On the next day, Moses said to the people, “You have sinned a great sin. Now I will go up to the LORD. Perhaps I shall make atonement for your sin.”
ExplanationCommentary
Verse 30. You. Many who had not been slain, had followed the bad example, and Aaron, in particular, had brought upon them a most heinous sin. verse 21. Yet on account of their repentance, they were not subjected to immediate punishment; but they were visited afterwards, verse 34. Though God was appeased, (verse 14,) so as not to destroy the whole multitude, Moses thought it a very arduous task to obtain a full reconciliation, notwithstanding the exemplary vengeance he had taken of the ringleaders. Hence he addresses himself to God with the greatest humility, and with such earnestness as scarcely seems justifiable, if we understand that he put his own eternal salvation at stake. But he makes an impossible supposition, or proposal, which he knew God would not admit, to extort as it were the requested favour. As he is willing to die for his people, God pardons them for his sake. Saint Augustine q. 147, and so forth Bible.