The golden calf
32
📚✭And when the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down out of the mountain, the people gathered together around Aaron, and said to him, “Up, make us gods✭ who will go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what has become of him”.2 📚✭And Aaron said to them, “Break off the gold earrings which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me”. 3 📚And all the people broke off the gold earrings which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. 4 📚And he took them from their hand, and after he had made a calf in a mold, he fashioned it with a carving tool. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt”.
5 📚And when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation, and said, “Tomorrow is a feast✭ to the LORD”. 6 📚And they rose up early the next day, and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.
7 📚✭And the LORD said to Moses, “Go down at once, for your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. 8 📚They have quickly✭ turned aside from the way which I commanded them. They have molded a calf for themselves, and have worshipped it, and have sacrificed to it, and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who have brought you up out of the land of Egypt.’ ”
9 📚And the LORD said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and, look, it is a stiffnecked people. 10 📚So now let me alone✭, so that my wrath✭ may burn against them, and so that I may consume them. And I will make of you a great nation”.
11 📚And Moses pleaded with the LORD his God, and said, “LORD, why does your wrath burn against your people, whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? 12 📚Why should the Egyptians speak and say, ‘He brought them out for disaster, to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth?’ Turn from your fierce wrath, and relent concerning this disaster against your people. 13 📚Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by yourself, and said to them, ‘I will make the number of your offspring like the stars of heaven, and all this land of which I have spoken I will give to your offspring, and they will inherit it forever✭.’ ” 14 📚✭And the LORD relented concerning the disaster which he had said he would do to his people. 15 📚And Moses turned and went down from the mountain, and the two tablets of the testimony were in his hand. The tablets were written on both sides; they were written on the one side and on the other. 16 📚And the tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.
17 📚And when Joshua heard the sound of the people as they shouted, he said to Moses, “There is a sound of war in the camp”. 18 📚And he said, “It is not the sound of a victory shout, nor is it the sound of a cry of defeat; it is the sound of singing I hear”.
19 📚✭And it came about, as soon as he came near the camp, that he saw the calf, and the dancing. And Moses’ anger burned, and he hurled the tablets out of his hands, and broke them at the foot of the mountain. 20 📚And he took the calf which they had made and burned it in the fire, and ground it to powder, and scattered it on the water, and made the children of Israel drink it.
21 📚And Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you, that you have brought so great a sin on them?”
22 📚✭And Aaron said, “Let not the anger of my lord burn. You know the people, that they are set on evil. 23 📚For they said to me, ‘Make gods for us who will go before us; for as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we don’t know what has become of him.’ 24 📚✭And I said to them, ‘Whoever has any gold, let them break it off.’ So they gave it to me. Then I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf”.
25 📚✭And when Moses saw that the people were out of control (for Aaron had let them get out of control✭ to their shame among their enemies), 26 📚then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, “Who is on the LORD’s side? Let him come to me”. And all the sons of Levi gathered together near him.
27 📚And he said to them, “Thus says the LORD God of Israel, ‘Each man put his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each man kill his brother, and each man his friend, and each man his neighbour.’ ” 28 📚And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses, and about three thousand men of the people fell that day. 29 📚✭For Moses had said, “Consecrate yourselves today to the LORD, each man against his son, and against his brother, so that he may grant you a blessing this day”.
Moses pleads with God
30 📚And it came about on the next day that Moses said to the people, “You have committed a great sin, but now I will go up to the LORD. Perhaps I can make atonement for your sin”. 31 📚And Moses returned to the LORD, and said, “Oh, this people have committed a great sin, and have made gods of gold for themselves.
32 📚✭“Yet now, if you will forgive their sin forgive; but if not, I pray you to blot me out of your book which you have written”.
33 📚And the LORD said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book. 34 📚Therefore go now, lead the people to the place I have spoken to you about. Look, my angel✭ will go before you. Nevertheless in the day when I visit I will visit✭ their sin on them”.
35 📚✭And the LORD plagued the people, because they made the calf, which Aaron made.