קוד: מי עשה את "עגל מסכה"? בתנ"ך
סוג: פרטים1
מאת: אבנר רמו
אל:
In the Book of Exodus we read:
וירא העם כי-בשש משה לרדת מן-ההר; ויקהל העם על-אהרן, ויאמרו אליו קום עשה-לנו אלהים אשר ילכו לפנינו-כי-זה משה האיש אשר העלנו מארץ מצרים, לא ידענו מה-היה לו.
“And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mount, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron, and said to him: Up, make us a god who shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we know not what is become of him” (Ex 32:1).
ויתפרקו כל-העם את-נזמי הזהב אשר באזניהם; ויביאו אל-אהרן.
ויקח מידם ויצר אתו בחרט, ויעשהו עגל מסכה; ויאמרו-אלה אלהיך ישראל אשר העלוך מארץ מצרים.
“And all the people broke off the golden rings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron.
And he received it at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, and made it a molten calf; and they said: This is your god, O Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt” (Ex 32:3; see also: Ex 32:24).
ויגף יהוה את-העם, על אשר עשו את-העגל, אשר עשה אהרן.
“And YHWH smote the people, because they made the calf, which Aaron made” (Ex 32:35).
Already the Greek translator believed that these words are peculiar and he wrote “for the making the calf that Aaron made.”
In the Book of Deuteronomy Moses reminds the people:
וארא, והנה חטאתם ליהוה אלהיכם-עשיתם לכם עגל מסכה:
“And I looked, and, behold, you had sinned against YHWH your God; you had made you a molten calf” (Deu 9:16).
While here Moses blames the people (and not Aaron) for making the molten calf, he does not mention that God smote the people (nor the Levites who followed his own order; Ex 32:26-28), yet he says:
ובאהרן התאנף יהוה מאד-להשמידו; ואתפלל גם-בעד אהרן, בעת ההוא.
“And YHWH was very angry with Aaron to have destroyed him; and I prayed for Aaron also the same time” (Deu 9:20).
If the writers of the Books of Exodus and Deuteronomy were not trying to shift the blame of making of the molten calf from Aaron to the people then we have to assume that the words: עשו (a’su) - “they made” in verse Ex 32:35, and עשיתם (a’sithem) - “you made” are inappropriate.
Reading again verse Ex 32:1 indicates that the people בקשו (bikshu) - “asked” or even דרשו (darshu) - demanded” from Aaron to make them a god.
The reading of: כי דרשו את אלהי אדום - “because they had sought after the gods of Edom” (2 Ch 25:20; see also: 2 Ki 22:13; Am 5:6; 2 Ch 26:5; 34:21), or of: ובקשו את-יהוה אלהיהם - “and request YHWH their God” (Hos 3:5; see also: Zep 1:6; 2:3), suggest that בקשו (bikshu) - “asked” or דרשו (darshu) - demanded” should replace עשו (a’su) - “they made” in verse Ex 32:35.