received with fuch applaufe, built an Altar before it, and proclaimed a Feast unto the Lord (d), and accordingly next Day they met, and offered Sacrifices to their Idol, and celebrated their Feaft, and rofe up to the Games with which they were to end it (e): Mofes at this time came down from the Mount (f), and when he entred the Camp, and faw the Calf, and the People dancing before it, he was exceedingly moved, and throwing down the two Tables of the Law, which he had in his Hands (g), he took the Idol and melted it; then he reduced the Lump of Gold to Powder, and mixed the Powder with Water, and made the Children of Ifrael to drink it (b). After this he expoftulated with Aaron, what could induce him to lead the People into fo great a Sin (i): Aaron made the best Excuse he could; reprefented the perverfe Difpofition of the People; that they would not believe they should ever fee him more, and that he could not avoid yielding to their Importunity (1). The Rabbins think they can intirely excuse Aaron (m): They fay, that he was forced to a Compliance; that the People had maffacred Hur for oppofing their Demands, and would have killed Aaron, if he had not yielded to them. What Authority they had for these Affertions, I cannot fay; I think we no where the Image here alluded to was but one, namely the Calf, and it was dedicated to but one God, the Lord; fo that the Words ought to have been tranflated in the Singular Number. (d) Exodus xxxii. 5. (e) ver. 6. (f) ver. 15. (g) ver. 19. (b) ver. 20. (i) ver. 21. (2) Exodus xxxii. 22— 24. (m) Vid. Poole's Synopf. in loc. read read of Hur as alive after the time of this Affair: But if what they offer be true; yet I cannot fee, that Aaron was innocent: No Obftinacy of the People could have forced him without his own Fault (n), and he should have been willing to die, rather than to have confented to, and been Partaker of their Sins. It may perhaps be imagined, that Aaron's Compliance was attended with fome Circumstances that mitigated the Fault of it, from Mofes not replying to the Apology he made (0), and from what is faid of the People in relation to the making of the Calf; that they made the Calf, which Aaron made (p); as if the making of it was imputed rather to them, than to him. Aaron indeed endeavours to clear himself of having had an Hand in the actual making the Idol: I caft it, fays he, i. e. the Gold, which they gave me, into the Fire, and there came out this Calf (9): The Expreffion is somewhat obfcure, and the Rabbins tell us, that Aaron only caft the Gold into the Fire; that the Calf came out by magic Art; the melted Gold being formed into the Shape of an Idol, not by Aaron, but by fome invifible Agent: This was one of their Fancies; but Aaron could intend no fuch Intimation: He defigned only to plead that he was not actually the Maker of the Image; 64. (2) Juftum et tenacem Propofiti Virum, Non civium Ardor prava jubentium, Non vultus inftantis Tyranni Mente quatit folidâ, &c. (9) Exod. xxxii. 21-24. 3. Hor. Car. L. 3. Ode (p) Exod. xxxii. 35. (9) ver. but but that other Perfons and not he, were the Founders of it. He reprefents, that they required him to make them a God; that hereupon he asked them for Materials; that they brought him their Gold; then, fays he, I caft it into the Fire, I delivered it out of my Hands to the use it was defigned for, into the Furnace in which it was to be melted, and there came out this Calf (r), i. e. I was no further concerned in what was done, the next thing I saw was the Calf: What was done further was done by others, not by me: The Workmen made the Calf and brought it to me: And to this Account, I fhould think, what is related in the 4th Verfe of this Chapter, fhould be agreeable : We render the Verfe, And he received them at their Hand, and fashioned it with a graving Tool, after he had made it a molten Calf, and they faid, Thefe be thy Gods-&c. The prefent Hebrew Text does indeed require a Tranflation to this Purpose: But if the Fact was as this Verse seems to reprefent it, furely Aaron was the Perfon chiefly concerned in the Workmanship of the Image, and there could be no room for him to pretend to plead, that not himself but other Persons were the Makers of it: Upon this Account I am apt to fufpect, that the prefent Hebrew Text in this Verfe has fuffered a little, thro' the Miftake or want of Care of very ancient Tranfcribers; that Mofes moft probably wrote the Verbs, which we tranflate, and he fashioned it, and he made it, not in the fingu (r) Ibid. lar, lar, but in the plural Number, like the Verb [vejaomeru], and they faid, which follows them: The Variation of the Words thus mifwritten is not fo confiderable, but that it might easily be made, without any great Inattention in Writing, especially, when the first Verb in the Period, [and he took them,] being fingular, might lead to it. And if we may take the Liberty to make this Correction, the Verfe would run thus. And he received [it, i. e. the Gold] at their Hands, and they formed it in a Mould (s), and they made a molten Calf, and they faid, This is thy God O Ifrael (†). And thus this Verse would agree to what is fuggested in other Places, that Aaron indeed received the Gold that was brought him; but that the forming it in the Mould, and the making it into a Calf, and proclaiming it a God, was not done by Aaron, but by others, by the Workmen or Artificers, and the People. But notwithstanding all this, whatever may hence be offered in mitigation of Aaron's Fault, yet certainly all will be too little to prove him innocent; and agreeably hereto we find a great fhare of the Guilt was imputed to him: The Lord was very angry (s) I should take the Word to fignify here not a graving Tool, as we render it: That is indeed its general Acceptation; but it is ufed in a very different Senfe, 2 Kings v. chap. ver. 23. It there fignifies a Bag, or little Cheft, and by an eafy Metaphor from this use of it, it may denote a Mould made to fhut up like a Cheft, to contain and form the Metal to be poured into it. (t) The Words of the Text would be ויקח מידם ויוצרו אעו בחרט ויתשו עגל מסכה ויאמרו אלה אלהיך ישראל. with him to have deftroyed him, but that Mofes prayed for him (u). Mofes was commanded to punish the People for the Wickedness they had committed: And upon finding them unarmed, and upon no Guard, incapable of making Oppofition, he flood in the Gate of the Camp, and faid, Who is on the Lord's fide? Let him come unto me: And all the Sons of Levi gathered themselves together unto him: And he faid unto them: Thus faith the Lord God: Put every Man his Sword by his fide, and go in and out from Gate to Gate throughout the Camp, and lay every Man his Brother, and every Man his Companion, and every Man his Neighbour: And the Children of Levi did according to the Word of Mofes, and there fell of the People, that Day, about three thousand Men (x). Our English Verfion does not intirely come up to the Hebrew Expreffion in the 25th Verse: We render the Verfe, When Mofes faw, that the People were naked (for Aaron had made them naked to their fhame, amongst their Enemies): The Metaphor is indeed eafy, to fay they were naked, as being unarmed, and the Hebrew Verb [Paran] is capable of being thus ufed; but this is not its whole Signification, and it hints more than this in the Place before us. The first and natural Signification of the Verb [Paran] is, to free or to fet at Liberty (y): It is (u) Deut. ix. 20. (x) Exodus xxxi. 26, 27, 28. I thus |