For other uses of the word Aaron, see Aaron (disambiguation).
Aaron (אַהֲרֹן, a word meaning "bearer of martyrs" in Hebrew (perhaps also, or instead, related to the Egyptian "Aha Rw," "Warrior Lion"), Standard Hebrew Aharon, Tiberian Hebrew ʾAhărōn), was one of two brothers who play a unique part in the history of the Hebrew people. He was the elder son of Amram and Jochebed of the tribe of Levi; Moses, the other son, being three years younger, and Miriam, their sister, several years older ( Exodus 2:4; Exodus 6:16 ff.; Numbers 33:39). Aaron was the great-grandson of Levi ( Exodus 6:16-20) and represented the priestly functions of his tribe. While Moses was receiving his education at the Egyptian court and during his exile among the Midianites, Aaron and his sister remained with their kinsmen in the eastern border-land of Egypt. Here he gained a name for eloquent and persuasive speech; so that when the time came for the demand upon Pharaoh to release Israel from captivity, Aaron became his brother’s nabi , or spokesman, to his own people ( Exodus 4:16) and, after their unwillingness to hear, to Pharaoh himself ( Exodus 7:9).
Aaron’s function included the duties of speaker and implied personal dealings with the court on behalf of Moses, who was always the central moving figure. The part played by Aaron in the events that preceded the Exodus was, therefore, ministerial, and not directive. He, along with Moses, performed “signs” before his people which impressed them with a belief in the reality of the divine mission of the brothers ( Exodus 4:15-16). At the command of Moses he stretched out his rod in order to bring on the first three plagues ( Exodus 7:19, 8:1, 12). In the infliction of the remaining plagues he appears to have acted merely as the attendant of Moses, whose outstretched rod drew the divine wrath upon Pharaoh and his subjects ( Exodus 9:23, 10:13, 22). The potency of Aaron’s rod had already been demonstrated by its victory over the rods of the Egyptian magicians, which it swallowed after all the rods alike had been turned into serpents ( Exodus 7:9 et seq.). During the journey in the wilderness Aaron is not always prominent or active; and he sometimes appears guilty of rebellious or treasonable conduct. At the battle with Amalek he is chosen with Hur to support the hand of Moses that held the “rod of God” ( Exodus 17:9 et seq.). When the revelation was given to Moses at Sinai, he headed the elders of Israel who accompanied Moses on the way to the summit. Joshua, however, was admitted with his leader to the very presence of the Lord, while Aaron and Hur remained below to look after the people ( Exodus 24:9-14). It was during the prolonged absence of Moses that Aaron yielded to the clamors of the people, and made a golden calf as a visible image of the divinity who had delivered them from Egypt ( Exodus 32:1-6). At the intercession of Moses, Aaron was saved from the plague which smote the people ( Deuteronomy 9:20; Exodus 32:35), although it was to Aaron’s tribe of Levi that the work of punitive vengeance was committed ( Exodus 32:26 et seq.).