Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Exodus 32:17
And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said unto Moses, [There is] a noise of war in the camp.
17. Joshua ] whom Moses had left on the lower part of the mountain (Exo 24:13), and whom he must be supposed to have now rejoined.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Verse 17. Joshua – said – There is a noise of war in the camp.] How natural was this thought to the mind of a military man! Hearing a confused noise he supposed that the Israelitish camp had been attacked by some of the neighbouring tribes.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Joshua had waited all this while upon the middle of the hill for Mosess return; and so neither knew what the people had done, nor heard what God had said to Moses.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
And when Joshua heard the noise of the people, as they shouted,…. Dancing about the calf: when Moses went up into the mount, Joshua went with him, and tarried in a lower part of the mount all the forty days until he returned, see Ex 24:13 though not so low as the bottom of the mount where the people were, nor so near it as to know what they did there, for of their affairs he seems to be entirely ignorant; nor so high as where Moses was, or, however, not in the cloud where he conversed with God, for of what passed between them he had no knowledge, until declared by Moses:
he said unto Moses, [there is a] noise of war in the camp; such a noise as soldiers make in an onset for battle; he supposed that some enemy was come upon and had attacked the people, and that this noise was the noise of the enemy, or of the Israelites, or both, just beginning the battle; or on the finishing of it on the account of victory on one side or the other; and as he was the general of the army, it must give him a concern that he should be absent at such a time.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
Verses 17, 18:
Joshua accompanied Moses part of the way up Mount Sinai, Ex 24:13. It is implied that he waited there for Moses’ return, and was unaware of what was taking place in Israel’s camp. As Moses descended from the mount peak, Joshua rejoined him
Joshua heard loud, unusual noises from the camp. He was unable to see what was going on, and suggested the possibility of a battle. Moses pointed out that the sounds were not those of warfare, either of victor of vanquished. The noises were those of revelry.
“Sing,” anah, “to answer, respond.” It is not the common term for the making of melody, zamar, but it denotes loud responses which may or may not be melodious.
Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary
17. And when Joshua heard the noise of the people This is introduced to inform us how intemperately the people raged in their insane worship of the calf, since their shouting was heard from afar. It is thus that the devil bewitches poor miserable men, so that dissolute licentiousness with them is pious ardor. So there is nothing too disgraceful or abominable to please the Gentiles, in order that they may prove that they omit nothing which may appease their false gods. Nor can it be doubted but that, under the pretense of holy zeal, superstitious men give way to the indulgences of the flesh; and Satan baits his fictitious modes of worship with such attractions, that they are willingly and eagerly caught hold of and obstinately retained. It arises from Joshua’s solicitude for the people that he deems it to be the cry of battle; whilst Moses, (340) having been informed by God, conjectures that it is not the voice of men fighting, since they utter no cry to correspond with the exhortations of the conquerors, nor is there any sound like the wailing of the conquered.
(340) Exo 32:18, ענות. In the first clause A. V. renders this word shout, in the second cry, in the third sing. S.M. renders it resound in the two first, and in the last singers; but observes that it is literally to answer, and C. follows his rendering. — W
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(17) When Joshua heard.Joshuas presence with Moses in the mount has not been indicated since Exo. 24:13. But it would seem that when Moses was summoned up into the cloud (Exo. 24:16) his faithful minister remained where he was, waiting for his master. He may have found shelter in some cleft of the rock; and the manna may have fallen about him, and sufficed for his sustenance during the forty days and nights of his masters absence.
The noise of the people as they shouted.Shouting was a feature of idolatrous rites (1Ki. 18:28; Act. 19:34; Herod. ii. 60, &c.), and was in part a cause, in part a result, of the physical excitement which prevailed during such orgies. Joshua, unsuspicious of the real nature of the shouting, supposed, naturally enough, that the camp was attacked by an enemy, and that the noise was a noise of war. But Moses, forewarned of the actual state of affairs (Exo. 32:7-8), had probably a shrewd suspicion of the real nature of the sounds. He contented himself, however, with negativing his ministers conjecture.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
17. Joshua heard Palmer mentions a number of paths leading up the mountain from different points, and speaks of the ravine known as Jethro’s Road as emerging into the valley at the foot of the “Hill of the Golden Calf,” and observes: “Often in descending this, while the precipitous sides of the ravine hid the tents from my gaze, have I heard the sound of voices from below, and thought how Joshua had said unto Moses, as he came down from the mount, ‘There is a noise of war in the camp.’ ” Desert of the Exodus, p. 101.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
2Co 12:2-4 . Those who are much in communion with God will, on their return to the world, feel somewhat like this, from not being conversant with such language.
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Exo 32:17 And when Joshua heard the noise of the people as they shouted, he said unto Moses, [There is] a noise of war in the camp.
Ver. 17. And when Joshua. ] Who had waited, in some part of the mount, the return of his master.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Joshua had waited patiently during all the forty days, in the place where Moses had left him – below the summit of the mount, at a distance from the people, and out of the way of temptation.
Joshua: Exo 17:9, Exo 24:13
they shouted: Exo 32:18, Ezr 3:11-13, Psa 47:1
There is a noise: Jos 6:5, Jos 6:10, Jos 6:16, Jos 6:20, Jdg 15:14, 1Sa 4:5, 1Sa 4:6, 1Sa 17:20, 1Sa 17:52, Job 39:25, Jer 51:14, Amo 1:14, Amo 2:2
Reciprocal: Exo 33:11 – his servant Num 13:8 – Oshea 1Sa 30:16 – eating 1Ki 1:41 – Wherefore 1Ch 7:27 – Jehoshuah Ezr 3:13 – and the noise Eze 21:22 – to lift Act 7:41 – they 1Co 10:7 – The people
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Exo 32:17. Joshua said, There is a noise of war in the camp Joshua had waited upon the middle of the hill for Moses, and so neither knew what the people had done, nor heard what God had said to Moses.