Exodus 32:25-29

 

When Moses came back from receiving the Ten Commandments from Yahweh on Mount Sinai, he was infuriated to realize that, in his absence, the Hebrews were practicing idolatry. He had the Levites take up their swords and kill 3,000 of their kinsmen.

 

You could ask: how can God be all good, a God of justice, mercy and forgiveness, and then order Hebrbrews to be slain. I have no definitive answer, but, as I inferred before, there are three contingent answers. First, Yahweh is a God of anger and justified violence too, and, when Hebrews turned wicked and worshiped a wicked deity, they must have been pure evil, so Yahweh just decided to wipe them out, so, with these core Satan-worshipers killed, his people had a chance of becoming the anointed, chosen people. It may seem harsh and brutal to us today, these were simple, primitive peoples, and sometimes, to make His point stick, God has to punish them ruthlessly, brutally, immediately so that those alive get message, firm and hard right now: You are the chosen people, but you had better not forsake the covenant, or your betrayal, rebellion, and defiance—and you two—will be quickly crushed and silence in an act of most forceful divine justice.

 

Second, we cannot judge those of previous generations out of context, not knowing the circumstances and moral standards of the day. I do not like God ordering people to be wiped out, but such evil devil worship, in God’s face, at the foot of His holy mount, that  hostility directed towards Yahweh and Moses needed to be harshly crushed to send a clear message to evildoers that messing with God will not be countenanced, and they will not survive the blasphemous outrage, so do not even try.

 

Third, the pagan defilers of sacred base of Yahweh’s mountain had given the enemies of Yahweh, Moses and the Hebrews a source of scornful joy, and that attack needed a counter-attack to put it down.

 

Fourth, if foes of Israel were watching, and they were, if the people betrayed Yahweh, then the enemies could scorn worshiping Yahweh, when even His own people rejected him. This would infuriate Yahweh, who likely wanted to evangelize to pagan, neighboring tribes, once the Hebrews were for the most part comporting themselves as a pious, ethical people.

 

I will quote these passages from The New American Bible: “When Moses realized that, to the scorn of their foes, Aaron had let the people run wild, he stood at the gate of the camp and cried, ‘Whoever is for the Lord, let him come to me!.’ All the Levites then rallied to him, and he told them, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel: Put your sword on your hip, every one of you! Now go up and down the camp, from gate to gate, and slay your own kinsmen,* (*32, 27: Slay our kinsmen . . . those who were especially guilty of the idolatry.)  your friends, your neighbors!’ The Levites carried out the command of Moses, and that day there fell three thousand of the people. Then Moses said, ‘Today you have been dedicated to the Lord, *(*32, 29: Dedicated to the Lord: because of their zeal for the true worship of the Lord, the Levites were chosen to be special ministers of the ritual service. However, the meaning of the Hebrew here is somewhat disputed.) for you were against your own sons and kinsmen, to bring a blessing upon yourselves this day.”

 

Here are this same quote from the Holy Bible (KJV): “And when Moses saw the people were naked (for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies:)”

 

My response: This line that the people were dancing naked is quite euphemistically cleaned up in the Catholic Bible quoted above and that disingenuous translation displeases me. Remember after Adam and Eve sinned in Eden and ate the forbidden fruit, then, they became aware of their nakedness and it was a sign of shame and guilt for them, so they covered themselves with clothes. The sinning Hebrews too were naked, guilty, and caught ashamed, so I think the King James translation of these words is correct, and significant, for it reveals (no pun intended) how the people sinned and then felt naked and vulnerable, and guilty, all of which they were.

 

Let me digress to find context for these people who Aaron had made naked. I copy and pasted a paragraph from Bible Hub, posted on 3/2/25: “

 

Bible > Commentaries > Exodus 32:25   ◄ Exodus 32:25 ► And when Moses saw that the people were naked; (for Aaron had made them naked unto their shame among their enemies:) . . . 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.” My response: I think the people were dancing naked around their golden calf in orgiastic frenzy, and then when caught, they felt naked, ashamed, and exposed as idolatrous sinners. I prefer the King James translation, and enemies were pagan, rival tribes around them, perhaps the Amalakites. The passage from the Holy Bible now resumes: “Then Moses stood at the gate of the camp and said Who is on the Lord’s side? let him come unto me. And all the sons of Levi gathered themselves unto him. And he said unto them, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Put every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor. And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men. For Moses said, Consecrate yourselves today to the Lord, even every man upon his son, and upon his brother; that he may bestow upon you a blessing this day.”   Other biblical commentators online said the Hebrew may have been freaked when Moses left, and out of fear and loneliness, they went to Aaron to have him fabricate a golden calf, a visible God for them to worship, and this may be so.