Yahweh struck the people, because of what they did with the calf, which Aaron made.
Parallel Translations
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Yahweh struck the people, because of what they did with the calf, which Aaron made.
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And the LORD plagued the people, because they made the calf, which Aaron made.
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And the LORD smote the people, because they made the calf, which Aaron made.
Cross-references (6)
Passages linked to Exodus 32:35 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- 2 Samuel 12:9-10 Why have you despised Yahweh’s word, to do that which is evil in his sight? You have struck Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and have taken his wife to be your wife, and have slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. Now therefore the sword will never depart from your house, because you have despised me, and have taken Uriah the Hittite’s wife to be your wife.’
- Exodus 32:4 He received what they handed him, fashioned it with an engraving tool, and made it a molded calf. Then they said, “These are your gods, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”
- Exodus 32:25 When Moses saw that the people were out of control, (for Aaron had let them lose control, causing derision among their enemies),
- Matthew 27:3-7 Then Judas, who betrayed him, when he saw that Jesus was condemned, felt remorse, and brought back the thirty pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, “I have sinned in that I betrayed innocent blood.” But they said, “What is that to us? You see to it.” He threw down the pieces of silver in the sanctuary, and departed. He went away and hanged himself. The chief priests took the pieces of silver, and said, “It’s not lawful to put them into the treasury, since it is the price of blood.” They took counsel, and bought the potter’s field with them, to bury strangers in.
- Acts 1:18 Now this man obtained a field with the reward for his wickedness, and falling headlong, his body burst open, and all his intestines gushed out.
- Acts 7:41 They made a calf in those days, and brought a sacrifice to the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their hands.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (12 sources)
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Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain This declareth how grievous a sin idolatry is, seeing…
This declareth how grievous a sin idolatry is, seeing that at Moses’ prayer God would not fully remit it.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Exo 32:35 And the LORD plagued the people, because…
Exo 32:35 And the LORD plagued the people, because they made the calf, which Aaron made.
Ver. 35. They made.] {See Trapp on "Exo 32:1"}
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain This relates either to the destruction of three thousand…
This relates either to the destruction of three thousand of them by the Levites, or rather to the future plagues, in which God also reckoned with them for this sin.
Because they made the calf; they made it because they urged
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Aaron to make it, as Judas is said to purchase the field, Act 1:18, which was purchased by his money; and Aaron made it, by giving command to make it. The Chaldee, Syriac, Arabic, and Samaritan render the words thus,
they worshipped or sacrificed to the calf which Aaron made. And the word which signifies to make, is oft used for worshipping or sacrificing, as Exo 10:25; Jdg 13:15; 1Ki 18:26.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain And when the people saw that Moses delayed to…
And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount,.... The time, according to the Targum of Jonathan, being elapsed, which he had fixed for his descent, and through a misreckoning, as Jarchi suggests; they taking the day of his going up to be one of the forty days, at the end of which he was to return, whereas he meant forty complete days; but it is not probable that Moses knew himself how long he should stay, and much less that he acquainted them before hand of it; but he staying longer than they supposed he would, they grew uneasy and impatient, and wanted to set out in their journey to Canaan, and to have some symbol and representation of deity to go before them:
the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron; who with Hur was left to judge them in the absence of Moses: it was very likely that they had had conferences with him before upon this head, but now they got together in a tumultuous manner, and determined to carry their point against all that he should say to the contrary:
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and said unto him, up; put us off no longer, make no more delay, but arise at once, and set about what has been once and again advised to and importuned:
make us gods which shall go before us; not that they were so very stupid to think, that anything that could be made with hands was really God, or even could have life and breath, and the power of self-motion, or of walking before them; but that something should be made as a symbol and representation of the divine Being, carried before them; for as for the cloud which had hitherto gone before them, from their coming out of Egypt, that had not moved from its place for forty days or more, and seemed to them to be fixed on the mount, and would not depart from it; and therefore they wanted something in the room of it as a token of the divine Presence with them:
for as for this Moses; of whom they speak with great contempt, though he had been the deliverer of them, and had wrought so many miracles in their favour, and had been the instrument of so much good unto them:
the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt; this they own, but do not seem to be very thankful for it:
we wot not what is become of him; they could scarcely believe that he was alive, that it was possible to live so long a time without eating and drinking; or they supposed he was burnt on the mount of flaming fire from before the Lord, as the Targum of Jonathan expresses it.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain And the Lord plagued the people - Probably by…
And the Lord plagued the people - Probably by the pestilence, or some other infectious disease. Thus Moses prevailed for a mitigation of the punishment, but could not wholly turn away the wrath of God.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 35. The Lord plagued the people] Every time…
Verse 35. The Lord plagued the people] Every time they transgressed afterwards Divine justice seems to have remembered this transgression against them. The Jews have a metaphorical saying, apparently founded on this text: "No affliction has ever happened to Israel in which there was not some particle of the dust of the golden calf."
1. THE attentive reader has seen enough in this chapter to induce him to exclaim, How soon a clear sky may be overcast! How soon may the brightest prospects be obscured! Israel had just ratified its covenant with Jehovah, and had received the most encouraging and unequivocal pledges of his protection and love. But they sinned, and provoked the Lord to depart from them, and to destroy the work of his hands. A little more faith, patience, and perseverance, and they should have been safely brought into the promised land. For want of a little more dependence upon God, how often does an excellent beginning come to an unhappy conclusion! Many who were just on the borders of the promised land, and about to cross Jordan, have, through an act of unfaithfulness, been turned back to wander many a dreary year in the wilderness. Reader, be on thy guard. Trust in Christ, and watch unto prayer.
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2. Many people have been greatly distressed on losing their baptismal register, and have been reduced in consequence to great political inconvenience. But still they had their lives, and should a living man complain? But a man may so sin as to provoke God to cut him off; or, like a fruitless tree, be cut down, because he encumbers the ground. Or he may have sinned a sin unto death, 1Jo 5:16-17, that is, a sin which God will punish with temporal death, while he extends mercy to the soul.
3. With respect to the blotting out of God's book, on which there has been so much controversy, Is it not evident that a soul could not be blotted out of a book in which it had never been written? And is it not farther evident from Ex 32:32-33, that, although a man be written in God's book, if he sins he may be blotted out? Let him that readeth understand; and let him that standeth take heed lest he fall. Reader, be not high-minded, but fear. See Clarke on Ex 32:32, and "Ex 32:33".
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Struck, with some judgment, not specified; (Lyranus) or perhaps,…
Struck, with some judgment, not specified; (Lyranus) or perhaps, the various punishments which were inflicted on the Hebrews in the wilderness, were all partly designed to chastise this first act of idolatry. Calmet explains this of the devastation caused by the Levites, as he supposes the narration of Moses does not deserve the order of time. He thinks Moses expostulated with the people, and was then sent by God to punish them; and while they were unarmed, (chap. xxxiii. 5,) the Levites fell upon them. Then Moses removed the tabernacle out of the camp, and obtained of God that he would go before them, and not an angel only, ver. 34. and chap. xxxiii. 17. Moses continued full forty days, standing or lying prostrate on the mount, before the Lord, to obtain the pardon of his people, Deuteronomy ix. 25. and x. 10. At the expiration of which term he returned, with an order to prepare two other tables of stone, on which, after a supplication of the same length of time, he obtained the law to be again engraven, chap. xxxiv. 28. The favour cost him therefore 120 days’ earnest prayer; and yet how little are we touched with God’s mercy, in giving us his law! (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain the Lord plagued the people, because they made the…
the Lord plagued the people, because they made the calf--No immediate judgments were inflicted, but this early lapse into idolatry was always mentioned as an aggravation of their subsequent apostasies.
Next: Exodus Chapter 33
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 35. Plagued — This implies that the severe blow…
35. Plagued — This implies that the severe blow ministered by the Levites (27-29) was followed by still other visitations of penal wrath.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 35. The verse seems here out of place (so…
35. The verse seems here out of place (so Di.): perhaps it originally formed the sequel to v. 20 (We., Bä.). It does not read like a description of the punishment threatened at the end of v. 34.
which Aaron made] The words read like a scribe’s correction of the less exact ‘they made’ just before.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (35) The Lord plagued the people.—We are not to…
(35) The Lord plagued the people.—We are not to understand by this (with Kalisch) that a pestilence was sent, but only that sufferings of various kinds befell those who had worshipped the calf, and were, in fact, punishments inflicted on them for that transgression.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain The Lord plagued, or "strucki.e. , "punished" the people.…
The Lord plagued, or "strucki.e. , "punished" the people. There is nothing in the expression which requires us to understand the sending of a pestilence.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.