Exodus 32:18

18 He answered, "That is neither the clamor of victory nor the wailings of defeat; what I hear is the sound of people singing."

Exodus 32:18 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 32:18

And he said
Not Joshua, as Saadiah Gaon thinks, but Moses, in answer to what Joshua had said:

[it is] not the voice of [them that] shout for mastery;
that have got the better of it, and have obtained the victory, and shout on that account; or, "not the voice of a cry of strength", or "of a strong cry" {h}; that is, of men who have got the victory, and are in high spirits, and shout with a strong voice; and so the Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan,

``not the voice of strong men that overcome in battle:''

neither [is it] the voice of [them that] cry for being overcome;
which is not a voice of shouting, but of howling; or, "not the voice of the cry of weakness", or "of a weak cry" ^F9; who being unable to stand their ground are conquered, and make a bitter outcry on falling into the enemy's hands, or being wounded shriek terribly, and so the above Targums,

``not the voice of the weak who are overcome by the enemy in battle:''

[but] the noise of [them that] sing do I hear;
as at a merry entertainment, either on a civil or religious account: Moses, who knew what the children of Israel had done, and what they were about, could better judge of the nature of the sound he heard than Joshua could, who knew nothing of what was transacting,

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FOOTNOTES:

F8 (hrwbg twne lwq) "vox eorum qui respondeant fortiter", Tigurine version; "vox clamoris fortis", Drusius.
F9 (hvwlh twne lwq) "vox eorum qui respondeant infirmiter", Tigurine version; "vox clamoris debilis", Drusius.

Exodus 32:18 In-Context

16 The tablets were the work of God; and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.

17 When Y'hoshua heard the noise of the people shouting he said to Moshe, "It sounds like war in the camp!"

18 He answered, "That is neither the clamor of victory nor the wailings of defeat; what I hear is the sound of people singing."

19 But the moment Moshe got near the camp, when he saw the calf and the dancing, his own anger blazed up. He threw down the tablets he had been holding and shattered them at the base of the mountain.

20 Seizing the calf they had made, he melted it in the fire and ground it to powder, which he scattered on the water. Then he made the people of Isra'el drink it.