Êxodo 32
Ephrem the Syrian · Comentário Patrístico (catena)
Êxodo 32:1
Bitter signs had accompanied [Israel] as far as the [Red] Sea so that they would fear [God]. And blessed wonders surrounded [Israel] in the desert waste so that they would be reconciled [to him]. But for want of faith [Israel] rejected [the signs] with the feeble excuse: "As for the man Moses who brought us out, we do not know what has become of him." They no longer considered the triumphs that had accompanied them. They only saw that Moses was not near. And so, with this as a convenient excuse, they could draw near to the paganism of Egypt. Therefore Moses was not seen by them for a while, so that the calf could be seen with them [and] so that they could worship openly what they had been worshiping in their hearts.When their paganism came out of hiding and into the open, Moses also came out of hiding and into the open to deliver openly the penalty to those whose paganism had become unrestrained beneath the holy cloud that overshadowed them. God deprived the flock of its shepherd for forty days, so that it would show that it trusted securely in the calf as the god that had pastured it with every delight. It made as its shepherd a calf which could not even graze! Moses, who inspired fear in them, was taken away from them, so that idolatry, which fear of Moses had quieted in their hearts, would cry out from their own mouths. And they did cry out: "Make gods for us to lead us." — HOMILY ON OUR LORD 17.3-18.1
Êxodo 32:10
When he wished that [the fig tree] be uprooted, the event was similar to that earlier one, when the Father said to Moses, "Permit me to destroy the people." He [thus] gave him a reason to intercede with him. Here too he showed the vinedresser that he wished to uproot it. The vinedresser made known his plea, and the merciful one showed his pity, that if, in a further year, [the fig tree] did not yield fruit, it would be uprooted. — COMMENTARY ON TATIAN'S DIATESSARON 14:27
Êxodo 32:20
Moses pulverized the calf and made them drink it in the waters of testing, so that all who had lived to worship the calf would die by drinking it. — HOMILY ON OUR LORD 6.2
Êxodo 32:27
The sons of Levi, who rallied to Moses with drawn swords, attacked them. But the sons of Levi did not know whom they should kill, because those who had worshiped mixed with those who had not worshiped. But the One for whom distinctions are easy to make separated those who committed idolatry from those who had not, so that the innocent would be grateful that their innocence had not escaped the notice of the just one, and the guilty would be brought to justice because their crime had not escaped the judge. — HOMILY ON OUR LORD 6.2