Bible Strands
Exodus 32:7
Then the LORD said to Moses, “Go down at once, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Yahweh commands Moses to descend from the mountain immediately after the Israelites begin idolatrous revelry following the golden calf incident.
The words — The Hebrew verb שִׁחֵת (shi.Chet) literally means "to behave corruptly" or "to destroy," describing the people's moral collapse. The imperative רֵד (red) commands Moses to "go down" without delay.
The thread — This language of corruption echoes Genesis 6:11, where the earth is corrupt before God, and reappears in Hosea 9:9 regarding Israel's moral failure. Moses later pleads with God in Exodus 32:11 by asking why His anger burns against the people.
Why it lands — The text states that divine intervention follows immediate human rebellion and the rapid abandonment of commanded worship. It requires the reader to recognize that covenant loyalty fractures quickly when devotion shifts to manufactured substitutes.
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 the Lord said unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves:
Cross-references
- 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?
- Hosea 9:9 They have deeply corrupted themselves as in the days of Gibeah; He will remember their guilt; He will punish their sins.
- Genesis 6:11 Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and full of violence.
- Exodus 19:24 And the LORD replied, “Go down and bring Aaron with you. But the priests and the people must not break through to come up to the LORD, or He will break out against them.”
- Deuteronomy 9:12 And the LORD said to me, “Get up and go down from here at once, for your people, whom you brought out of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. How quickly they have turned aside from the way that I commanded them! They have made for themselves a molten image.”
- Judges 2:19 But when the judge died, the Israelites became even more corrupt than their fathers, going after other gods to serve them and bow down to them. They would not give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.
- Exodus 32:1 Now when the people saw that Moses was delayed in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him!”
- 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 33:1 Then the LORD said to Moses, “Leave this place, you and the people you brought up out of the land of Egypt, and go to the land that I promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob when I said, ‘I will give it to your descendants.’
- Deuteronomy 4:16 that you do not act corruptly and make an idol for yourselves of any form or shape, whether in the likeness of a male or female,