As Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, he burned with anger and threw the tablets out of his hands, shattering them at the base of the mountain.
19. And it came to pass, as soon as he came nigh unto the camp He who had before humbly pleaded for the safety of the people, now, when he sees the calf, bursts forth into rage, and the hideousness of the crime awakens him to different feelings. Now, since anger is here mentioned with praise, the stoics must abandon their paradox, that all the passions (motus animi) are vicious.
Joshua, trained in war, feared battle at the noise. But Moses, fresh from God's presence, distinguished the sound more truly: it was the voice of singers, not soldiers. Those whom God advances are not puffed up, nor too distant to attend freely to their servants' concerns, nor careless of the camp below.
AI summary
Commenting on Exodus 32:15-20
And he took the calf which they had made, and burnt it in the fire,.... Melted it down into a mass of gold, whereby it lost its form, and had no more the appearance of a calf: and ground it to powder; but how this was done is not easy to say, whether by beating the mass of gold into thin plates, and then filing...