Exodus 32:21

Summary

Moses confronts Aaron after the golden calf incident, asking what the people did to him and stating that he ("brought upon it/him") a great sin. The verse is a direct quotation introduced by the narrative form of "to say" and built around two clauses: a question and a causal statement.

Key words

• va.Yomer ("he said", H0559) — qal narrative form, marking the next event in the story sequence: "and then he said."
• meh ("what?", H4100) — interrogative pronoun opening Moses' direct question to Aaron.
• 'a.Sah ("did it do", H6213A) — qal perfect, a completed action; the subject is ha'am ("the people"), grammatically singular.
• he.Ve.ta ("you have brought", H0935P) — hiphil perfect, second person masculine; the hiphil (causative) stem indicates that the subject caused something to happen, rather than simply describing an event that occurred on its own.
• chata'ah gedolah ("a great sin", H2401 + H1419A) — feminine noun with matching feminine adjective, both anarthrous (without the definite article), indicating an indefinite "a great sin" rather than "the great sin."

What the text says

The verse opens with the standard narrative formula va.Yomer... 'el... ("and he said... to..."), which simply advances the story and introduces direct speech from Moses to Aaron. The first clause is a question, meh 'asah lekha ha'am hazzeh ("what did this people do to you?"), where ha'am ("the people", H5971A) functions as the grammatical subject of the qal perfect 'asah, and lekha ("to you") marks Aaron as the recipient of the people's action.

The second clause is joined by ki (H3588A), here functioning as a causal/result particle ("that" or "since"), introducing the reason for the rebuke: heveta 'alav chata'ah gedolah ("you have brought upon it/him a great sin"). The verb heveta is in the hiphil stem, the causative form of the root meaning "to come" — grammatically this frames Aaron's role as having caused the sin to "come upon" the people, rather than the sin simply happening. The prepositional phrase 'alav ("upon it/him") carries a third-person singular masculine suffix, agreeing grammatically with the singular noun ha'am ("the people").

Differences between versions

The Hebrew suffix in 'alav ("upon it/him") is singular, agreeing with the singular collective noun ha'am. The LXX renders this with the plural pronoun αὐτοὺς ("upon them"), treating the people as a plural referent rather than matching the Hebrew's grammatical singular. The Vulgate's super eum ("upon him/it") preserves the Hebrew's singular number.