Exodus 32:14

14 And Yahweh relented concerning the disaster that he had {threatened} to do to his people.

Exodus 32:14 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 32:14

And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do
unto his people.
] He did not do what he threatened to do, and seemed to have in his thoughts and designs, but did what Moses desired he would, ( Exodus 32:12 ) not that any of God's thoughts or the determinations of his mind are alterable; for the thoughts of his heart are to all generations; but he changes the outward dispensations of his providence, or his methods of acting with men, which he has been taking or threatened to take; and this being similar to what they do when they repent of anything, who alter their course, hence repentance is ascribed to God, though, properly speaking, it does not belong to him, see ( Jeremiah 18:8 ) . Aben Ezra thinks that the above prayer of Moses, which was so prevalent with God, does not stand in its proper place, but should come after ( Exodus 32:31 ) for, to what purpose, says he, should Moses say to the Israelites, ( Exodus 32:30 ) "peradventure I shall make an atonement for your sin": if he was appeased by his prayer before?

Exodus 32:14 In-Context

12 Why should [the] Egyptians {say}, 'With evil [intent] he brought them out to kill them in the mountains and wipe them from the face of the earth'? Turn from {your fierce anger} and relent concerning the disaster for your people.

13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by yourself, and you told them, 'I will multiply your offspring like the stars of the heavens, and all this land that I promised I will give to your offspring, and they will inherit [it] forever.'"

14 And Yahweh relented concerning the disaster that he had {threatened} to do to his people.

15 And Moses turned and went down from the mountain, and the two tablets of the testimony [were] in his hand, tablets written on their two sides; {on the front and on the back} they were written.

16 And the tablets, they [were] the work of God; and the writing, it [was] the writing of God engraved on the tablets.

Footnotes

• [a]. Literally "spoken"