Deuteronomy 9:12

12 And Yahweh said to me, 'Come [now], go down quickly from this mountain because your people behave corruptly whom you brought out from Egypt, [for] they turned quickly from the way that I commanded them [to follow]; they have made for themselves a cast image.'

Deuteronomy 9:12 Meaning and Commentary

Deuteronomy 9:12

And the Lord said unto me
The omniscient God, who knew what was doing in the camp of Israel, though Moses did not, of which he informs him:

arise, get thee down quickly from hence;
from the mount where he was; and the word "arise" does not suppose him to be sitting or lying along, neither of which postures would have been suitable, considering in whose presence he was; but is only expressive of urgency and haste of his departure; it is not used in ( Exodus 32:7 )

for thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of Egypt, have
corrupted themselves;
their way, as the Targum of Jonathan; that is, by idolatry, than which nothing is more corrupting and defiling; the Lord calls them not his people, but the people of Moses, being highly displeased with them; and ascribes their coming out of Egypt to Moses the instrument, and not to himself, as if he repented of bringing them from thence:

they are quickly turned aside out of the way which I commanded them:
it being but about six weeks ago, that the command forbidding idolatry, the sin they had fallen into, had been given them:

and they have made them a molten image;
the image of a calf made of melted gold.

Deuteronomy 9:12 In-Context

10 And Yahweh gave me the two tablets of stone written with the finger of God, and on them [was writing] according to all the words that Yahweh spoke with you at the mountain, from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly.

11 {And then} at the end of forty days and forty nights, Yahweh gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant.

12 And Yahweh said to me, 'Come [now], go down quickly from this mountain because your people behave corruptly whom you brought out from Egypt, [for] they turned quickly from the way that I commanded them [to follow]; they have made for themselves a cast image.'

13 And Yahweh spoke to me, {saying}, 'I have seen this people, and look! {They are a stubborn people}.

14 Leave me alone, and let me destroy them, and let me blot out their name from under heaven, and let me make you into a nation mightier and more numerous than they!'