Exodus 32:1
וַיַּרְא הָעָם כִּֽי־בֹשֵׁשׁ מֹשֶׁה לָרֶדֶת מִן־הָהָר וַיִּקָּהֵל הָעָם עַֽל־אַהֲרֹן וַיֹּאמְרוּ אֵלָיו קוּם׀ עֲשֵׂה־לָנוּ אֱלֹהִים אֲשֶׁר יֵֽלְכוּ לְפָנֵינוּ כִּי־זֶה׀ מֹשֶׁה הָאִישׁ אֲשֶׁר הֶֽעֱלָנוּ מֵאֶרֶץ מִצְרַיִם לֹא יָדַעְנוּ מֶה־הָיָה לֽוֹ׃
✦ Hebrew interlinear
Tap a word to see its entry
✦ The same verse in five languages
וַיַּ֣רְא הָעָ֔ם כִּֽי־בֹשֵׁ֥שׁ מֹשֶׁ֖ה לָרֶ֣דֶת מִן־הָהָ֑ר וַיִּקָּהֵ֨ל הָעָ֜ם עַֽל־אַהֲרֹ֗ן וַיֹּאמְר֤וּ אֵלָיו֙ ק֣וּם׀ עֲשֵׂה־לָ֣נוּ אֱלֹהִ֗ים אֲשֶׁ֤ר יֵֽלְכוּ֙ לְפָנֵ֔ינוּ כִּי־זֶ֣ה׀ מֹשֶׁ֣ה הָאִ֗ישׁ אֲשֶׁ֤ר הֶֽעֱלָ֙נוּ֙ מֵאֶ֣רֶץ מִצְרַ֔יִם לֹ֥א יָדַ֖עְנוּ מֶה־הָ֥יָה לֽוֹ׃
Καὶ ἰδὼν ὁ λαὸς ὅτι κεχρόνικεν Μωυσῆς καταβῆναι ἐκ τοῦ ὄρους, συνέστη ὁ λαὸς ἐπὶ Ἀαρὼν καὶ λέγουσιν αὐτῷ Ἀνάστηθι καὶ ποίησον ἡμῖν θεοὺς οἳ προπορεύσονται ἡμῶν· ὁ γὰρ Μωσῆς οὗτος ὁ ἄνθρωπος ὅς ἐξήγαγεν ἡμᾶς ἐξ Αἰγύπτου, οὐκ οἴδαμεν τί γέγονεν αὐτῷ.
Greek text from Swete's edition, CC BY-SA 4.0
Latin (Vulgate)
Videns autem populus quod moram faceret descendendi de monte Moyses, congregatus adversus Aaron, dixit: Surge, fac nobis deos, qui nos præcedant: Moysi enim huic viro, qui nos eduxit de terra Ægypti, ignoramus quid acciderit.
El pueblo, al ver que Moisés tardaba tanto en bajar de la montaña, se juntó alrededor de Aarón y le dijo: “¡Ándale, haznos dioses que nos guíen! Porque no sabemos qué le pasó a ese tal Moisés, el hombre que nos sacó de Egipto.”
Classic Spanish (Reina-Valera 1909)
MAS viendo el pueblo que Moisés tardaba en descender del monte, allegóse entonces á Aarón, y dijéronle: Levántate, haznos dioses que vayan delante de nosotros; porque á este Moisés, aquel varón que nos sacó de la tierra de Egipto, no sabemos qué le haya acontecido.
Now when the people saw that Moses was delayed in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “ Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him!”
✦ What the text says
Summary
The people, seeing that Moses had delayed in coming down from the mountain, gathered against Aaron and demanded that he make them "gods" to go before them, since they no longer knew what had happened to the man who had brought them out of Egypt. The verse narrates both the people's action and their direct speech to Aaron.
Key words
- vosheSH ("he delayed", H0954) — piel perfect; the intensive stem marks the delay as prolonged or notable, not a simple neutral absence.
- yikkaHel ("it assembled", H6950) — niphal narrative form; the passive/reflexive stem presents the gathering as something that happened to/among the people, rather than a deliberate act by a single organizer.
- Elohim ("gods", H0430J) — masculine plural noun; the plural form is the same one used elsewhere for "God," and here takes a plural verb (yelekhu, "they will go"), confirming plural sense in this context.
- zeh ("this", H2088) — demonstrative particle attached to Mosheh; the phrase zeh Mosheh ("this Moses") sets him apart as a topic under discussion, distancing him grammatically from the speakers.
- he'elaNU ("he brought us up", H5927H) — hiphil perfect; the causative stem marks Moses as the causer of the exodus from Egypt, a completed past action.
What the text says
The verse opens with two consecutive narrative (vav-consecutive) verbs — vayyar ("and it saw", H7200G) and vayyiqqahel ("and it assembled", H6950) — that advance the story in sequence: first perception, then collective action. The subordinating particle ki (H3588A) introduces the reason for the people's reaction: voshesh Mosheh laredet min-ha-har ("Moses delayed in coming down from the mountain"), using the piel perfect voshesh to stress that the delay had already been completed and was significant enough to prompt the gathering.
The people's speech to Aaron is framed by two imperatives, qum ("arise", H6965B) and aseh ("make", H6213H), followed by a request for Elohim with a relative clause, asher yelekhu lefaneinu ("who will go before us"), where the plural verb yelekhu (imperfect, ongoing/future) agrees with the plural noun. The final clause repeats ki as a causal connector, introducing the description of Moses as zeh ha-ish asher he'elanu me-eretz Mitzrayim ("this man who brought us up from the land of Egypt"), using the hiphil perfect he'elanu to mark the exodus as a completed causative act attributed to Moses. The closing statement, lo yada'nu meh hayah lo ("we do not know what has happened to him"), uses the qal perfect yada'nu and the interrogative meh to express present uncertainty about a past event.
Differences between versions
The LXX renders bosesh ("he delayed", H0954) with kechronikeн ("he has been long"), and the Vulgate with moram faceret ("he was making a delay"); both convey duration but without the intensive piel nuance the Hebrew stem carries. Where the Hebrew has Elohim (plural, H0430J) with a plural verb yelekhu, the LXX gives theous... hoi proporeusontai (plural "gods... who will go before"), and the Vulgate deos... qui nos praecedant (plural "gods... who may precede us"), both preserving the plural sense found in the Hebrew grammar.
This explanation describes the text using linguistic data; it adds no doctrine or confessional interpretation.