19:10 The Lord said to Moses, “Go to the people and sanctify them 4 today and tomorrow, and make them wash 5 their clothes
32:5 When 6 Aaron saw this, 7 he built an altar before it, 8 and Aaron made a proclamation 9 and said, “Tomorrow will be a feast 10 to the Lord.”
1 tn Heb “And he said”; the referent (Moses) has been specified in the translation for clarity.
2 tn “It will be” has been supplied.
3 tn Heb “according to your word” (so NASB).
4 tn This verb is a Piel perfect with vav (ו) consecutive; it continues the force of the imperative preceding it. This sanctification would be accomplished by abstaining from things that would make them defiled or unclean, and then by ritual washings and ablutions.
5 tn The form is a perfect 3cpl with a vav (ו) consecutive. It is instructional as well, but now in the third person it is like a jussive, “let them wash, make them wash.”
6 tn The preterite with the vav (ו) consecutive is subordinated as a temporal clause to the next preterite.
7 tn The word “this” has been supplied.
8 tn “Before it” means before the deity in the form of the calf. Aaron tried to redirect their worship to Yahweh, but the people had already broken down the barrier and were beyond control (U. Cassuto, Exodus, 413).
9 tn Heb “called.”
10 sn The word is חַג (khag), the pilgrim’s festival. This was the word used by Moses for their pilgrimage into the wilderness. Aaron seems here to be trying to do what Moses had intended they do, make a feast to Yahweh at Sinai, but his efforts will not compete with the idol. As B. Jacob says, Aaron saw all this happening and tried to rescue the true belief (Exodus, 941).