וַיֵּ֗לֶךְ וַֽיַּעֲבֹד֙ אֱלֹהִ֣ים אֲחֵרִ֔ים וַיִּשְׁתַּ֖חוּ לָהֶ֑ם וְלַשֶּׁ֣מֶשׁ א֣וֹ לַיָּרֵ֗חַ א֛וֹ לְכׇל־צְבָ֥א הַשָּׁמַ֖יִם אֲשֶׁ֥ר לֹא־צִוִּֽיתִי׃
turning to the worship of other gods and bowing down to them, to the sun or the moon or any of the heavenly host, something I never commanded—
Torah Temimah points to Megillah 9a.
מעשה בתלמי המלך שכנס ע״ב זקנים והכניסן בע״ב בתים ואמר לכל אחד כתבו לי תורת משה רבכם, ונתן הקב״ה עצה בלב כל אחד והסכימו כולן לדעה אחת וכתבו לו אשר לא צויתי לעבדם.
English: There was an incident with King Ptolemy who gathered seventy-two elders, placed each in a separate house, and said to each, “Write for me the Torah of Moses your teacher.” The Holy One, Blessed be He, put counsel into the heart of each one, and they all agreed as one and wrote for him “which I did not command you to serve them.”
When the elders translated the Torah for Ptolemy they deliberately altered the wording of this verse so that it would not be misunderstood as implying that the heavenly bodies exist by divine command and therefore possess divinity.
Derash on the verse (Bavli historical derasha) — not a formal named middah of the 13. The verse’s wording is remembered as having been carefully adjusted in the Septuagint translation to avoid a theological misunderstanding.
The phrase “which I never commanded” was rendered by the elders as “which I never commanded you to serve them” in order to prevent the false inference that the sun, moon, and stars are themselves objects of legitimate worship.