Exodus 32 · a question people ask
What is the book Moses asked to be blotted out of?
Moses prayed, "Yet now, if you will, forgive their sin—and if not, please blot me out of your book which you have written" (32:32). The LORD answered, "Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot him out of my book" (32:33), and sent Moses on: "Now go, lead the people to the place of which I have spoken to you" (32:34). The chapter doesn't say more about the book. Readers agree that the LORD didn't take Moses' offer: he said he blots out whoever has sinned against him (32:33). They differ on what the book is.
How Christians read it
Where Christians differ, Favor sets out the main views side by side and doesn't pick one.
The record of the living
Those who hold this view read Moses as asking to die rather than live on without his people forgiven. Elsewhere Moses asks the LORD, "please kill me right now, if I have found favor in your sight" (Numbers 11:15). Isaiah speaks of "everyone who is written among the living in Jerusalem" (Isaiah 4:3), and a psalm asks of those it prays against, "Let them be blotted out of the book of life, and not be written with the righteous" (Psalm 69:28). On this view the book is God's record of who lives.
Numbers 11:15 · Isaiah 4:3 · Psalm 69:28
The book of those who belong to God
Those who hold this view read the book as the one the rest of the Bible speaks of for God's people. Daniel is told, "your people will be delivered, everyone who is found written in the book" (Daniel 12:1). Paul speaks of fellow workers "whose names are in the book of life" (Philippians 4:3). In Revelation, the one who speaks to the church in Sardis says of the one who overcomes, "I will in no way blot his name out of the book of life" (Revelation 3:5), and "If anyone was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire" (Revelation 20:15). On this view Moses offered to be cut off from God's people for their sake.
Daniel 12:1 · Philippians 4:3 · Revelation 3:5 · Revelation 20:15
The verses
“Yet now, if you will, forgive their sin—and if not, please blot me out of your book which you have written.” The LORD said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot him out of my book. Now go, lead the people to the place of which I have spoken to you. Behold, my angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I punish, I will punish them for their sin.””