Discovery BoxExodus 32:19-22 
Context32:19 When he approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses became extremely angry. 1 He threw the tablets from his hands and broke them to pieces at the bottom of the mountain. 2 32:20 He took the calf they had made and burned it in the fire, ground it 3 to powder, poured it out on the water, and made the Israelites drink it. 4
32:21 Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you, that you have brought on them so great a sin?” 32:22 Aaron said, “Do not let your anger burn hot, my lord; 5 you know these people, that they tend to evil. 6
1 tn Heb “and the anger of Moses burned hot.”
2 sn See N. M. Waldham, “The Breaking of the Tablets,” Judaism 27 (1978): 442-47.
3 tn Here “it” has been supplied.
4 tn Here “it” has been supplied.
sn Pouring the ashes into the water running from the mountain in the brook (Deut 9:21) and making them drink it was a type of the bitter water test that tested the wife suspected of unfaithfulness. Here the reaction of the people who drank would indicate guilt or not (U. Cassuto, Exodus, 419).
5 sn “My lord” refers to Moses.
6 tn Heb “that on evil it is.”
