Discovery BoxExodus 32:10 
Context32:10 So now, leave me alone 1 so that my anger can burn against them and I can destroy them, and I will make from you a great nation.”
Exodus 32:13
Context32:13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel your servants, to whom you swore by yourself and told them, ‘I will multiply your descendants 2 like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken about 3 I will give to your descendants, 4 and they will inherit it forever.’”
1 tn The imperative, from the word “to rest” (נוּחַ, nuakh), has the sense of “leave me alone, let me be.” It is a directive for Moses not to intercede for the people. B. S. Childs (Exodus [OTL], 567) reflects the Jewish interpretation that there is a profound paradox in God’s words. He vows the severest punishment but then suddenly conditions it on Moses’ agreement. “Let me alone that I may consume them” is the statement, but the effect is that he has left the door open for intercession. He allows himself to be persuaded – that is what a mediator is for. God could have slammed the door (as when Moses wanted to go into the promised land). Moreover, by alluding to the promise to Abraham God gave Moses the strongest reason to intercede.
2 tn Heb “your seed.”
3 tn “about” has been supplied.
4 tn Heb “seed.”
