Exodus 32:22

Summary

Aaron responds to Moses, asking that his anger not burn and appealing to Moses's own knowledge of the people's disposition. The verse frames the people's behavior as inherent to their nature, using an idiomatic construction with "evil."

Key words

• yichar ("it burn", H2734) — qal jussive, expressing a wish/command: "let it not burn," softening the statement into a plea rather than a flat prohibition.
• 'af ("anger of", H0639G) — construct noun, literally "nose/anger," here linked to the following word to form "anger of my lord."
• 'adoni ("my lord", H0113) — construct noun with 1st person suffix (-i, H9020), Aaron's address to Moses as superior.
• yada'ta ("you know", H3045) — qal perfect, 2nd person masculine singular, marking a completed/established state of knowledge: "you have known / you know."
• ra' ("evil", H7451B) — masculine singular adjective, preceded by preposition ve ("in/on", H9003), forming the idiom be-ra' ("in evil" / "prone to evil").

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative vav (H9001) attached to yo'mer ("he said", H0559), the standard formula introducing direct speech in Biblical Hebrew narrative. Aaron's first clause, 'al-yichar 'af 'adoni ("may the anger of my lord not burn"), uses the jussive form yichar rather than a simple negative statement, which grammatically frames the request as an appeal or wish addressed to Moses, not a command. The phrase 'af 'adoni is a construct chain: 'af ("anger/nose") governs 'adoni ("my lord"), literally "the anger of my lord," a common Hebrew idiom for anger where "nose" stands for the seat of wrath.

The second half of the verse shifts to a direct address using the independent pronoun 'attah ("you", H0859A) for emphasis, followed by yada'ta ("you know", H3045) in the perfect aspect — indicating a state of knowledge already established, not an ongoing process. The object marker 'et (H0853) introduces ha-'am ("the people", H5971A with article H9009) as the direct object of "you know."

The final clause, ki ve-ra' hu' ("that [he/it is] in evil"), uses the conditional/subordinating particle ki (H3588A) to introduce a clause explaining what Moses knows about the people. The construction ve-ra' hu' lacks a verb "to be" (as is standard in Hebrew nominal clauses), pairing the preposition ve ("in") with the adjective ra' ("evil") and the pronoun hu' ("he/it", H1931) referring back to ha-'am. This idiom, "in evil is it/he," describes a state or condition attributed to the people rather than a single evil act.

Differences between versions

The LXX adds πρὸς Μωυσῆν ("to Moses"), specifying the addressee explicitly, where the Hebrew text leaves the addressee implicit (identifiable only through 'adoni, "my lord"). The LXX also renders the final clause as τὸ ὅρμημα τοῦ λαοῦ τούτου ("the impulse/rush of this people"), a phrase describing an action or tendency, differing from the Hebrew's more static construction ve-ra' hu' ("in evil is it"). The Vulgate's pronus sit ad malum ("is inclined toward evil") similarly renders the Hebrew idiom as an inclination or disposition, adding the sense of directional tendency ("toward") not explicitly present in the Hebrew preposition ve ("in/on").