Yet now, if You would only forgive their sin.... But if not, please blot me out of the book that You have written.”
Moses, having executed justice upon the principal offenders, is here dealing both with the people and with God. I. With the people, to bring them to repentance, Exo 32:30. 1. When some were slain, lest the rest should imagine that, because they were exempt from the capital punishment, they were therefore looked upon as free from guilt, Moses here tells the survivors, You have sinned...
Commenting on Exodus 32:30-35
And the Lord said unto Moses,.... In answer to his request: whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book; not that anyone that is really in the book of life is ever blotted out, or that anyone predestinated or ordained to eternal life ever perish: but some persons may think themselves, and they may seem to be written in that...
blot me . . . out of thy book--an allusion to the registering of the living, and erasing the names of those who die. What warmth of affection did he evince for his brethren! How fully was he animated with the true spirit of a patriot, when he professed his willingness to die for them. But Christ actually died for His people (Rom 5:8).