Exodus 32:12

12 Why should the Mitzrim speak, saying, 'He brought them forth for evil, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the surface of the eretz?' Turn from your fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against your people.

Exodus 32:12 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 32:12

Wherefore should the Egyptians speak and say
Those that remained, as the Targum of Jonathan, who were not drowned in the Red sea: a good man will be concerned for the honour and glory of God among the enemies of his people, that their mouths may not be opened to blaspheme the Lord and speak ill of his ways, see ( Joshua 7:9 ) and this is sometimes an argument with God himself, not to do that to his people they deserve, lest it should give occasion to the enemy to speak reproachfully, insult, and triumph, ( Deuteronomy 32:26 Deuteronomy 32:27 )

for mischief did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains,
and to consume them from the face of the earth;
that he brought them out of Egypt, not with a good but ill design; not to bring them into the land of Canaan, as they promised themselves, but to destroy them in the mountains; not to erect them into a great kingdom and nation, which should make a considerable figure in the world, but to cut them off from being a people at all: the mountains where they now were, were Sinai and Horeb, and there might be others thereabout, among which they were encamped: the Targum of Jonathan is,

``among the mountains of Tabor, and Hermon, and Sirion, and Sinai:''

turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy
people;
not that there is any turning or shadow of turning with God, or any change of his mind, or any such passions and affections in him as here expressed; but this is said after the manner of men concerning him, when he alters the course of his dealings with men according to his unalterable will, and does not do the evil threatened by him, and which the sins of men deserve.

Exodus 32:12 In-Context

10 Now therefore leave me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them, and that I may consume them; and I will make of you a great nation."

11 Moshe begged the LORD his God, and said, "The LORD, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, that you have brought forth out of the land of Mitzrayim with great power and with a mighty hand?

12 Why should the Mitzrim speak, saying, 'He brought them forth for evil, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the surface of the eretz?' Turn from your fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against your people.

13 Remember Avraham, Yitzchak, and Yisra'el, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self, and said to them, 'I will multiply your seed as the stars of the sky, and all this land that I have spoken of I will give to your seed, and they shall inherit it forever.'"

14 The LORD repented of the evil which he said he would do to his people.