For they said to me, ‘Make us gods who shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’
Moses begins with Aaron, not ordering his death like the ringleaders, because there is a world of difference between those who rush headlong into sin and those surprised by infirmity into it. Aaron deserved to be cut off, and would have been, except Moses interceded for him; now he calls him to repentance, showing him he hardened their hearts and strengthened their hands in idolatry.
AI summary
Commenting on Exodus 32:21-29
And I said unto them, whosoever hath any gold, let them break it off,.... That is, any ear rings of gold, let them loose or take them off their ears: so they gave it me; of their own accord, as if unasked by him, though he had bid them bring it to him, Exo 32:2, then I cast it into the fire; to melt it...
Exo 32:21-24 After the calf had been destroyed, Moses called Aaron to account. “What has this people done to thee (“done” in a bad sense, as in Gen 27:45; Exo 13:11), that thou hast brought a great sin upon it?” Even if Aaron had merely acted from weakness in carrying out the will of the people, he was the most to blame, for not having...
Commenting on Exodus 32:21-24