The Golden Calf
13 “Furthermore, the Lord said to me, ‘I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stubborn people. 14 Let me alone, that I may destroy them and rblot out their name from under heaven. sAnd I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.’ 15 So I turned and came down from the mountain, and the mountain was burning with fire. And the two tablets of the covenant were in my two hands. 16 And I looked, and behold, you had sinned against the Lord your God. You had made yourselves a golden1 calf. You had turned aside quickly from the way that the Lord had commanded you. 17 So I took hold of the two tablets and threw them out of my two hands and broke them before your eyes. 18 Then I lay prostrate before the Lord as before, forty days and forty nights. I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all the sin that you had committed, in doing what was evil in the sight of the Lord to provoke him to anger. 19 For tI was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure that the Lord bore against you, so that he was ready to destroy you. But uthe Lord listened to me that time also. 20 And the Lord was so angry with Aaron that he was ready to destroy him. And I prayed for Aaron also at the same time. 21 Then I took the sinful thing, the calf that you had made, and burned it with fire and crushed it, grinding it very small, until it was as fine as dust. And I threw the dust of it into the brook that ran down from the mountain.
12 Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God. 13 But rexhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end. 15 As it is said,
s“Today, if you hear his voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”
16 For who were those who heard and yet rebelled? Was it not all those who left Egypt led by Moses? 17 And with whom was he provoked for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, twhose bodies fell in the wilderness? 18 And to whom did he uswear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who were vdisobedient? 19 So we see that they were unable to enter because of wunbelief.
Jesus Knows What Is in Man
23 Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, dmany believed ein his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. 24 But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people 25 and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man.
You Must Be Born Again
1 Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 fThis man came to Jesus1 gby night and said to him, “Rabbi, hwe know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these isigns that you do unless God is with him.” 3 Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is jborn again2 he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born kof water and the Spirit, he cannot lenter the kingdom of God. 6 mThat which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.3 7 nDo not marvel that I said to you, ‘You4 must be born again.’ 8 The wind5 blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
9 Nicodemus said to him, “How can these things be?” 10 Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? 11 Truly, truly, I say to you, owe speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you6 pdo not receive our testimony. 12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? 13 qNo one has ascended into heaven except he who descended rfrom heaven, sthe Son of Man.7 14 And tas Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be ulifted up, 15 that vwhoever believes in him may have eternal life.8
