Exodus 32:25

And when Moses saw that the people were naked; (for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies:)

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

(25) When Moses saw that the people were naked.—Most modern commentators prefer to translate “that the people were licentious,” or “unruly.” But the rendering of the Authorised Version may be defended. In the lewd and excited dancing of idolatrous orgies, garments were frequently cast aside, and the person exposed indecently. Egyptian dancers are represented on the monuments with scarcely any clothing.

Among their enemies.—Amalekites may have held many fastnesses among the hills, from which they may have been able to see what was going on in the camp.

Benson Commentary

Exodus 32:25. Moses saw that the people were naked — This is the most common and obvious meaning of the word פרע, paruang, here used, as many examples in the Old Testament show, and it is the sense which seems best to suit this place. They were stripped of their ornament and armour, not only of their jewels, but of the innocence of their minds and lives, and of their defence, the favour and protection of God, by which alone they were secured from the Egyptians, and by which they were to be defended against those many and mighty enemies toward whom they were about to march, and to whom, being thus disarmed and helpless, they would become an easy prey.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

32:21-29 Never did any wise man make a more frivolous and foolish excuse than that of Aaron. We must never be drawn into sin by any thing man can say or do to us; for men can but tempt us to sin, they cannot force us. The approach of Moses turned the dancing into trembling. They were exposed to shame by their sin. The course Moses took to roll away this reproach, was, not by concealing the sin, or putting any false colour upon it, but by punishing it. The Levites were to slay the ringleaders in this wickedness; yet none were executed but those who openly stood forth. Those are marked for ruin who persist in sin: those who in the morning were shouting and dancing, before night were dying. Such sudden changes do the judgments of the Lord sometimes make with sinners that are secure and jovial in their sin.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Naked - Rather unruly, or "licentious".

Shame among their enemies - Compare Psalm 44:13; Psalm 79:4; Deuteronomy 28:37.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

25. naked—either unarmed and defenseless, or ashamed from a sense of guilt. Some think they were literally naked, as the Egyptians performed some of their rites in that indecent manner.

Matthew Poole's Commentary

i.e. That they were stripped both of their ornament, which was not so much the jewels of their ears, as the innocency of their minds and lives; and of their defence, to wit, of the favour and protection of God, by which alone they were secured from the Egyptians, and were to be defended against those many and mighty enemies towards whom they were about to march; and that being thus disarmed and helpless, they would be a prey to every enemy: when Moses considered this, he took the following course to cover their nakedness, to expiate their sins, to regain the favour of God, and by punishing the most eminent and incorrigible offenders, to bring the rest to repentance.

Aaron had made them naked, as Ahaz is said to have made Judah naked, 2 Chronicles 28:19.

Quest. How were they made naked or ashamed amongst their enemies, when at this time they were in their own camp, remote from all their enemies?

Answ. He speaks not only of their present shame, but of their everlasting reproach, especially among their and God’s enemies, who, being constant to their idols, would justly scorn the Israelites for their levity in forsaking their God so quickly and easily. See Jeremiah 2:11. But the Hebrew word may be, and is by some, translated thus, amongst those that do or shall rise up or be born of them i.e. that shall succeed them; for so the word rising is used Exodus 1:8 Matthew 11:11. And so the Chaldee here renders it, amongst their generations; and the other Chaldee interpreter, and the Syriac, in their latter days, or in aftertimes. So the sense is, that Aaron had put a note of perpetual infamy upon them, even to all after-ages.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

And when Moses saw that the people were naked,.... Not in their bodies, being stripped of their ear rings; for parting with them was not sufficient to denominate them naked in a corporeal sense; nor as being without their armour, which was laid aside while they were eating, and drinking, and dancing about the calf, and so might be thought a proper opportunity for the Levites to fall upon them, by the order of Moses, and slay them: but it can hardly be thought that all the people bore arms, and that Moses took the advantage of their being without them: but rather they were naked in their souls, through their sin, and the shame of their nakedness appeared; their sin was made manifest, and they were discovered to be what they were; and they were now deprived of the divine protection; the cloud was departing from them, the symbol of the divine Presence, God being provoked by their sins; unless it is to be understood of their ceasing from work, and keeping holy day in honour of the calf, and so were loitering about, and not attending to the business of their callings, in which sense the word sometimes seems to be used, see Exodus 5:4.

for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame amongst their enemies; to part with their ear rings, or lay aside their armour while feasting, could not be so much to their shame among their enemies; but to sin against God, in the manner they did, was to their shame, which Aaron was a means of by not doing all he could to hinder it, and by doing what he did to encourage it; and now he made them naked to their shame by exposing it, saying they were a people set on mischief, and given up to sin and wickedness; and what they had now done served to expose them to shame even among their enemies, both now and hereafter; when they should hear of their shameful revolt from God, after so many great and good things done for them, and of the change of their gods, and of their fickleness about them, which was not usual with the Gentiles: though the last word may be rendered, "among those that rise up from you"; that should spring from them, come up in their room, and succeed them, their posterity, as in Numbers 32:14 and so Onkelos renders it, "to your generations", and is so to be understood, as Abendana observes; and then the sense is, that this sin of making and worshipping the golden calf, and keeping a holy day, would be to their shame and disgrace, among their posterity, in all succeeding ages. (If is quite possible the people were physically naked, having taken off all their clothes to indulge in the idolatrous worship of the calf and sexual immorality that usually is associated with such wicked practices. Editor.)

Geneva Study Bible

And when Moses saw that the people were {k} naked; (for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies:)

(k) Both destitute of God's favour, and an occasion for their enemies to speak evil of their God.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

25. broken loose … let them loose] viz. from their allegiance to Jehovah, under Aaron’s leadership: cf. for the word Exodus 5:4.

for a whispering (i.e. a derision: LXX. ἐπίχαρμα) among them that rose up against them] The expression is poetical, and may have been taken from an ancient song (so Ew. Hist. ii. 182). Their foes would deride, when they heard that they had deserted their national God, who they boasted had led them out of Egypt.

25–29. The people being in rebellion, the Levites, responding in a body to Moses’ appeal for help, seize their swords, and slay 3000 of them. For the zeal thus displayed on Jehovah’s behalf, they are rewarded with the priesthood. It is noticeable that, though Aaron is a ‘Levite’ (Exodus 4:17 : see note), the other ‘Levites’ here take part against him. For another view of these verses,—viz. that they are not in their original context, and that they describe the punishment, not for the worship of the Golden Calf, but for some independent act of rebellion against Jehovah,—see Di., C.-H., and McNeile (pp. xxxiv f., 207 f.).

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 25-29. - MOSES PUNISHES THE RINGLEADERS. The presence of Moses in the camp - his impressive act in breaking the tables - even his seizure of the idol and consignment of it to destruction - did not arrest the licentious orgy in which the people had engaged before his coming. The "play" that had followed on the feasting still continued; though we may suppose that many had been impressed and had desisted. Moses felt that an example must be made, and a stop put to conduct which was more and more provoking the Almighty, and might at any moment bring down the judgment of complete destruction upon the whole people. He therefore took his station at the main gate of the camp (ver. 26), and shouted the words "Who is on Jehovah's side? Here, to me!" The sound of the words could not, of course, have reached very far - but they rallied to him those of his own tribe who stood near, and thus placed a strong force at his disposal. Moses bade them get their swords, and proceed through the camp from end to end, slaying the idolaters - not, we may be sure, indiscriminately, but executing God's judgment on those who were most conspicuous and persistent. They were especially bidden not to spare their own nearest and dearest, which implies that many Levites were among the ringleaders. The result was the destruction by the sword of three thousand men - and the suppression of the festival. It is not to be doubted that Moses had Divine sanction for what he did in this matter (ver. 27). Verse 25. - The people were naked. It has been suggested that "licentious" or "unruly" would be a better rendering (Gesenius, Dathe, Rosenmuller, Kalisch, Cook), but the primary sense of pharua is "naked," "stript;" and of the licentious orgies of the East, stripping or uncovering the person was a feature (Herod. 2:60), so that there is no reason for changing the expression used in the Authorised Version. Moses saw that most of the people were still without the garments that they had laid aside when they began to dance, and were probably still engaged in dancing and shouting. Aaron had made them naked. Aaron is said to have done that to which his actions had led. He had made the calf and proclaimed a festival. The "nakedness" had naturally followed. Unto their shame among their enemies. Amalekites were no doubt still hovering about the camp; indeed, the tribe probably still held most of the surrounding mountains. They would witness the orgy, and see the indecent and shameful exposure. Exodus 32:25

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

Moses then turned to the unbridled nation, whom Aaron had set free from all restraint, "for a reproach among their foes," inasmuch as they would necessarily become an object of scorn and derision among the heathen on account of the punishment which their conduct would bring down upon them from God (compare Exodus 32:12 and Deuteronomy 28:37), and sought to restrain their licentiousness and ward off the threatened destruction of the nation through the infliction of a terrible punishment. If the effect of this punishment should show that there were still some remains of obedience and faithfulness towards God left in the nation, Moses might then hope, that in accordance with the pleading of Abraham in Genesis 18:23., he should obtain mercy from God for the whole nation for the sake of those who were righteous. He therefore went into the gate of the camp (the entrance to the camp) and cried out: "Whoever (belongs) to the Lord, (come) to me?" and his hope was not disappointed. "All the Levites gathered together to him." Why the Levites? Certainly not merely, nor chiefly, "because the Levites for the most part had not assented to the people's sin and the worship of the calf, but had been displeased on account of it" (C. a Lapide); but partly because the Levites were more prompt in their determination to confess their crime, and return with penitence, and partly out of regard to Moses, who belonged to their tribe, in connection with which it must be borne in mind that the resolution and example of a few distinguished men was sure to be followed by all the rest of their tribe. The reason why no one came over to the side of Moses from any of the other tribes, must also be attributed, to some extent, to the bond that existed among members of the same tribe, and is not sufficiently explained by Calvin's hypothesis, that "they were held back, not by contempt or obstinacy, so much as by shame, and that they were all so paralyzed by their alarm, that they waited to see what Moses was about to do and to what length he would proceed."