Exodus 32

1When the people saw that Moses was taking a long time to come down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said to him, “Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.”

2Aaron said to them, “Take off the gold earrings that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.”

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

4He took what they handed him, shaped it with an engraving tool, and made it into a cast metal calf. Then they said, “These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”

5When Aaron saw this, he built an altar in front of the calf. Then Aaron made a proclamation: “Tomorrow there will be a festival to Yahweh.”

6Early the next morning they got up, offered burnt offerings, and brought fellowship offerings. The people sat down to eat and drink, and then got up to revel.

7Then Yahweh said to Moses, “Go down at once, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted corruptly.

8They have been quick to turn aside from the way I commanded them. They have made themselves a cast metal calf. They have bowed down to it, sacrificed to it, and said, ‘These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.’”

9Yahweh said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and they are a stiff-necked people.

10Now leave me alone, so that my anger may burn against them and I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.”

11But Moses pleaded with Yahweh his God and said, “Yahweh, why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand?

12Why should the Egyptians say, ‘He brought them out with evil intent, to kill them in the mountains and wipe them off the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce anger, and relent from bringing this disaster on your people.

13Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you swore by your own self and told them, ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars of the sky, and all this land that I have spoken of I will give to your descendants, and they will possess it forever.’”

14So Yahweh relented from the disaster he had said he would bring on his people.

15Moses turned and went down the mountain with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand. The tablets were written on both sides; they were written on the front and on the back.

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

17When Joshua heard the noise of the people shouting, he said to Moses, “There is a sound of war in the camp.”

18But Moses said, “It is not the sound of a shout of victory, and it is not the sound of a cry of defeat. It is the sound of singing that I hear.”

19As soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses’ anger burned. He threw the tablets from his hands and shattered them at the foot of the mountain.

20He took the calf they had made and burned it in the fire. He ground it into powder, scattered it on the water, and made the Israelites drink it.

21Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you, that you have brought such a great sin on them?”

22Aaron said, “Do not let my lord’s anger burn. You know the people, how set on evil they are.

23They said to me, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him.’

24So I said to them, ‘Whoever has any gold, take it off.’ They gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf!”

25Moses saw that the people were out of control, for Aaron had let them get out of control, so that they became a laughingstock to their enemies.

26So Moses stood at the gate of the camp and said, “Whoever is for Yahweh, come to me!” All the Levites gathered around him.

27He said to them, “This is what Yahweh, the God of Israel, says: ‘Each of you, strap your sword on your side. Go back and forth through the camp from gate to gate, and each of you kill your brother, your friend, and your neighbor.’”

28The Levites did as Moses said, and that day about three thousand of the people fell.

29Then Moses said, “Dedicate yourselves to Yahweh today, for each of you has been against his own son and his own brother, so that he may give you a blessing today.”

30The next day Moses said to the people, “You have committed a great sin. But now I will go up to Yahweh; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.”

31So Moses went back to Yahweh and said, “Oh, this people has committed a great sin! They have made gods of gold for themselves.

32But now, if you will forgive their sin—but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written.”

33Yahweh said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book.

34Now go, lead the people to the place I told you about. Look, my angel will go before you. But on the day I punish, I will punish them for their sin.”

35Then Yahweh struck the people with a plague because they had made the calf, the one Aaron made.