Exo 32:18 | KD | STEP | When Moses departed from God with the two tables of the law in his hand (see at ), and came to Joshua on the mountain (see at ch. ), the latter heard the shouting of the people (lit., the voice of the people in its noise, רעה for רעו, from רע noise, tumult), and took it to be the noise of war; but Moses said ( ), “ It is not the sound of the answering of power, nor the sound of the answering of weakness, ” i.e., they are not such sounds as you hear in the heat of battle from the strong (the conquerors) and the weak (the conquered); “ the sound of antiphonal songs I hear .” (ענּת is to be understood, both here and in , in the same sense as in Exo 15:21.)

‏ Exodus 32:18

When Moses departed from God with the two tables of the law in his hand (see at Exo 31:18), and came to Joshua on the mountain (see at ch. Jos 24:13), the latter heard the shouting of the people (lit., the voice of the people in its noise, רעה for רעו, from רע noise, tumult), and took it to be the noise of war; but Moses said (Exo 32:18), “It is not the sound of the answering of power, nor the sound of the answering of weakness,” i.e., they are not such sounds as you hear in the heat of battle from the strong (the conquerors) and the weak (the conquered); “the sound of antiphonal songs I hear.” (ענּת is to be understood, both here and in Psa 88:1, in the same sense as in Exo 15:21.)