Exode 32:29

29 Or Moïse avait dit: Consacrez aujourd'hui vos mains à l'Éternel, chacun de vous, même au prix de son fils ou de son frère, pour attirer aujourd'hui sur vous la bénédiction.

Exode 32:29 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 32:29

For Moses had said
To the Levites, when he first gave them their orders:

consecrate yourselves today to the Lord;
devote yourselves to his service, by obeying his orders, slaying those, or the heads of them, who have cast so much contempt upon him as to worship the golden calf in his room; and which would be as acceptable to him as the offerings were, by which Aaron and his sons were consecrated to the Lord; and as these Levites were consecrated to his service this day, on this account:

[even] every man upon his son, and upon his brother;
not sparing the nearest relation found in this idolatry, and for which the tribe of Levi is commended and blessed in the blessing of Moses, ( Deuteronomy 33:8 Deuteronomy 33:9 ) and as it follows,

that he may bestow a blessing upon you this day;
which was their being taken into the service of God to minister to the priests in the sanctuary, to bear the vessels of the Lord, and for their maintenance to have the tithes of the people: this day was, according to the Jewish writers ^F19, the seventeenth of Tammuz, or June, on which day the Jews keep a fast upon this account.

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FOOTNOTES:

F19 Sedar Olam Rabba, c. 6. p. 18. Pirke Eliezer, c. 46.

Exode 32:29 In-Context

27 Et il leur dit: Ainsi a dit l'Éternel, le Dieu d'Israël: Que chacun de vous mette son épée au côté. Passez et repassez, de porte en porte, dans le camp; et tuez chacun son frère, chacun son ami, et chacun son voisin.

28 Et les enfants de Lévi firent selon la parole de Moïse; et il y eut en ce jour-là environ trois mille hommes du peuple qui périrent.

29 Or Moïse avait dit: Consacrez aujourd'hui vos mains à l'Éternel, chacun de vous, même au prix de son fils ou de son frère, pour attirer aujourd'hui sur vous la bénédiction.

30 Et le lendemain Moïse dit au peuple: Vous avez commis un grand péché; mais maintenant je monterai vers l'Éternel; peut-être obtiendrai-je le pardon de votre péché.

31 Moïse retourna donc vers l'Éternel, et dit: Hélas! ce peuple a commis un grand péché, en se faisant des dieux d'or;