1253 matching verse commentaries
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For they said unto me, make us gods, which shall go before us,.... Which was true, Exodus 32:1 but then he should have told them, that gods were not to be made; that what were made with hands were no gods, and could not go before them; that the making of any image, similitude, or representation of God, was forbidden by him, as they had lately...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And I said unto them, whosoever hath any gold, let them break it off,.... That is, any ear rings of gold, let them loose or take them off their ears: so they gave [it] me; of their own accord, as if unasked by him, though he had bid them bring it to him, Exodus 32:2: then I cast it into the fire; to melt it, but says nothing of the mould the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And when Moses saw that the people [were] naked,.... Not in their bodies, being stripped of their ear rings; for parting with them was not sufficient to denominate them naked in a corporeal sense; nor as being without their armour, which was laid aside while they were eating, and drinking, and dancing about the calf, and so might be thought a...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Then Moses stood in the gate of the camp,.... In one of the gates of it; for it doubtless had more than one to go in and out of, as is clear from Exodus 32:27 it being probably entrenched all around; here Moses set himself, it being the usual place, as in cities, where the people were summoned together on important occasions, and justice and...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And he said unto them, thus saith the Lord God of Israel,.... The following orders are given by Moses, not of himself the chief magistrate, and as the effect of heat and passion, but there were from the Lord, who was Israel's God and King; he had them expressly from him, or by an impulse on his spirit, or in such a way and manner that he knew it...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses,.... They girded their swords by their sides, went through the camp, and slew their brethren, companions and neighbours, who were keeping holy day in honour of the idol: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men; the Vulgate Latin version reads 23,000, very wrongly;...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For Moses had said,.... To the Levites, when he first gave them their orders: consecrate yourselves today to the Lord; devote yourselves to his service, by obeying his orders, slaying those, or the heads of them, who have cast so much contempt upon him as to worship the golden calf in his room; and which would be as acceptable to him as the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And it came to pass on the morrow,.... The eighteenth day of Tammuz it was, the same writers say, that Moses implored the mercy of God for Israel. Jarchi on Exodus 32:11 says it was on the seventeenth day the tables were broke, on the eighteenth the calf was burnt, and on the nineteenth that Moses went up to intercede for them: that Moses said...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And Moses returned unto the Lord,.... On the mount where he was in the cloud: and said, oh, this people have sinned a great sin; which to following words explain; he confesses the same to God he had charged the people with in Exodus 32:30: and have made them gods of gold; the golden calf, which they themselves called "Elohim", gods.
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Yet now, if thou will forgive their sin,.... Of thy free grace, good will, and pleasure; it will redound to thy glory, men will praise thy name on account of it; these people will have great reason to be thankful, and will lie under great obligations to thee, to fear, serve, and glorify thee; and in particular it will be regarded by me as the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the Lord said unto Moses,.... In answer to his request: whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book; not that anyone that is really in the book of life is ever blotted out, or that anyone predestinated or ordained to eternal life ever perish: but some persons may think themselves, and they may seem to be written in that...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Therefore now go, lead the people [unto the] place of which I have spoken unto thee,.... That is, to the land of Canaan, which he had promised to their fathers and to them, and had directed Moses to bring them to: behold, mine angel shall go before thee: and not I, as Jarchi interprets it; not the Angel of the covenant, and of his presence, as in...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the Lord plagued the people,.... That is, continued so to do at certain times, with the pestilence, or other calamities; for this seems not to refer, as some think, to the slaughter of the 3000 men: the reason follows, because they made the calf which Aaron made; that is, they provided him with materials to make it; they urged and solicited...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
INTRODUCTION TO Exodus 33 This chapter informs us, that the Lord refusing to go with the people, only sending an angel with them, they are filled with concern, and troubled, Exodus 33:1. Moses upon this pitched the tabernacle without the camp, where everyone that sought the Lord went; Moses entered into it himself, and the Lord talked to him in a...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the Lord said unto Moses, depart, and go up hence,.... Not from the place where Moses was, which was the top of the mount, but where the camp of Israel was, at the bottom of the mount; where they had lain encamped some time, but were now ordered to proceed on their journey: thou, and the people which thou hast brought up out of the land of...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And I will send an angel before thee,.... Not the angel before promised, Exodus 23:20 the Angel of his presence, the eternal Word and Son of God, but a created angel; and so Aben Ezra observes, he does not say the Angel that was known, that his name was in him; though even this was to be looked upon as a favour, and showed that he had not utterly...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
Unto a land flowing with milk and honey,.... Abounding with all the necessaries and good things of life, a description of the land of Canaan frequently made, see Exodus 3:8: for I will not go up in the midst of thee; would not grant them his presence in so near, visible, and respectable a manner as he had before done, though he would not utterly...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And when the people heard these evil tidings,.... That God would withdraw his gracious presence, and go not up with them himself, only send an angel with them; and especially this may respect what is threatened, Exodus 33:5 and had been said at this time: they mourned; were inwardly and heartily grieved for their sin, whereby they had provoked the...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
For the Lord had said to Moses,.... At the same time he had told it to the people: say unto the children of Israel: Menachem, as quoted by Ainsworth, observes, that this is said in a way of mercy; for since their idolatry he had only called them the people of Moses, and the people, but now calls them by their beloved name, the children of Israel;...
John Gill - Exposition - John Gill
And the children of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments,.... Such as before described, and this they did, by the Mount Horeb; before their departure from thence, and where they had been guilty of the idolatry: the words may be literally rendered, "from Mount Horeb" (u); and Jonathan understands the preceding clause of something they put...