Bible Strands
Exodus 32:19
As Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, he burned with anger and threw the tablets out of his hands, shattering them at the base of the mountain.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Moses stands at the camp's edge after descending Mount Sinai, confronting the Israelites as he witnesses their worship of a molten calf. He reacts directly to the scene before descending further to address the people.
The words — קָרַב (qarav) means "he drew near," marking Moses's approach to the encampment. הָעֵגֶל (ha'egel) translates literally as "the calf," naming the idol the people had fashioned.
The thread — Moses later cites this sight in Deuteronomy 9:16 as evidence of Israel's swift departure from God. The account stands apart from the tambourine celebration in Exodus 15:20 and follows the altar proclamation and feast declaration in Exodus 32:5.
Why it lands — The text states that Moses burned with anger and shattered the stone tablets at the mountain's base upon seeing the idol and the dancing. The passage requires the reader to acknowledge the immediate rupture of covenant commitment when worship shifts to human fabrication.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing: and Moses’ anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands, and brake them beneath the mount.
Cross-references
- Deuteronomy 9:16 And I saw how you had sinned against the LORD your God; you had made for yourselves a molten calf. You had turned aside quickly from the way that the LORD had commanded you.
- Exodus 15:20 Then Miriam the prophetess, Aaron’s sister, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women followed her with tambourines and dancing.
- Exodus 32:4 He took the gold from their hands, and with an engraving tool he fashioned it into a molten calf. And they said, “These, O Israel, are your gods, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”
- Exodus 32:11 But Moses sought the favor of the LORD his God, saying, “O LORD, why does Your anger burn against Your people, whom You brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand?
- Numbers 12:3 Now Moses was a very humble man, more so than any man on the face of the earth.
- Deuteronomy 27:26 ‘Cursed is he who does not put the words of this law into practice.’ And let all the people say, ‘Amen!’
- 2 Samuel 6:14 And David, wearing a linen ephod, danced with all his might before the LORD,
- Jeremiah 31:32 It will not be like the covenant I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant they broke, though I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD.
- Lamentations 5:15 Joy has left our hearts; our dancing has turned to mourning.
- Zechariah 11:10 Next I took my staff called Favor and cut it in two, revoking the covenant I had made with all the nations.