ TllE BOOK OF EXODUS. [en. uxn. i-H.
"pit h.-1. ,~hid, h,,,-nml'f' epil.h,/n11 ,.. i/11/um, iR .,;t,h he ""-reetles ";th God: "-1. Israel ia hr..., 11•--n fm the fir,;t time. It. doe!< not "" God's people, for whmn he he.s done so murh mueb mean "ob&tinate" as "perverec "-like that sorely he will not. now destroy them, 11nd a bon,e that irtiffene the neck when the driver so undo his own work. 2. Egypt will be tri- pull• the right or left rein, and will not go umphant if Israel is s"·ept away, e.nd will the "·11y be is we.ntcd to go. (Compe.re eh. m!sapprehend the Divine action. S. The pro- xxxii1. 3, 5: xxxh·. 9; Dent. ix. 6, 18; mises made to Abraham (Gen. xv. 5; xvii. xxxi. 27: etc.) 2~.; et.c.), Isaac (ib. xxvi. 4), and Jaeob Ver. 10.-Jfow, thenifora, let me alone. (ib. xxviii. H; xx:xv. 11), which bad received Thi• wa• not e. comme.nd, but rather a eug- a partial fulfilment, woold seem to be revoked ge,,tion : or. at ani- rate. it wm; a comm11.nd and withdrawn if the nation already formed DOI intended to compel obedience-like ihat were destrol'ed and II fresh eta.rt made. of the e.ngel to Jacnb-" Let me ~. for the Ver. u ...:...The Lord repented of the evil. d11~· breeketh • (Gen. xxxii. 26). M08811 W88 Changee of purpose are, of coanie, attributed not intended to take the oommand a& abaolote. ~Godby an "8CQllomy," or accommodation He did not du so-be " wreRtled. with God," of the truth to human modes of speech and like Jacob. 11nd prc,·ailed. That my -.n.th conception. " God is not a man that he should may ,n,z hot. Literally, "e.nd my wrath will repent." He "knows the end from the be- .,.ax bot.· I will make of thee a great na- ginning." When he threatened to destroy 1:ion. (Compare Num. xiv. 12.) God conld, Israel, he knew that he would spare ; but, ea of course. have multiplied the seed of Moses, he communicated to Moses, first, bis anger, as he had that of Abraham ; bot in that case aiid then, at a later period, his intention to all that b..d been 88 yet done would have gone spue, be is said to have" repented." The ex- for nought, and his purposes with respect to pression is an 11.11thropomorpbic one, like eo bi5 " peculiar people " would have been put many otheni, on which we have already com- back six hundred l'e&l'li and more. mented. (See the comment on eh. ii. 24, 25 ; Ven;. l l-1S.-M081l61w three pl8111i where- iii. 7, 8; ux.i. 17; etc.)