Exodus 32:2

2 And Aaron said to them, "Take off the rings of gold that [are] on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring [it] to me."

Exodus 32:2 Meaning and Commentary

Exodus 32:2

And Aaron said unto them
Perceiving that they were not to be dissuaded from their evil counsel, and diverted from their purpose, but were determined at all events to have an image made to represent God unto them in a visible manner:

break off the golden earrings which are in the ears of your wives,
of your sons, and of your daughters;
these were some of the jewels in gold they had borrowed of the Egyptians; and it seems that, in those times and countries, men, as well as women, used to wear earrings, and so Pliny F23 says, in the eastern countries men used to wear gold in their ears; and this may be confirmed from the instance of the Ishmaelites and Midianites, ( Judges 8:24 ) . Aaron did not ask the men for theirs, but for those of their wives and children; it may be, because he might suppose they were more fond of them, and would not so easily part with them, hoping by this means to have put them off of their design:

and bring [them] unto me;
to make a god of, as they desired, that is, the representation of one.


FOOTNOTES:

F23 Nat. Hist. l. 11. c. 37.

Exodus 32:2 In-Context

1 And the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, and the people gathered opposite Aaron, and they said to him, "Come, make for us gods who will go before us, because this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him."
2 And Aaron said to them, "Take off the rings of gold that [are] on the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring [it] to me."
3 And all the people took off the rings of gold that [were] on their ears and brought [it] to Aaron.
4 And he took from their hand, and he shaped it with a tool, and he made it a cast-image bull calf, and they said, "These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt."
5 And Aaron saw, and he built an altar before it, and Aaron called, and he said, "A feast for Yahweh tomorrow."
Scripture quotations marked (LEB) are from the Lexham English Bible. Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software. Lexham is a registered trademark of Logos Bible Software.