Exodus 32:25 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Moses saw that the people were naked This is the most common and obvious meaning of the word פרע, paruang, here used, as many examples in the Old Testament show, and it is the sense which seems best to suit this place. They were stripped of their ornament and armour, not only of their jewels, but of the innocence of their minds and lives, and of their defence, the favour and protection of God, by which alone they were secured from the Egyptians, and by which they were to be defended against those many and mighty enemies toward whom they were about to march, and to whom, being thus disarmed and helpless, they would become an easy prey.