And Moses returned unto the LORD, and said, Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made them gods of gold.
Parallel translations
- WEB Moses returned to Yahweh, and said, “Oh, this people have sinned a great sin, and have made themselves gods of gold.
- BSB So Moses returned to the LORD and said, “Oh, what a great sin these people have committed! They have made gods of gold for themselves.
- NKJV Then Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Oh, these people have committed a great sin, and have made for themselves a god of gold!
- NASB Then Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Oh, this people has committed a great sin, and they have made a god of gold for themselves!
- NLT So Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Oh, what a terrible sin these people have committed. They have made gods of gold for themselves.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Moses returns to God and frankly confesses Israel's great sin of idolatry. True intercession does not excuse sin but acknowledges it before God.
Overview
Moses does not minimize the offense but names it as a great sin against the Lord. Honest confession is the necessary ground on which mercy is sought. His intercession models how believers may bring even grievous sin before God, trusting in His mercy rather than denying guilt.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- Exod 20:23Ye shall not make with me gods of silver, neither shall ye make unto you gods of gold.
- Dan 9:11Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing, that they might not obey thy voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him.
- Dan 9:8O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of face, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee.
- Exod 32:30And it came to pass on the morrow, that Moses said unto the people, Ye have sinned a great sin: and now I will go up unto the LORD; peradventure I shall make an atonement for your sin.
- Ezra 9:15O LORD God of Israel, thou art righteous: for we remain yet escaped, as it is this day: behold, we are before thee in our trespasses: for we cannot stand before thee because of this.
- Exod 34:28And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.
- Ezra 9:6–7And said, O my God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to thee, my God: for our iniquities are increased over our head, and our trespass is grown up unto the heavens.
- Dan 9:5We have sinned, and have committed iniquity, and have done wickedly, and have rebelled, even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments:
- Exod 20:4Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:
- Neh 9:33Howbeit thou art just in all that is brought upon us; for thou hast done right, but we have done wickedly:
- Deut 9:18–19And I fell down before the LORD, as at the first, forty days and forty nights: I did neither eat bread, nor drink water, because of all your sins which ye sinned, in doing wickedly in the sight of the LORD, to provoke him to anger.
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Christ at the center
The Passover lamb whose blood turns away death, the exodus through the sea, the manna, the rock, and the tabernacle where God dwells with his people all foreshadow Jesus — our Passover, our redemption, the bread from heaven, and God-with-us in the flesh.
How Exodus 32:31 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Hebrew word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.