Exodus 32:29

29 and Moses saith, `Consecrate your hand to-day to Jehovah, for a man [is] against his son, and against his brother, so as to bring on you to-day a blessing.'

Exodus 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.

Exodus 32:29 In-Context

27 and he saith to them, `Thus said Jehovah, God of Israel, Put each his sword by his thigh, pass over and turn back from gate to gate through the camp, and slay each his brother, and each his friend, and each his relation.'

28 And the sons of Levi do according to the word of Moses, and there fall of the people on that day about three thousand men,

29 and Moses saith, `Consecrate your hand to-day to Jehovah, for a man [is] against his son, and against his brother, so as to bring on you to-day a blessing.'

30 And it cometh to pass, on the morrow, that Moses saith unto the people, `Ye -- ye have sinned a great sin, and now I go up unto Jehovah, if so be I atone for your sin.'

31 And Moses turneth back unto Jehovah, and saith, `Oh this people hath sinned a great sin, that they make to themselves a god of gold;