Holly Bible - KJV with Concise Commentaries by Z Selam - HTML preview
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him; he that had authority to restrain them, yet had so little resolution as to yield to them.
(3.) It is well if he did not intend a reflection upon Moses, as accessory to the sin, by staying so long on the mount, in repeating, without need, that invidious surmise of the people, As for this Moses, we know not what has become of him, Ex 32:23.
(4.) He extenuates and conceals his own share in the sin, as if he had only bidden them break off their gold that they had about them, intending to make a hasty assay for the present, and to try what he could make of the gold that was next hand: and childishly insinuates that when he cast the gold into the fire it came out, either by accident or by the magic art of some of the mixed multitude (as the Jewish writers dream), in this shape; but not a word of his graving and fashioning it, Ex 32:24. But Moses relates to all ages what he did (Ex 32:4), though he himself here would not own it.
Note, He that covers his sin shall not prosper, for sooner or later it will be discovered. Well, this was all Aaron had to say for himself; and he had better have said nothing, for his defence did but aggravate his offence; and yet he is not only spared, but preferred; as sin did abound, grace did much more abound.
24 And I said unto them, whosoever hath any gold, let them break
it off. So they gave it me: then I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf.
25 And when Moses saw that the people were naked, (for Aaron had
made them naked unto their shame among their enemies,)
The people are next to be judged for this sin. The approach of Moses soon spoiled their sport and turned their dancing into trembling. Those that hectored Aaron into a compliance with them in their sin durst not look Moses in the face, nor make the least opposition to the severity which he thought fit to use both against the idol and against the idolaters.