Exodus 32:30–33:6

³⁰The next day Moses said to the people, ^f“You have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up to the Lord; ^gperhaps I can make atonement for your sin.” ³¹So Moses returned to the Lord and said, “Alas, ^fthis people has sinned a great sin. They have ^hmade for themselves gods of gold. ³²But now, if ⁱyou will forgive their sin—but if not, please ^jblot me out of ^kyour book that you have written.” ³³But the Lord said to Moses, ^l“Whoever has sinned against me, I will blot out of my book. ^34mBut now go, lead the people to the place about which I have spoken to you; ⁿbehold, my angel shall go before you. Nevertheless, in the day when I visit, I will visit their sin upon them.”

³⁵Then the Lord sent a plague on the people, because they made the calf, the one that Aaron made.

The Command to Leave Sinai

33The Lord said to Moses, “Depart; go up from here, you ^oand the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘To ^pyour offspring I will give it.’ ²I will send an ^qangel before you, ^rand I will drive out the Canaanites, the Amorites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. ^3sGo up to a land flowing with milk and honey; ^tbut I will not go up among you, ^ulest I consume you on the way, for you are a ^vstiff-necked people.”

⁴When the people heard this disastrous word, they ^wmourned, and ^xno one put on his ornaments. ⁵For the Lord had said to Moses, “Say to the people of Israel, ‘You are a ^vstiff-necked people; if for a single moment I should go up among you, I would ^yconsume you. So now ^xtake off your ornaments, that I may know what to do with you.’ ” ⁶Therefore the people of Israel stripped themselves of their ornaments, from Mount Horeb onward.