וַיֹּ֤אמֶר אֲלֵהֶם֙ אַהֲרֹ֔ן פָּֽרְקוּ֙ נִזְמֵ֣י הַזָּהָ֔ב אֲשֶׁר֙ בְּאָזְנֵ֣י נְשֵׁיכֶ֔ם בְּנֵיכֶ֖ם וּבְנֹתֵיכֶ֑ם וְהָבִ֖יאוּ אֵלָֽי׃
And Aaron said unto them: ‘Break off the golden rings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me.’
On the Posterity of Cain and his Exile
[166] The calf, you observe, is not made out of all the things with which women deck themselves, but only their ear-rings (Exod. 32:2), for the lawgiver is teaching us that no manufactured god is a God for sight and in reality, but for the ear to hear of, and vogue and custom to proclaim, and that too a woman’s ear, not a man’s, for to entertain such trash is the work of an effeminate and sinew-less soul. But the Being that in reality is can be perceived and known, not only through the ears, but with the eyes of the understanding,