Graven Images, Graven Imagery

At the moment when God gifts His people the luchot, we get a neat little description of them:

When God concluded speaking with Moshe on the mountain, God gave him the two Tablets of Testimony – which were tablets of stone, written with the word of God.

Concise and sparing in detail, this description follows a style typical of Tanakh. However, in the next perek, we get a more elaborate – and somewhat out of place – repeat rendition. Just before Moshe walks in on the Israelite orgy of egel worship, leading him to smash these tablets, we read:

Moses turned away and descended from the mountain, with the two Tablets of Testimony in his hand. The Tablets were written from both sides – from this side and that side they were inscribed. And these Tablets, they were the work of God; and the writing, it was the writing of God – engraved upon the Tablets.

Q: Why another description, why here, and why in a different style?

Suggested A: To form a parallel between two utterly opposite relics. Perek 32 isn't just the story of Israel's sin, its the tale of two objects: the egel hazahav, placed in contrast with the luchot. We follow as both are created, as a leading figure brings it to the nation, and as – ultimately – both are utterly smashed into oblivion.

	Egel	Luchot
Wrought by . . .	Aaron	Moshe
Creation Description	Break off the golden rings, which are in the ears of your women . . . Aaron took it from them, and fashioned it with a tool, making a molten calf. (32:2)	The Tablets were written from both sides – from this side and that side they were inscribed. And these Tablets, they were the work of God; and the writing, it was the writing of God – engraved upon the Tablets. (32:15-16)
Destruction Description	Moses took the calf which they made and burnt it in fire, then ground it into fine powder.	Moshe became angry, casting the Tablets from his hands and shattering them at the base of the mountain. (32:17)

So why a repeated and lengthier description of the luchot? To form this parallel; to compliment the description of the egel; to make the tablets not just in the story, but part of the story. We get a symbolic story within a story: what happens to the two objects neatly represents the actual human narrative unfolding around them. The tablets' creation is Israel's loyalty/responsibility to God made tangible – its destructions signals the failure of that young endeavor. The egel's creation is Israel's pagan tendency embodied in gold – its destruction portends Moshe bringing the rebellon to a quick end.