Exode 32:23

23 Ils m'ont dit: Fais-nous des dieux qui marchent devant nous; car pour ce Moïse, cet homme qui nous a fait monter du pays d'Égypte, nous ne savons ce qui lui est arrivé.

Exode 32:23 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 32:23

For they said unto me, make us gods, which shall go before
us
Which was true, ( Exodus 32:1 ) but then he should have told them, that gods were not to be made; that what were made with hands were no gods, and could not go before them; that the making of any image, similitude, or representation of God, was forbidden by him, as they had lately heard from his own mouth; he should have dissuaded from such idolatry, by showing them the evil nature of the sin, and the ruin they exposed themselves to by it:

for [as for] this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land
of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him;
their words he truly recites, and perhaps might choose the rather to mention them, because they carried in them some reflection on Moses for staying so long in the mount; and as if that contributed much to this affair, and which put the people on forming such a scheme, they concluding he must be dead through famine; or, as the Targum of Jonathan, be burnt with flaming fire from the Lord.

Exode 32:23 In-Context

21 Et Moïse dit à Aaron: Que t'a fait ce peuple, que tu aies attiré sur lui un si grand péché?

22 Et Aaron répondit: Que la colère de mon seigneur ne s'enflamme point; tu sais que ce peuple est porté au mal;

23 Ils m'ont dit: Fais-nous des dieux qui marchent devant nous; car pour ce Moïse, cet homme qui nous a fait monter du pays d'Égypte, nous ne savons ce qui lui est arrivé.

24 Alors je leur ai dit: Que ceux qui ont de l'or s'en dépouillent; et ils me l'ont donné, et je l'ai jeté au feu, et il en est sorti ce veau.

25 Or, Moïse vit que le peuple était sans frein; car Aaron l'avait laissé sans frein, objet d'opprobre parmi leurs ennemis.