AND ISRAELITE HERO

The polarization between Yahweh and Israel in Exodus 32 over the golden calf provides the context for a striking portrayal of Moses as mediator. The distance between Yahweh and Israel becomes so great here that mediation by Moses also becomes extreme. Thus at one moment in the narrative Moses pleads to Yahweh for the very survival of Israel (vv. 11-13), while within several verses he purges Israel for Yahweh (vv. 25-29). These extreme and seemingly contradictory actions by Moses have prompted some modern interpreters to conclude that Exodus 32 could not possibly be read as a unified narrative in its present form. 1 In contrast to this conclusion, more recent interpreters have demonstrated that the actions of Moses as mediator are actually a unifying element, not only in Exodus 32, but throughout Exodus 32-34.2 Moberly, for example, has traced the motif of Moses as mediator from Exod 32: I through Exod 34:29-35, where he functions as "a leader and mediator of the divine presence " in place of the golden calf ( 1983, pp. 46, I 09). Yet the present study will be much more limited in scope and focus exclusively on Exodus 32. There are three aims in this study: first, to demonstrate that the conflicting actions of Moses are a unify-ing device in the present form of Exodus 32, which illustrate two sides I. See, for example, Beyerlin (1965. p. 19) and l.ehming (!960. pp. 19-20), who point out uneven aspects of the narrative by the way in which Moses learns of Israel's si