Exodus 32:24

32:24 So I said to them, ‘Whoever has gold, break it off.’ So they gave it ¹  to me, and I threw it into the fire, and this calf came out.” ² 

Exodus 32:35

32:35 And the Lord sent a plague on the people because they had made the calf ³  – the one Aaron made. ⁴ 

[32:24]  ¹ tn Here “it” has been supplied.

[32:24]  ² sn Aaron first tried to blame the people, and then he tried to make it sound like a miracle – was it to sound like one of the plagues where out of the furnace came life? This text does not mention it, but Deut 9:20 tells how angry God was with Aaron. Only intercession saved his life.

[32:35]  ³ tn The verse is difficult because of the double reference to the making of the calf. The NJPS’s translation tries to reconcile the two by reading “for what they did with the calf that Aaron had made.” B. S. Childs (Exodus [OTL], 557) explains in some detail why this is not a good translation based on syntactical grounds; he opts for the conclusion that the last three words are a clumsy secondary addition. It seems preferable to take the view that both are true, Aaron is singled out for his obvious lead in the sin, but the people sinned by instigating the whole thing.

[32:35]  ⁴ sn Most commentators have difficulty with this verse. W. C. Kaiser says the strict chronology is not always kept, and so the plague here may very well refer to the killing of the three thousand (“Exodus,” EBC 2:481).