Глава 32

1–14. The golden calf and the wrath of the Lord. 15–20. Moses breaks the tablets; destruction of the golden calf. 21–28. Punishment of idolaters. 29–35. Moses' return to the mountain and his prayer. Exodus 32:1. When the people saw that Moses did not come down from the mountain for a long time, they gathered to Aaron and said to him: get up and make us a god who would go before us, for we don’t know what happened to this man, to Moses, who brought us out of the land of Egypt. As can be seen from Deut. 9.9 etc., the demand of the people “make us a god who will go before us,” took place shortly before the end of Moses’ 40-day stay in Sinai and was caused by his prolonged absence, suggesting that he would never return from the mountain. Since Moses was the representative of God for the Jews (Ex. 20.1–2), his non-return to the people served as a guarantee for the latter that he had been abandoned by the Almighty (Deut. 31.1–6). A direct indication of the existence of such a view is in the words “make a god who would walk before us.” The people do not believe that the pillar of cloud, which served as a visible sign of the presence and revelation of Jehovah to Israel, will go ahead of them, as before, and asks to replace Him with the image of another god. The Hebrew expression “elohim” in this case with a plural predicate, which combination is used to designate pagan gods, makes it clear that the Jews are asking to make an image not of the Most High, but of a pagan god. The validity of this understanding is confirmed by the words of Ps.105: “and they exchanged their glory for the image of an ox eating grass. They forgot God their Savior, who had done great things in Egypt” (Ps. 106:20–21). Exodus 32:2. And Aaron said to them: Take out the gold earrings that are in the ears of your wives, your sons and your daughters, and bring them to me. Exodus 32:3. And all the people took the gold earrings out of their ears and brought them to Aaron. By his own admission, Aaron, to whom, as the deputy of Moses (Ex. 24.14), the Jews turned with a request, yielded to their demand in view of the fact that these people are “evil” (Ex. 32:22), i.e. fear for his own life (Ex. 17.4) forced him to fulfill the popular demand. As for the proposal to bring “golden earrings that are in the ears of the wives,” then, according to Ephraim the Syrian and Blessed Theodoret, it was made with the hope that the wives, sparing their jewelry, would reject their husbands from merging the calf. Exodus 32:4. He took them from their hands, and made a molten calf out of them, and dressed it with a chisel. And they said, Behold your God, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt! Having chosen the form of a calf to depict God, Aaron, as most ancients (Philo, Lactantius, Blessed Jerome) and new researchers think, imitated the Egyptians. This conclusion is supported, first of all, by the undoubted fact that the Egyptians venerated the black bull Apis in Memphis and the white bull, or Mnevis, in Heliopolis, and the evidence of Greek writers, Strabo, Plutarch, Herodotus, gives reason to assume that the Egyptians also used images of these sacred animals (although in general zoomorphism had much less place among the Egyptians than the actual zoolatry). The Egyptian origin of the golden calf is further indicated by the very nature of the celebration performed in honor of it. In addition to the sacrifice, it consisted of feasting, games (Exodus 32:6), dancing (Exodus 32:19) and noisy songs (Exodus 32:18). The Egyptian festivals in honor of Isis had approximately the same forms. Describing them, Herodotus says: “some of the women strike cymbals, others play flutes, other women and men sing and applaud.” Finally, the words of the first martyr Stephen speak for the Egyptian origin of the golden calf: “our fathers turned their hearts to Egypt, saying: make us gods” (Acts 7.39–40). Since the calf or ox served in ancient times as an image of strength and energy, the Jews recognized the power embodied in the golden calf as the power that brought them out of Egypt: “Behold your God, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt.” But this power was not in their eyes the power (at least in the eyes of the vast majority) of the Almighty, and the golden calf itself did not serve as His image. In addition to the above, the justice of this is confirmed by the words of the Lord to Moses (Exodus 32:8): serving the golden calf is not serving Him, the Existing One (as it could be in the eyes of Aaron, Exodus 32:5, and other less religiously developed members of the people), represented in the image of a calf, but worshiping this latter. The Apostle Paul expresses exactly the same view, calling those who served the golden calf idolaters (1 Cor. 10.7). Exodus 32:5. When Aaron saw this, he set up an altar before him, and Aaron proclaimed, saying, “Tomorrow is a feast for the Lord.” Exodus 32:6. The next day they rose early and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings: and the people sat down to eat and drink, and afterward they stood up to play. With the words: “tomorrow is a holiday to the Lord,” Aaron tries to correct the people’s view of the golden calf; he is the image of the invisible Lord. But the pagan nature of the celebration performed in honor of the new god proves that the people for the most part remained in their convictions. Exodus 32:7. And the Lord said to Moses: Hasten to come down [from here], for your people, which you brought out of the land of Egypt, have become corrupt; Exodus 32:8. They soon turned away from the path that I commanded them: they made themselves a molten calf and worshiped it, and brought sacrifices to it and said: “Behold your God, O Israel, who brought you out of the land of Egypt!” Serving the golden calf, as a violation of the first commandment, idolatry, in the spiritual sense debauchery (Deut. 4.16), was a betrayal on the part of the people of the promise given to them to fulfill everything that God says (Ex. 19:8, 24:7). With such a relationship to Jehovah, the Jews cease to be God's chosen people: “Your people have become corrupt” (Deut. 32:5). And if the granting of laws is conditioned by the filial relationship of Israel to God, fidelity to His decrees, then with the betrayal of Jehovah, with the loss of the people of their chosenness of God, the legislation itself ceases: “hasten to leave [from here].” Exodus 32:9. And the Lord said to Moses: I see this people, and behold, they are a stiff-necked people; Exodus 32:10. Therefore leave Me, that My wrath may burn against them, and I may destroy them, and make of you a great nation. A particular case of disobedience serves as a manifestation of the people's character - that cruelty (Ex. 33:3, 5, Deut. 9:6, 13), which is reflected in resistance to divine guidance, unwillingness to bend one's neck under the yoke of the law. With such an attitude of the Jews towards God, there is no longer room for His mercy; it excludes even the possibility of intercession: “leave Me” (Jer. 7:16, 11:14). Mercy is replaced by anger, which is reflected in punishment (Nahum. 1:2, etc.). But the punishment of Abraham's unworthy descendants does not exclude the possibility of fulfilling the promises given to him: God's chosen people will be descended from Abraham's descendant - Moses. Exodus 32:11. But Moses began to beg the Lord his God, and said: Let not Your anger, O Lord, be kindled against Your people, whom You brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand, Exodus 32:12. so that the Egyptians would not say: He brought them out to destruction, to kill them in the mountains and destroy them from the face of the earth; turn away Your fiery anger and cancel the destruction of Your people; Exodus 32:13. Remember Abraham, Isaac and Israel [Jacob], Your servants, to whom You swore by Yourself, saying: I will multiply your seed like the stars of heaven, and I will give all this land of which I have spoken to your seed, and they will possess [it] forever. Begging for the abolition of the terrible judgment against the criminal people, Moses does not try to diminish their guilt. He only points to God's previous good deeds to the Jews (Ex. 32:11) as a basis for showing mercy again. Another reason for this is zeal on the part of the Almighty for the glory of His holy name: if He destroys Israel, then other nations, and especially the Egyptians, will say with gloating: “Because the Lord does not have the power to bring this people into the land that He promised Him with an oath, He destroyed them in the wilderness” (Deut. 11:28). The Lord cannot destroy Israel because of the promises given to its ancestors. Promises to multiply, preserve and introduce into the Promised Land were given to the seed of Abraham in general (Gen. 48:19), and therefore transferring them to the tribe of Levi, in particular to the generation of Moses alone, would be a direct violation of the oath confirmed covenant. Exodus 32:14. And the Lord abolished the evil which He had said He would bring upon His people. The terrible definition is canceled only for the time being (Exod. 32:34, Num. 14:22, etc.). Exodus 32:15. And Moses turned and came down from the mountain; in his hand were two tablets of testimony [stone], on which it was written on both sides: on both sides it was written; Exodus 32:16. the tablets were the work of God, and the writings inscribed on the tablets were the writings of God. Exodus 32:17. And Jesus heard the voice of the people making a noise and said to Moses, “There is a cry of war in the camp.” Exodus 32:18. But [Moses] said: This is not the cry of those who overcome, nor the cry of those who are defeated; I hear the voice of those singing. Exodus 32:19. When he approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, then he was inflamed with anger and threw the tablets from his hands and smashed them under the mountain; The tablets with the commandments written on them were, as it were, a document of the covenant between God and the people. The people testified to their readiness to fulfill the will of God (Exodus 19:8, 24:3), and the Lord promised on His part to give the tablets (Exodus 24:12) and actually gave them (Exodus 31:18). But as soon as Israel did not fulfill its obligation, violated the covenant, all meaning in the existence of its document - the tablets - was lost: it was broken. “Since,” says Blessed Theodoret, “the tablets represented an image of a marriage obligation, and the bride, not yet entering the bridal chamber, strayed into fornication, then Moses very rightly tore apart this marriage obligation.” Exodus 32:20. and he took the calf which they had made, and burned it in the fire, and ground it to dust, and scattered it upon the water, and gave it to the children of Israel to drink. Verses 20–29 describe the judgment of the idolaters, beginning with the destruction of the golden calf, continuing with the reprimand of Aaron, and ending with the beating of the guilty. The covenant with Jehovah is broken - the tablets are broken. But Israel cannot remain with its new god - the golden calf, its existence is a direct reason for the continuation of idolatry. That is why he is being destroyed. The calf was burned - a wooden block in the shape of a calf was burned, and the unburnt parts - gold - were broken, ground, thrown into a stream flowing from the mountain (Deut. 9:21), and the Jews were given its water to drink. Destroying the calf does not mean absolving the people of guilt. On the contrary, he drinks water into which the powder left after the burning of the calf has been poured, that is, he perceives and takes upon himself the sin with its consequences. Exodus 32:21. And Moses said to Aaron, “What has this people done to you, that you have made them fall into great sin?” Exodus 32:22. But Aaron said [to Moses], Let not the anger of my lord be kindled; you know these people are violent. Exodus 32:23. They said to me: make us a god who will go before us; for we do not know what happened to Moses, to this man who brought us out of the land of Egypt. Exodus 32:24. And I said to them: whoever has gold, take it off you. [They took it off] and gave it to me; I threw it into the fire, and this little calf came out. Among the persons on whom responsibility for breaking the covenant falls is Aaron, as the culprit for introducing the Jews into the sin of idolatry by merging the golden calf. Aaron himself does not deny his guilt, but only tries to belittle it: he tries in the lightest terms to imagine his participation in the creation of the calf. According to him, it turns out that he only invited those wearing gold jewelry to take them off, that they themselves gave the gold, which he threw into the fire, and the calf was formed by itself. Exodus 32:25. Moses saw that this was an unbridled people, for Aaron had allowed them to become unbridled, to shame before their enemies. Moses did not attach much importance to his brother's explanations. In his opinion, Aaron is guilty of such a relaxation, which he should not have allowed under any circumstances and which covered the people with shame in the eyes of outsiders. Exodus 32:26. And Moses stood at the gate of the camp and said: He who belongs to the Lord, [come] to me! And all the sons of Levi gathered to him. Aaron's pointing out the unbridledness of the people as the reason for his action had a certain amount of justice. To the call of Moses: “Whoever is the Lord’s, come to me!” - only the sons of Levi responded, who at that time constituted a fairly large tribe: there were more than 22,000 male souls in it (Numbers 3:39). The disposition of the rest of the people turned out not to be on the side of the Lord, but on the side of the golden calf. And this stubbornness, more sinful and criminal than serving the calf itself, since it spoke of complete hardening of the heart, brought a well-deserved punishment upon the people. Exodus 32:27. And he said to them, Thus says the Lord God of Israel: Put every man his sword on his thigh, go through the camp from gate to gate and back, and kill every man his brother, every man his friend, every man his neighbor. Exodus 32:28. And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and about three thousand of the people fell that day. Since all the sons of Levi gathered to Moses (Ex. 32:26), the brothers and sons they killed were not such in the literal sense. The three thousand killed by the Levites were punished not for the common guilt of the entire people, but for their own personal guilt. They, it is believed, continued to celebrate their holiday in the street, even when a lot of time had passed after Moses returned from the mountain, after the destruction of the golden calf. Exodus 32:29. For Moses said [to them], “Today consecrate your hands to the Lord, every one of you in his son and in his brother, that He may bestow upon you a blessing today.” Executed by the Levites without concessions, without exceptions based on personal relationships with one or another of the guilty, the work of punishment was a matter of serving the Lord, a sacred matter. That's why Moses told them, “Consecrate your hands to the Lord today.” By their behavior, the sons of Levi will earn a blessing from the Lord “may He send you a blessing.” Exodus 32:30. The next day Moses said to the people, “You have committed a great sin; Therefore I will ascend to the Lord, lest I may blot out your sin. Moses' ascent to Mount Sinai and his 40-day stay on it in fasting and prayer (Deut. 9:9) was intended to atone for the great sin committed by the people. Moses announces his intention to the people. The anticipation could be of great importance both for the people and for Moses himself. In the first, it aroused consciousness of sin and repentance for it, and thereby facilitated the prophet’s intercession; the more people were found who heartily repented of sin, the sooner Moses’ pleas for forgiveness of sin could be heard. Exodus 32:31. And Moses returned to the Lord and said: Oh, [Lord!] this people have committed a great sin: they have made themselves a golden god; Exodus 32:32. forgive them their sin, and if not, then blot me out of Your book, in which You wrote. Since the sin of the people consisted of breaking the covenant, Moses’ request to “forgive their sin” is tantamount to a prayer: do not consider the covenant broken, do not reject Israel, do not take away from them the title and rights of God’s chosen people. The need for such a request was caused by the following. The Lord responded to the first petition of Moses (Ex. 32:11–13) with a promise not to destroy Israel. Its further existence was thus ensured. But such a promise did not mean that Jews remained God’s chosen people. The very mood of the people prompted them to doubt this, not only did they not show any readiness to return divine favor to themselves, but they also showed extreme stubbornness (Ex. 32:26), which threatened them with complete rejection from God. In view of this, Moses prays: “forgive their sin.” If forgiveness cannot be granted, then he offers his life as a sacrifice: “Blot me out of Your book in which You have written” (cf. Ps. 55:9, Dan. 12:1). Ex.32:33. The Lord said to Moses: I will blot out the one who sinned against Me from My book; Exodus 32:34. therefore go, [descend,] lead this people whither I have told you; Behold, My angel will go before you, and on the day of My visitation I will visit them for their sin. The law, which the Jews violated, requires the punishment of the guilty (Ex. 32:22), and since the righteousness of one is not imputed as the righteousness of another (Ezek. 18:20), then the self-sacrifice of Moses cannot be accepted. The guilty will be punished, not now, but later: the present guilt of the people will then be counted among further crimes. But until this time comes, Moses must remain the leader of Israel: “lead this people.” At the same time, as before, he will be led directly by God himself: “Behold, My Angel will go before you.” Moses personally, and not the people, is promised God's leadership, and this is one of the evidences of the wrath of the Most High against sinful Israel. Exodus 32:35. And the Lord struck the people because of the calf that Aaron had made. We are not talking about a new punishment, but about something completed (Exodus 32:28), which comes from God (Exodus 32:27). You might be interested in: