6. And the Lord said, that is,
the true God said to the god of his people: “Your people have become depraved;
they have made a calf.” And [the people] said: “This is your god who
brought you out of the land of Egypt.” By revealing this, [God] prepared [Moses]
for the prayer he would say. He said further: “Let me put an end to them,”
instead of saying to him: “Prevent me from putting an end to them.” If He had
wanted to do harm to the people, He would not have revealed their ruin to the
one who breached their gaps. Therefore, by revealing this to [Moses], it is
clear that He was not going to do the people harm: He was prepared to forgive.
So He invited Moses to pray, for a great fault could not be forgiven without them
incurring a great penalty. He revealed to Moses that He was going to destroy
them, so that, when Moses interceded and they were forgiven, the pardon would
be magnified in their eyes and the intercessor would be loved with [all] their
minds.
7. Through the intercession of Moses
and the memory of their fathers, [Moses] appeased the Lord on the mountain. He
turned to go down with Joshua [carrying] the two tablets in his hands. Joshua
said to Moses: “There is the sound of battle in the camp.” If Joshua had
been in the camp, he would not have said this, because he would have known
about the statue of the calf. And if he had been with Moses on the mountain, he
would not have said this, because he would have heard God say to Moses that the
people had become depraved. But he was not with Moses, and he was not with the
people; he was between Moses and the people. He stayed with his master for
seven days, and when the Lord called Moses, [Joshua] remained alone, without his
master. (Ephrem the Syrian, Section XXXII.6-7, in St. Ephrem the Syrian:
Selected Prose Works [trans. Edward G. Matthews, Jr. [The Fathers of the
Church 91; Washington, D.C.: The Catholic University Press of America, 1994], 263-64)
