Exodus 32:15

“And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, etc.] He turned himself from God, with whom he had been conversing forty days; his back was to the ascent of the mount, and he turned himself in order to go down; or “he looked” f945, as a man considers what is to be done, as Aben Ezra observes, and he saw that he was obliged to go down in haste: and the two tables of the testimony [were] in his hand; or hands, as in (<023219>Exodus 32:19) for they were, perhaps, as much as he could carry in both hands, being of stone, as in (<023118>Exodus 31:18) on which was written the law, the “testimony” of the will of God with respect to what was to be done or not done: the letters were written on both…”

“Moses turned, and went down from the mount--The plain, Er-Raheh, is not visible from the top of Jebel Musa, nor can the mount be descended on the side towards that valley; hence Moses and his companion, who on duty had patiently waited his return in the hollow of the mountain's brow, heard the shouting some time before they actually saw the camp.”

“The faithfulness of Moses in the office that had been entrusted to him was now to be put to the test. It was to be made manifest whether he loved his own glory better than he loved the brethren who were under his charge; whether he would prefer that he should himself become the founder of a “great nation,” or that the Lord’s promise should be fulfilled in the whole people of Israel. This may have been especially needful for Moses, in consequence of his natural disposition. See Numbers 12:3; and compare Exodus 3:11. With this trial of Moses repeated in a very similar manner Numbers 14:11-23, may be compared the trial of Abraham Genesis 22:0 and of our Saviour Matthew 4:8-10. Exodus 32:8 These…”

“On both their sides - Some on one table and some on the other, so that they were folded together like a book, to be deposited in the ark. Exodus 32:16”

“32:15-29 When Moses actually saw what was going on, he was much less calm than he had been on the mountain. He smashed the tablets (32:15-19), destroyed the calf (32:20), confronted Aaron (32:21-25), and had the ringleaders killed (32:26-29).”

“turned: Exo 24:18; Deu 9:15 the testimony: Exo 16:34, Exo 40:20; Deu 5:22; Psa 19:7 written: Rev 5:1 Exodus 32:16”

“When Moses departed from God with the two tables of the law in his hand (see at Exo 31:18), and came to Joshua on the mountain (see at ch. Jos 24:13), the latter heard the shouting of the people (lit., the voice of the people in its noise, רעה for רעו, from רע noise, tumult), and took it to be the noise of war; but Moses said ( Exo 32:18), "It is not the sound of the answering of power, nor the sound of the answering of weakness," i.e., they are not such sounds as you hear in the heat of battle from the strong (the conquerors) and the weak (the conquered); "the sound of antiphonal songs I hear." (ענּת is to be understood, both here and in Psa 88:1, in the same sense as in Exo 15:21.) Exodus…”