Keluaran 7:1

7:1 So the Lord said to Moses, “See, I have made you like God ¹  to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet. ² 

Keluaran 32:5

32:5 When ³  Aaron saw this, ⁴  he built an altar before it, ⁵  and Aaron made a proclamation ⁶  and said, “Tomorrow will be a feast ⁷  to the Lord.”

Keluaran 39:30

39:30 They made a plate, the holy diadem, of pure gold and wrote on it an inscription, as on the engravings of a seal, “Holiness to the Lord.”

[7:1]  ¹ tn The word “like” is added for clarity, making explicit the implied comparison in the statement “I have made you God to Pharaoh.” The word אֱלֹהִים (’elohim) is used a few times in the Bible for humans (e.g., Pss 45:6; 82:1), and always clearly in the sense of a subordinate to GOD – they are his representatives on earth. The explanation here goes back to 4:16. If Moses is like God in that Aaron is his prophet, then Moses is certainly like God to Pharaoh. Only Moses, then, is able to speak to Pharaoh with such authority, giving him commands.

[7:1]  ² tn The word נְבִיאֶךָ (nÿvi’ekha, “your prophet”) recalls 4:16. Moses was to be like God to Aaron, and Aaron was to speak for him. This indicates that the idea of a “prophet” was of one who spoke for God, an idea with which Moses and Aaron and the readers of Exodus are assumed to be familiar.

[32:5]  ³ tn The preterite with the vav (ו) consecutive is subordinated as a temporal clause to the next preterite.

[32:5]  ⁴ tn The word “this” has been supplied.

[32:5]  ⁵ 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).

[32:5]  ⁶ tn Heb “called.”

[32:5]  ⁷ 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).