Commentary on the Torah

by Richard Elliott Friedman

32:7. your people, whom you brought up from the land of Egypt. The issue of who brought the people out, which came up in v. 1, now has an extraordinary twist. Like a parent who says to one’s spouse about a naughty child, “Guess what your child did today!”—so God now says to Moses, “Your people, whom you brought up from the land of Egypt, has corrupted!” But look at Moses’ words in response. He seeks to appeal to God’s compassion and feelings for the people, and so he turns the pronoun around, saying, “Why should your anger flare at your people, whom you brought out from the land of Egypt? … Relent about the bad to your people.” And the text conveys that Moses’ case is successful, because it concludes: “YHWH relented about the bad that He had spoken, to do to His people”!