# Exodus 32

> Lumin Translation

Source: https://www.lumin.faith/read/exodus/32

Lumin’s own translation, drafted with AI from the Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, checked verse by verse against them, and approved by Lumin. Brackets mark verses not found in the earliest manuscripts.

How it was made: https://www.lumin.faith/lumin-translation.md

1. When 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.”
2. Aaron 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.”
3. So all the people took off the gold earrings that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron.
4. He 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!”
5. When 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.”
6. Early 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.
7. Then Yahweh said to Moses, “Go down at once, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have acted corruptly.
8. They 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.’”
9. Yahweh said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and they are a stiff-necked people.
10. Now 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.”
11. But 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?
12. Why 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.
13. Remember 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.’”
14. So Yahweh relented from the disaster he had said he would bring on his people.
15. Moses 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.
16. The tablets were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, engraved on the tablets.
17. When Joshua heard the noise of the people shouting, he said to Moses, “There is a sound of war in the camp.”
18. But 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.”
19. As 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.
20. He 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.
21. Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you, that you have brought such a great sin on them?”
22. Aaron said, “Do not let my lord’s anger burn. You know the people, how set on evil they are.
23. They 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.’
24. So 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!”
25. Moses 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.
26. So Moses stood at the gate of the camp and said, “Whoever is for Yahweh, come to me!” All the Levites gathered around him.
27. He 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.’”
28. The Levites did as Moses said, and that day about three thousand of the people fell.
29. Then 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.”
30. The 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.”
31. So Moses went back to Yahweh and said, “Oh, this people has committed a great sin! They have made gods of gold for themselves.
32. But now, if you will forgive their sin—but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written.”
33. Yahweh said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book.
34. Now 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.”
35. Then Yahweh struck the people with a plague because they had made the calf, the one Aaron made.

## Nearby chapters

[Exodus 31](https://www.lumin.faith/read/exodus/31.md)
[Exodus 33](https://www.lumin.faith/read/exodus/33.md)

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