87 Preface قالوا ما أَخلَفنا مَوعِدَكَ بِمَلكِنا وَلٰكِنّا حُمِّلنا أَوزارًا مِن زينَةِ القَومِ فَقَذَفناها فَكَذٰلِكَ أَلقَى السّامِرِيُّYusuf AliThey said: “We broke not the promise to thee, as far as lay in our power: but we were made to carry the weight of the ornaments1 of the (whole) people, and we threw them (into the fire), and that was what the Samiri suggested.2Cf. Exod. 12:35-36: the Israelites, before they left Egypt, borrowed from the Egyptians 'jewels of silver and jewels of gold, and raiment”; and “they spoiled the Egyptians” i.e., stripped them of all their valuable jewelry. Note that the answer of the backsliders is disingenuous in various ways. (1) The Samiri was no doubt responsible for suggesting the making of the golden calf, but they could not on that account disclaim responsibility for themselves; the burden of the sin is on him who commits it, and he cannot pretend that he was powerless to avoid it. (2) At most the weight of the gold they carried could not have been heavy even if one or two men carried it, but would have been neglible if distributed. (3) Gold is valuable, and it is not likely that if they wanted to disburden themselves of it, they had any need to light a furnace, melt it, and cast it into the shape of a calf.See n. 2605 about the Samiri. If the Egyptian origin of the root is not accepted, we have a Hebrew origin in “Shomer” a guard, watchman, sentinel; allied to the Arabic Samara, yasmuru, to keep awake by night, to converse by night: samir, one who keeps awake by night. The Samiri may have been a watchman, in fact or by nickname (Cf. n. 2917).