In Exodus 32:25–29, the tribe of Levi rallies to Moses’s cry to kill their fellow Israelites to purge the camp of the idolatrous worship in which the people were engaged. The violence of the Levites is praised in Exod 32:29 and becomes the basis for the Levites’ special service before God as priests in Israel. On the surface, the actions of the Levites in Exod 32 seems like mob violence—a spontaneous eruption of corporate violence. The intertextual connections between Exod 32:25–29 and Gen 49:5–7, however, suggest there is more to this narrative.
The Levites violent participation in Exod 32 has well-recognized parallels to Levi and Simeon’s actions in Gen 34:25–31. The actions of Simeon and Levi in Gen 34 leads their father to curse them for their anger in Gen 49:5–7. Jacob says they will be “scattered in Israel,” presumably meaning that they will not receive a tribal inheritance like their brothers. In Exod 32, the Levites violent actions seemingly provide a redemptive quality to the scattering of Levi among their countrymen. Whereas the violence done against the Hivites in Gen 34 led to Levi being scattered among his brothers, the violent actions of his descendants in Exod 32 provides a purpose for the Levites dispersal throughout the tribes of Israel.
This paper explores whether the actions of the Levites in Exod 32 should be considered as “mob violence.” Ultimately, the paper argues that a detailed intertextual reading of Exodus 32:25–29 recommends the actions of the Levites in Exod 32 is not spontaneous violence. Instead, their actions are an obedient response to the divine command prophetically spoken through Moses (Exod 32:26). Reading the passage with Gen 34 and 49 in view helps the reader understand how the actions of the Levites are commensurate with God’s plan and not an act of mob violence.