Ta Ha (Ta Ha)
Verses 87-89 GROUP_769 20.87-89
87
قَالُوا مَا أَخْلَفْنَا مَوْعِدَكَ بِمَلْكِنَا وَلَكِنَّا حُمِّلْنَا أَوْزَارًا مِّن زِينَةِ الْقَوْمِ فَقَذَفْنَاهَا فَكَذَلِكَ أَلْقَى السَّامِرِيُّ
They answered, ‘We did not break our promise to you of our own accord, but we had to carry loads of the people’s ornaments and so we threw them [into the fire] for that was what the Samiri suggested,’
88
فَأَخْرَجَ لَهُمْ عِجْلًا جَسَدًا لَهُ خُوَارٌ فَقَالُوا هَذَا إِلَهُكُمْ وَإِلَهُ مُوسَى فَنَسِيَ
then he forged a calf for them—an image producing a lowing sound. They said, ‘This is your deity, the deity of Moses; he has forgotten it.’
89
أَفَلَا يَرَوْنَ أَلَّا يَرْجِعُ إِلَيْهِمْ قَوْلًا وَلَا يَمْلِكُ لَهُمْ ضَرًّا وَلَا نَفْعًا
Why did they not see that it could not give them any response and had no power to harm or benefit them?
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Commentary
(a) According to ancient custom, the Israelite women were probably laden with heavy jewelry. During the journey when the community halted to set up camp, the women removed their jewels and put them all together in one place. Among the Israelites, there was one al-Samiri (the Samaritan) who was experienced in the old Egyptian art of making likenesses of deities. He melted these jewels down and made from them a calf-shaped statue. This calf was hollow from inside and shaped so skillfully that when the breeze passed through it, it gave out a sound like the lowing of a bull. Then al-Samiri said to the ignorant Israelite community, ‘See, here is your real God, and Moses has gone in search of God, to which mountains nobody knows.’ The ‘Samiris’ of every age fool the people in exactly the same way. They make a fetish of some tangible thing, then try to prove that it is the greatest reality. Being duped by their glib talk, large crowds of gullible people gather around them. Worship of material objects has been the greatest weakness of man from time immemorial till the present day.