Tafsiran Keluaran 32:2: Rashi, Bekhor Shor, Chizkuni & Da'at Zekenim

באזני נשיכם [BREAK OFF THE GOLDEN PENDANTS], WHICH ARE IN THE EARS OF YOUR WIVES — Aaron said to himself: women and children have a love for their ornaments; perhaps the matter will be delayed because they will hesitate to give their ornaments, and in the meantime Moses may arrive. They (the men), however, did not wait until the women and children made up their minds but they took the ornaments off themselves (cf. v. 3: they took off the pendants which were in their ears; there is no reference to the pendants belonging to the women) (Midrash Tanchuma, Ki Tisa 21).

Remove the golden rings: Aharon intended [it] for the sake of Heaven. He thought, "If I say to them, 'Kalev ben Yefuneh or Nachson ben Aminadav or one of the [other] greats should be the head,' and they crown him upon themselves; when Moshe would descend, that one will not want to come down from his [position of] greatness. So there would be more dispute and argument among them and they would spill blood and kill people on account of this. And if I say to them, 'I will not provide a head for you,' they would make a head for themselves and the dispute would increase. And if I say, 'I will be the head for you,' it would be hard in the eyes of Moshe. [Instead,] I will keep them occupied with words until Moshe arrives; and I will make something for them that has no substance to it. And when Moshe will arrive, it will dissipate by itself." And that is what he did. And likewise, he said to them, "Remove the golden rings which are on the ears of your wives" - I don't want [any] other: He intended that the women would perhaps prevent this from them; and, that way, Moshe would arrive [first].

פרקו נזמי זהב, “take off the golden rings, etc.” it is clear from the fact that Aaron asked the men to take the jewelry of their wives, that his intentions were perfectly pure. He thought that if he were to suggest anyone of the leaders of the people to take the place of Moses, such a person would not be willing to give up his promotion on the following day when Moses would return and this would result in dissension and possible civil war amongst the people. On the other hand, if he were not to appear to comply with the people’s wishes by doing nothing, they would choose someone, which would lead to immediate dissension among the people. If he were to suggest that he himself would take over Moses’ position, Moses would find this difficult to accept on his return. He therefore decided to play for time, so that no action would be taken pending Moses’ return on the next day, which is what he expected. The problem would therefore resolve itself without any revolutionary changes having been taken. By suggesting that these people bring him the jewelry of their wives, he thought he would gain enough time, as suggested by Rashi. (Rashi suggested that he was sure the women would not be willing to part with their jewelry for such a purpose as making an inanimate object a replacement for Moses.)

פרקו is an imperative plural derived from פרק which is used for the singular, just as בָּרְכוּ is derived from בָּרֵךְ‎ (פרקו and ברכו are both masculine imperative Piel).