Matthew Henry Commentary Exodus 32:7-14

"And Jehovah spake unto Moses, Go, get thee down; for thy people, that thou broughtest up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves: they have turned aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them: they have made them a molten calf, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed unto it, and said, These are thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. And Jehovah said unto Moses, I have seen this people, and, behold, it is a stiffnecked people: now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them: and I will make of thee a great nation. And Moses besought Jehovah his God, and said, Jehovah, why doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, that thou hast brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, saying, For evil did he bring them forth, to slay them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce wrath, and repent of this evil against thy people. Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever. And Jehovah repented of the evil which he said he would do unto his people." — Exodus 32:7-14 (ASV)

God says to Moses that the Israelites had corrupted themselves. Sin is the corruption of the sinner, and it is a self-corruption; every man is tempted when he is drawn aside of his own lust. They had turned aside out of the way. Sin is a departing from the way of duty into a bypath. They soon forgot God's works.

He sees what they cannot discover, nor is any wickedness of the world hidden from Him. We could not bear to see the thousandth part of that evil which God sees every day. God expresses the greatness of His just displeasure, after the manner of men who would believe that the prayer of Moses could save them from ruin; thus he was a type of Christ, by whose mediation alone, God would reconcile the world to Himself.

Moses pleads God's glory. Glorifying God's name, as it ought to be our first petition (and it is so in the Lord's Prayer), so too it ought to be our great plea. And God's promises are to be our pleas in prayer, for what He has promised He is able to perform. See the power of prayer.

In answer to the prayers of Moses, God showed His purpose of sparing the people, though He had before seemed determined on their destruction; this change in the outward manifestation of His purpose is called repenting of the evil.