Exodus 32:23

23 Und sie sprachen zu mir: Mache uns einen Gott, der vor uns hergehe; denn dieser Mose, der Mann, der uns aus dem Lande Ägypten heraufgeführt hat wir wissen nicht, was ihm geschehen ist.

Exodus 32:23 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 32:23

For they said unto me, make us gods, which shall go before
us
Which was true, ( Exodus 32:1 ) but then he should have told them, that gods were not to be made; that what were made with hands were no gods, and could not go before them; that the making of any image, similitude, or representation of God, was forbidden by him, as they had lately heard from his own mouth; he should have dissuaded from such idolatry, by showing them the evil nature of the sin, and the ruin they exposed themselves to by it:

for [as for] this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land
of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him;
their words he truly recites, and perhaps might choose the rather to mention them, because they carried in them some reflection on Moses for staying so long in the mount; and as if that contributed much to this affair, and which put the people on forming such a scheme, they concluding he must be dead through famine; or, as the Targum of Jonathan, be burnt with flaming fire from the Lord.

Exodus 32:23 In-Context

21 Und Mose sprach zu Aaron: Was hat dir dieses Volk getan, daß du eine große Sünde über dasselbe gebracht hast?

22 Und Aaron sprach: Es entbrenne nicht der Zorn meines Herrn! Du kennst das Volk, daß es im Bösen ist.

23 Und sie sprachen zu mir: Mache uns einen Gott, der vor uns hergehe; denn dieser Mose, der Mann, der uns aus dem Lande Ägypten heraufgeführt hat wir wissen nicht, was ihm geschehen ist.

24 Und ich sprach zu ihnen: Wer hat Gold? Sie rissen es sich ab und gaben es mir, und ich warf es ins Feuer, und dieses Kalb ging hervor.

25 Und Mose sah das Volk, daß es zügellos war; denn Aaron hatte es zügellos gemacht, zum Gespött unter ihren Widersachern.