Exodus 32

¹And the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, and the people assembled against Aaron and said to him: Rise, make us gods who will go before us, for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt — we do not know what has become of him.

²And Aaron said to them: Tear off the gold rings that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.

³So all the people tore off the gold rings that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron.

⁴He took it from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made it a cast calf; and they said, 'These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!'

⁵When Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it, and Aaron called out and said, 'A feast to the LORD tomorrow!'

⁶They rose 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.

⁷The LORD spoke to Moses, 'Go, descend, for your people whom you brought up from the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves.'

⁸They have quickly turned aside from the way that I commanded them; they have made for themselves a cast calf and have bowed down to it and sacrificed to it, and said, 'These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!'

⁹The LORD said to Moses, 'I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people.'

¹⁰Now therefore let me alone, that my anger may burn against them and I may consume them, and I will make of you a great nation.'

¹¹But Moses entreated the face of the LORD his God and said, 'Why, O LORD, does your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out from the land of Egypt with great power and with a strong hand?'

¹²Why should the Egyptians say, 'With evil intent he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the ground'? Turn from your burning anger and relent of the harm against your people.

¹³Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by yourself, and spoke to them, 'I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your offspring, and they shall inherit it forever.'

¹⁴And the LORD relented of the harm that he had spoken of doing to his people.

¹⁵Then Moses turned and went down from the mountain, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand, tablets written on both their sides; on this side and on that they were written.

¹⁶The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.

¹⁷When Joshua heard the sound of the people in their shouting, he said to Moses, 'There is a sound of battle in the camp.'

¹⁸And he said: It is not the sound of the cry of victory, and it is not the sound of the cry of defeat — it is the sound of singing that I hear.

¹⁹And it came to pass, as soon as he came near the camp, that he saw the calf and the dancing; and Moses' anger burned hot, and he threw the tablets from his hands and shattered them at the foot of the mountain.

²⁰And he took the calf that they had made and burned it with fire, and ground it until it was fine, and scattered it on the surface of the water, and made the sons of Israel drink it.

²¹And Moses said to Aaron: What did this people do to you, that you have brought upon it a great sin?

²²And Aaron said: Let not the anger of my lord burn — you know the people, that it is set on bad.

²³And they said to me: Make us gods who will go before us, for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt — we do not know what has become of him.

²⁴And I said to them: Whoever has gold, tear it off — and they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.

²⁵And Moses saw that the people were let loose — for Aaron had let them loose, to be a derision among their adversaries.

²⁶And Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said: Whoever is for the LORD, come to me! And all the sons of Levi gathered to him.

²⁷And he said to them: Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Put every man his sword on his thigh; go back and forth from gate to gate throughout the camp, and kill every man his brother, and every man his companion, and every man his neighbor.

²⁸And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses, and there fell from the people on that day about three thousand men.

²⁹And Moses said: Fill your hands today for Yahweh — for each one was against his son and against his brother — so as to bring upon you a blessing today.

³⁰And it came about on the next day that Moses said to the people: You have sinned a great sin; and now I will go up to Yahweh — perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.

³¹And Moses returned to Yahweh and said: Oh! This people have sinned a great sin — they made for themselves gods of gold.

³²And now, if you would bear their sin — but if not, blot me out, please, from your book that you have written.

³³And Yahweh said to Moses: Whoever sinned against me, him I will blot out from my book.

³⁴And now go, lead the people to the place about which I have spoken to you. Behold, my messenger shall go before you; and on the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them.

³⁵Then the LORD struck the people, because they had made the calf, the one that Aaron made.