Coerced acceptance, part two[1]
וישלח את-נערי בני ישראל ויעלו עלת ויזבחו זבחים שלמים ליקוק פרים
[Moshe] dispatched the lads of Israel, and they brought up offerings; they slaughtered bulls as peace offerings to Hashem[2]
Before[3] the giving of the Torah, the Jews had tremendous anticipation for the Divine Revelation at Mount Sinai. Moshe dispatched the important members[4] of Israel to bring offerings to Hashem, as a sign of thanks for this momentous occasion. The verse refers to them as נערים, implying they were young lads. Indeed, when the Jews were forced by King Ptolemy to translate the Torah to Greek[5], they were concerned about this implication. Knowing the verse really spoke about the important members of the Jews, they used the Greek translation of the word זאטוטי, which means dignitaries[6]. This avoided any misunderstandings of the correct meaning of the verse. However, if this is what the verse means, why is it written this way? Why doesn’t it just say what it means[7]?