Exodus 32:11

And Moses besought the LORD his God, and said, LORD, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand?

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

MOSES’ REPLY, AND GOD’S “REPENTANCE.”

(11-13) Moses has three arguments: (1) God has done so much for His people, that surely He will not now make all of none effect (Exodus 32:11); (2) their destruction will give a triumph to the Egyptians (Exodus 32:12); (3) it will nullify the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Genesis 15:5; Genesis 17:2-6; Genesis 26:1; Genesis 28:12; Genesis 35:11), causing Moses to eclipse their glory, and to be looked upon as the true patriarch and progenitor of the “peculiar people” (Exodus 32:13). To these arguments he adds entreaties that God will be merciful, and change His purpose (Exodus 32:12).

(14) The Lord repented of the evil.—Moses’ intercession was effectual. God spared the people at his desire. He is, therefore, said to have “repented”; not that He had really changed His purpose, for He had known from the beginning that Moses would intercede and that He would spare, but because He first announced a (conditional) purpose, and then announced a different one. The mode of speech is, as so frequently, anthropomorphic.

Benson Commentary

Exodus 32:11. And Moses besought the Lord his God — If God would not be called the God of Israel, yet he hoped he might address him as his own God. Now Moses is standing in the gap to turn away the wrath of God, Psalm 106:23. He took the hint which God gave him when he said, Let me alone, which, though it seemed to forbid his interceding, did really encourage it, by showing what power the prayer of faith hath with God.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

32:7-14 God says to Moses, that the Israelites had corrupted themselves. Sin is the corruption of the sinner, and it is a self-corruption; every man is tempted when he is drawn aside of his own lust. They had turned aside out of the way. Sin is a departing from the way of duty into a by-path. They soon forgot God's works. He sees what they cannot discover, nor is any wickedness of the world hid from him. We could not bear to see the thousandth part of that evil which God sees every day. God expresses the greatness of his just displeasure, after the manner of men who would have prayer of Moses could save them from ruin; thus he was a type of Christ, by whose mediation alone, God would reconcile the world to himself. Moses pleads God's glory. The glorifying God's name, as it ought to be our first petition, and it is so in the Lord's prayer, so it ought to be our great plea. And God's promises are to be our pleas in prayer; for what he has promised he is able to perform. See the power of prayer. In answer to the prayers of Moses, God showed his purpose of sparing the people, as he had before seemed determined on their destruction; which change of the outward discovery of his purpose, is called repenting of the evil.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Let me alone - But Moses did not let the Lord alone; he wrestled, as Jacob had done, until, like Jacob, he obtained the blessing Genesis 32:24-29.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

10. make of thee a great nation—Care must be taken not to suppose this language as betokening any change or vacillation in the divine purpose. The covenant made with the patriarchs had been ratified in the most solemn manner; it could not and never was intended that it should be broken. But the manner in which God spoke to Moses served two important purposes—it tended to develop the faith and intercessory patriotism of the Hebrew leader, and to excite the serious alarm of the people, that God would reject them and deprive them of the privileges they had fondly fancied were so secure.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

The Lord his God; emphatically so called: q.d. Moses had not lost his interest in God, though Israel had.

Why doth thy wrath wax hot, so hot as to consume them utterly? For though he saw reason enough why God should be angry with them, yet he humbly expostulates with God whether it would be for his honour utterly to destroy them. Or this is a petition delivered in form of an interrogation or expostulation, as Matthew 8:29, compared with Luke 8:28.

Against thy people, an ingenious retortion: q.d. They are not my people, as thou calledst them, Exodus 32:7, but thy people, which he proves in the following words.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And Moses besought the Lord his God,.... As the Lord was the God of Moses, his covenant God, and he had an interest in him, he made use of it in favour of the people of Israel:

and said, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people? so as to think or speak of consuming them utterly; otherwise he knew there was reason for his being angry and wroth with them; but though they were deserving of his hot wrath and displeasure, and even to be dealt with in the manner proposed, yet he entreats he would consider they were his people; his special people, whom he had chose above all people, and had redeemed them from the house of bondage, had given them laws, and made a covenant with them, and many promises unto them, and therefore hoped he would not consume them in his hot displeasure; God had called them the people of Moses, and Moses retorts it, and calls them the people of God, and makes use of their relation to him as an argument with him in their favour; and which also shows that Moses did not understand that the Lord by calling them his people disowned them as his:

which thou hast brought out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand? this the Lord had ascribed to Moses, and observes it is an aggravation of their ingratitude to Moses, and here Moses retorts, and ascribes it to God, and to his mighty power; as for himself he was only a weak feeble instrument, the Lord was the efficient cause of their deliverance, in which he had shown the exceeding greatness of his power; and he argues from hence, that seeing he had exerted his mighty arm in bringing them from thence, that he would not now lift it up against them and destroy them.

Geneva Study Bible

And Moses besought the LORD his God, and said, LORD, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power, and with a mighty hand?

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

11. besought] properly, as Arabic seems to shew, ‘made sweet the face of,’ fig. for, entreated, sought to conciliate: a frequent idiom, e.g. 1 Samuel 13:12, 1 Kings 13:6, Jeremiah 26:19; with a human object, Psalm 45:12, Proverbs 19:6, Job 11:19. In the prayer which follows, Moses urges four motives for mercy: (1) Israel is Jehovah’s people; (2) its deliverance has demanded the exertion of great power; (3) the mockery of the Egyptians, if it now perish; (4) the oath to the forefathers. Cf. the intercession in Numbers 14:13-19.

a mighty hand] See on Exodus 3:19.

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 11-13. - Moses has three pleas wherewith he "wrestles with God:" -

1. Israel is God's people, for whom he has done so much that surely he will not now destroy them, and so undo his own work.

2. Egypt will be triumphant if Israel is swept away, and will misapprehend the Divine action.

3. The promises made to Abraham (Genesis 15:5; Genesis 17:2-6; etc.), Isaac (Genesis 26:4), and Jacob (Genesis 28:14; Genesis 35:11), which had received a partial fulfilment, would seem to be revoked and withdrawn if the nation already formed were destroyed and a fresh start made. Exodus 32:11

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

"And Moses besought the Lord his God." יי את־פּני חלּה, lit., to stroke the face of Jehovah, for the purpose of appeasing His anger, i.e., to entreat His mercy, either by means of sacrifices (1 Samuel 13:12) or by intercession. He pleaded His acts towards Israel (Exodus 32:11), His honour in the sight of the Egyptians (Exodus 32:12), and the promises He had made to the patriarchs (Exodus 32:13), and prayed that for His own sake, and the sake of His honour among the heathen, He would show mercy instead of justice. בּרעה (Exodus 32:12) does not mean μετὰ πονεερίας, or callide (Vulg.), but "for their hurt," - the preposition denoting the manner in which, or according to which, anything took place.