Chapter 32
1Now when the people saw that Moses was delayed in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, “Come make us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses, who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has happened to him!”
2So Aaron told them, “Take off the gold earrings that are on your wives and sons and daughters and bring them to me.”
3Then all the people took off their gold earrings and brought them to Aaron.
4He took [the gold] from their hands and he fashioned it with an engraving tool into a molten calf. And they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”
5When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before [the calf] and proclaimed: “Tomorrow [shall be] a feast to AO.”
6So the next day they arose, offered burnt offerings and presented peace offerings. And the people sat down to eat and to drink and got up to indulge in revelry.
7Then AO said to Moses, “Go down at once for your people whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves.
8How quickly they have turned aside from the way that I commanded them! They have made for themselves a molten calf and have bowed down to it. They have sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt.”
9AO also said to Moses, “I have seen this people and they are indeed a stiff-necked people.
10Now leave Me alone so that My anger may burn against them and consume them. Then I will make you into a great nation.”
11But Moses sought the favor of AO his God saying, “O AO why does 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 declare, ‘He brought them out with evil intent to hill them in the mountains and wipe them from the face of the earth’? Turn from Your fierce anger and relent from {doing} harm to Your people.
13Remember Abraham, Isaac and Israel, Your servants to whom You swore by Your very self when You declared, ‘{I will make} your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and I will give your descendants all this land that I have promised and it shall be their inheritance forever.’”
14So AO relented from the calamity He had threatened to bring on His people.
15Then Moses turned and went down the mountain with the two tablets of the Testimony in his hands. They were inscribed on both sides front and back.
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 shouting he said to Moses, “The sound of war [is] in the camp.”
18But Moses replied: “It is neither the cry of victory nor the cry of defeat. I hear the sound of singing!”
19As [Moses] approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, he burned with anger and threw the tablets out of his hands, shattering them at the base of the mountain.
20Then he took the calf they had made, burned it in the fire, ground [it] to powder and scattered [the powder] over the face of the water. Then he forced the Israelites to drink it.
21“What did this people do to you,” Moses asked Aaron, “that you have led them into so great a sin?”
22“Do not be enraged my lord,” Aaron replied. “You yourself know that the people are intent on evil.
23They told me, ‘Make us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses, 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 gold let him take it off,’ and they gave it to me. And when I threw it into the fire, out came this calf!”
25Moses saw that the people were out of control for Aaron had let them run wild and become a laughingstock to their enemies.
26So Moses stood at the entrance to the camp and said, “Whoever is for AO, come to me.” And all the Levites Ephrathites gathered around him.
27“This is what AO the God of Israel says: ‘Each of you men is to fasten his sword to his side and go back and forth from gate to gate through the camp and slay his brother, his friend and his neighbor.’”
28The Levites Ephrathites did as Moses commanded and that day about three thousand of the people fell dead.
29Afterward, Moses said, “Today you have been ordained for service to AO since each man went against his son and his brother so [AO] has bestowed a blessing on you this day.”
30The next day, Moses said to the people, “You have committed a great sin. Now I will go up to AO for perhaps I can make atonement for your sin.”
31So Moses returned to AO and said, “Oh what a great sin these people have committed! They have made for themselves gods of gold.
32Yet now if You would only forgive their sin . . . But if not, please blot me out of the book that You have written.”
33AO replied to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against Me, I will blot out of My book.
34Now go, lead the people to [the place] I described. Behold, My angel shall go before you. But on the day I settle accounts, I will punish them for their sin.”
35And AO sent a plague on the people because of what they had done with the calf that Aaron had made.