Holly Bible - KJV with Concise Commentaries by Z Selam - HTML preview
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(2.) On whom vengeance is taken: There fell of the people that day about 3000 men, Ex 32:28. Probably these were but few, in comparison with the many that were guilty; but these were the men that headed the rebellion, and were therefore picked out, to be made examples of, for terror to all others. Those that in the morning were shouting and dancing before night were dying in their own blood; such a sudden change do the judgments of God sometimes make with sinners that are secure and jovial in their sin, as with Belshazzar by the hand-writing upon the wall. This is written for warning to us. 1Co 10:7, Neither be you idolaters, as were some of them.
28 And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and
there fell of the people that day about three thousand men.
29 For Moses had said, consecrate yourselves today to the Lord, even
every man upon his son, and upon his brother; that he may bestow upon you a blessing this day.
30 And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses said unto the
people, Ye have sinned a great sin: and now I will go up unto the Lord; peradventure I shall make an atonement for your sin.
Moses, having executed justice upon the principal offenders, is here dealing both with the people and with God.
With the people, to bring them to repentance, Ex 32:30.
When some were slain, lest the rest should imagine that, because they were exempt from the capital punishment, they were therefore looked upon as free from guilt, Moses here tells the survivors, You have sinned a great sin, and therefore, though you have escaped this time, except you repent, you shall all likewise perish. That they might not think lightly of the sin itself, he calls it a great sin; and that they might not think themselves innocent, because perhaps they were not all so deeply guilty as some of those that were put to death, he tells them all, You have sinned a great sin. The work of ministers is to show people their sins, and the