John Calvin Commentary Exodus 32:15

"And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, with the two tables of the testimony in his hand; tables that were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other were they written." — Exodus 32:15 (ASV)

And Moses turned, and went down, from the mount. Moses comes down by God’s command to be a spectator of this wicked revolt, so that the enormity of the act might more arouse him to both disgust and detestation of the crime, and to the endeavor to find a remedy for it. Although God had pronounced a sentence of rejection against the people, He still leaves the tablets that testified to the covenant untouched in the hands of Moses. This was not because He wished them to remain whole, as we will soon see, but so that first the sight of them, and then the breaking of them, might inspire the apostates with greater horror, whose madness had otherwise stupefied them.

Why the Law was divided into two tablets has been explained elsewhere: namely, because it first presents piety and the worship of God; and, secondly, prescribes the rule for righteous living between people and instructs us in the mutual duties of charity.

Doubtless, it was in testimony to the perfection of their doctrine that they were written on both sides. A fuller revelation was indeed added later, but God wanted it to be clearly understood that He had thus embraced all in these ten commandments, so that it was not lawful to add anything.³³⁹ Therefore, to prevent people from adding anything of their own inventions, God filled both sides, so that nothing remained unwritten on them.

Moreover, the tablets are called the work of God because He had prepared them for the purpose of being written on. Thus they are distinguished from those that came later, on which, although God inscribed His Law, He nevertheless willed that the stones should be chiselled and fashioned by human hands and workmanship.

In summary, not only were the Ten Commandments written by God on the first tablets, but there was also nothing human in the fashioning of the stones. If it is asked how the stones were engraved and the letters formed on them, Moses indeed replies with a figurative expression: that it was done by the finger of God, meaning by this His secret power. For He who created the world out of nothing by His mere will (Latin: nutu) can by the same word turn all creatures to His own use in whatever way He pleases.

³³⁹ This sentence is omitted in Fr.