The Golden Calf
1 fWhen the people saw that Moses gdelayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, hmake us gods who shall 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 become of him.” 2 So Aaron said to them, “Take off ithe rings of gold that are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” 3 jSo all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. 4 And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and kmade a golden1 calf. And they said, l“These are your gods, O Israel, mwho brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” 5 When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, n“Tomorrow shall be a feast to the Lord.” 6 And they rose up early the next day and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings. And othe people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.
7 And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. 8 They have turned aside quickly out of the way pthat I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’” 9 And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a qstiff-necked people. 10 Now therefore rlet me alone, sthat my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that tI may make a ugreat nation of you.”
11 But vMoses implored the Lord his God and said, “O Lord, wwhy does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you have brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? 12 xWhy should the Egyptians say, ‘With evil intent did he bring them out, to kill them in the mountains and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your burning anger and relent from this disaster against your people. 13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, to whom you yswore by your own self, and said 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.’” 14 And the Lord zrelented from the disaster that he had spoken of bringing on his people.
15 Then Moses turned and awent down from the mountain with the two btablets of the testimony in his hand, tablets that were written con both sides; on the front and on the back they were written. 16 dThe 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 as they shouted, he said to Moses, “There is a noise of war in the camp.” 18 But he said, “It is not the sound of shouting for victory, or the sound of the cry of defeat, but the sound of singing that I hear.” 19 And as soon as he came near the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, Moses’ anger burned hot, and he threw the tablets out of his hands and broke them at the foot of the mountain. 20 eHe took the calf that they had made and burned it with fire and ground it to powder and scattered it on the water and made the people of Israel drink it.
21 And Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you that fyou have brought such a great sin upon them?” 22 And Aaron said, “Let not the anger of my lord burn hot. You know the people, that they are set on evil. 23 For they said to me, ‘Make us gods who shall 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 become of him.’ 24 So I said to them, ‘Let any who have gold take it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.”
25 And when Moses saw that the people had broken loose (for Aaron had let them break loose, to the derision of their enemies), 26 then Moses stood in the gate of the camp and said, “Who is on the Lord’s side? Come to me.” And all the sons of Levi gathered around him. 27 And he said to them, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel, ‘Put your sword on your side each of you, and go to and fro from gate to gate throughout the camp, and each of you gkill his brother and his companion and his neighbor.’” 28 And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses. And that day about three thousand men of the people fell. 29 And Moses said, “Today you have been ordained for the service of the Lord, heach one at the cost of his son and of his brother, so that he might bestow a blessing upon you this day.”
30 The next day Moses said to the people, “You have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up to the Lord; perhaps I can make iatonement for your sin.” 31 So Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Alas, this people has sinned a great sin. They have made for themselves gods of gold. 32 But now, jif you will forgive their sin—kbut if not, please blot me out of lyour book that you have written.” 33 But the Lord said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against me, I will mblot out of my book. 34 But now go, lead the people to the place about which I have spoken to you; behold, nmy angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them.”
35 Then the Lord sent a plague on the people, because they made the calf, the one that Aaron made.
Moses Makes New Tablets
1 The Lord said to Moses, “Cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and lI will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, mwhich you broke. 2 Be ready by the morning, and come up in the morning to Mount Sinai, and present yourself there to me on the top of the mountain. 3 nNo one shall come up with you, and let no one be seen throughout all the mountain. Let no flocks or herds graze opposite that mountain.” 4 So Moses cut two tablets of stone like the first. And he rose early in the morning and owent up on Mount Sinai, as the Lord had commanded him, and took in his hand two tablets of stone. 5 pThe Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and qproclaimed the name of the Lord. 6 rThe Lord passed before him and proclaimed, s“The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 tkeeping steadfast love for thousands,1 uforgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will vby no means clear the guilty, wvisiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.” 8 And Moses quickly bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped. 9 And he said, “If now I have found favor in your sight, O Lord, please let the Lord go xin the midst of us, for it is a ystiff-necked people, and zpardon our iniquity and our sin, and take us for your ainheritance.”
The Covenant Renewed
10 And he said, “Behold, bI am making a covenant. Before all your people I will do marvels, such as have not been created in all the earth or in any nation. And all the people among whom you are shall see the work of the Lord, for it is an awesome thing that I will do with you.
11 “Observe what I command you this day. Behold, cI will drive out before you the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 12 dTake care, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you go, lest it become a esnare in your midst. 13 fYou shall tear down their altars and break their pillars and cut down their Asherim 14 (for gyou shall worship no other god, for the Lord, whose name is hJealous, is a jealous God), 15 lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and when they iwhore after their gods and sacrifice to their gods and you are jinvited, you eat of his sacrifice, 16 and kyou take of their daughters for your sons, and their daughters whore after their gods and make your sons whore after their gods.
17 “You shall not lmake for yourself any gods of cast metal.
18 m“You shall keep the Feast of Unleavened Bread. nSeven days you shall eat unleavened bread, as I commanded you, at the time appointed in the month Abib, for in the month Abib you came out from Egypt. 19 oAll that open the womb are mine, all your male2 livestock, the firstborn of cow and sheep. 20 pThe firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it you shall break its neck. All the firstborn of your sons you shall redeem. And none shall appear before me empty-handed.
21 q“Six days you shall work, but on the seventh day you shall rest. In plowing time and in harvest you shall rest. 22 You shall observe the Feast of Weeks, the firstfruits of wheat harvest, and the Feast of Ingathering at the year’s end. 23 rThree times in the year shall all your males appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel. 24 For I will cast out nations before you and senlarge your borders; no one shall covet your land, when you go up to appear before the Lord your God three times in the year.
25 t“You shall not offer the blood of my sacrifice with anything leavened, or ulet the sacrifice of the Feast of the Passover remain until the morning. 26 The best of the firstfruits of your ground you shall bring to the house of the Lord your God. vYou shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk.”
27 And the Lord said to Moses, “Write these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel.” 28 So he was there with the Lord wforty days and forty nights. He neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the xTen Commandments.3
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.
17 They refused to obey and were not mindful of the wonders that you performed among them, but they stiffened their neck and happointed a leader to return to their slavery in Egypt.1 But you are a God ready to forgive, igracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake them. 18 Even jwhen they had made for themselves a golden2 calf and said, ‘This is your God who brought you up out of Egypt,’ and had committed great blasphemies, 19 you in your great mercies did not forsake them in the wilderness. The kpillar of cloud to lead them in the way did not depart from them by day, nor the pillar of fire by night to light for them the way by which they should go. 20 lYou gave your good Spirit to instruct them and did not withhold your manna from their mouth and gave them mwater for their thirst. 21 nForty years you sustained them in the wilderness, and they lacked nothing. Their clothes did not wear out and their feet did not swell.
