And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down
out
of the mount
The time, according to the Targum of Jonathan, being elapsed,
which he had fixed for his descent, and through a misreckoning,
as Jarchi suggests; they taking the day of his going up to be one
of the forty days, at the end of which he was to return, whereas
he meant forty complete days; but it is not probable that Moses
knew himself how long he should stay, and much less that he
acquainted them before hand of it; but he staying longer than
they supposed he would, they grew uneasy and impatient, and
wanted to set out in their journey to Canaan, and to have some
symbol and representation of deity to go before them:
the people gathered themselves together unto
Aaron;
who with Hur was left to judge them in the absence of Moses: it
was very likely that they had had conferences with him before
upon this head, but now they got together in a tumultuous manner,
and determined to carry their point against all that he should
say to the contrary:
and said unto him, up;
put us off no longer, make no more delay, but arise at once, and
set about what has been once and again advised to and importuned:
make us gods which shall go before us;
not that they were so very stupid to think, that anything that
could be made with hands was really God, or even could have life
and breath, and the power of self-motion, or of walking before
them; but that something should be made as a symbol and
representation of the divine Being, carried before them; for as
for the cloud which had hitherto gone before them, from their
coming out of Egypt, that had not moved from its place for forty
days or more, and seemed to them to be fixed on the mount, and
would not depart from it; and therefore they wanted something in
the room of it as a token of the divine Presence with them:
for [as for] this Moses;
of whom they speak with great contempt, though he had been the
deliverer of them, and had wrought so many miracles in their
favour, and had been the instrument of so much good unto them:
the man that brought us up out of the land of
Egypt;
this they own, but do not seem to be very thankful for it:
we wot not what is become of him;
they could scarcely believe that he was alive, that it was
possible to live so long a time without eating and drinking; or
they supposed he was burnt on the mount of flaming fire from
before the Lord, as the Targum of Jonathan expresses it.