Exodus 32:35

Summary

Exodus 32:35 reports that Yehovah struck the people because of the calf-idol event: the people had made the calf, and Aaron had made it. The verse closes the episode with a double reference to "making" (עָשׂוּ / עָשָׂה), first attributing the act to the people collectively, then specifically to Aaron.

Key words

• yiggof ("he struck", H5062) — qal narrative verb, third-person masculine singular; continues the narrative chain and names the action Yehovah performs against the people.
• 'am ("people", H5971A) — masculine singular noun with definite article, the direct object of the striking.
• 'asu ("they had made", H6213H) — qal perfect, third-person plural; marks completed action attributed to a collective subject (the people).
• 'egel ("calf", H5695) — masculine singular noun with definite article, the central object referred to by both relative clauses.
• 'asah ("he had made", H6213H) — qal perfect, third-person singular; the same verb root as 'asu, but now with a singular subject, isolating Aaron's specific act.

What the text says

The verse opens with the narrative vav (וַ, H9001) attached to yiggof, continuing the sequential storyline: "and then he struck." The subject is Yehovah (H3068G), and the object is marked explicitly by 'et (H0853) before ha'am ("the people," H9009 + H5971A). This gives a simple main clause: "Yehovah struck the people."

What follows is a causal chain built on two relative clauses, both introduced by 'asher ("that/who," H0834A) and both using forms of the verb 'asah ("to make," H6213H). The first clause uses the plural perfect 'asu ("they had made") with the people as an implied subject, referring back to 'et ha'egel ("the calf," H5695). The second relative clause repeats 'asher, but shifts to the singular perfect 'asah ("he had made"), with Aharon (H0175) as the explicit subject. The repetition of the same verb root in two grammatical persons — plural then singular — creates a structural distinction between collective participation in making the calf and Aaron's individual act of making it, without the Hebrew text merging these into one grammatical subject.

Differences between versions

The LXX renders the first relative clause not with a finite verb but with a noun phrase, περὶ τῆς ποιήσεως τοῦ μόσχου ("because of the making of the calf"), converting the Hebrew's plural verb 'asu into an abstract noun of action; it preserves only the second clause's verb (ἐποίησεν, "he made," referring to Aaron). The Vulgate renders the cause with the phrase "pro reatu vituli" ("because of the guilt/fault of the calf"), introducing the noun reatus ("guilt"), a concept not present in the Hebrew's verb-based causal clause 'asher 'asu ("that they had made"). The SBLIBRE Spanish translation adds "obligaron a hacer" ("they forced [Aaron] to make"), an interpretive expansion not found in the Hebrew relative clause 'asher 'asah Aharon ("which Aaron had made").