Exodus 32:15–29

¹⁵Moses went back down the mountain, carrying the two stone tablets with the commandments written on both sides. ¹⁶God himself had made the tablets and had engraved the commandments on them.

¹⁷Joshua heard the people shouting and said to Moses, “I hear the sound of battle in the camp.”

¹⁸Moses said, “That doesn’t sound like a shout of victory or a cry of defeat; it’s the sound of singing.”

¹⁹When Moses came close enough to the camp to see the bull calf and to see the people dancing, he was furious. There at the foot of the mountain, he threw down the tablets he was carrying and broke them. ²⁰He took the bull calf which they had made, melted it, ground it into fine powder, and mixed it with water. Then he made the people of Israel drink it. ²¹He said to Aaron, “What did these people do to you, that you have made them commit such a terrible sin?”

²²Aaron answered, “Don’t be angry with me; you know how determined these people are to do evil. ²³They said to me, ‘We don’t know what has happened to this man Moses, who brought us out of Egypt; so make us a god to lead us.’ ²⁴I asked them to bring me their gold ornaments, and those who had any took them off and gave them to me. I threw the ornaments into the fire and out came this bull calf!”

²⁵Moses saw that Aaron had let the people get out of control and make fools of themselves in front of their enemies. ²⁶So he stood at the gate of the camp and shouted, “Everyone who is on the Lord’s side come over here!” So all the Levites gathered round him, ²⁷and he said to them, “The Lord God of Israel commands every one of you to put on his sword and go through the camp from this gate to the other and kill his brothers, his friends, and his neighbours.” ²⁸The Levites obeyed, and killed about three thousand men that day. ²⁹Moses said to the Levites, “Today you have consecrated yourselves^h as priests in the service of the Lord by killing your sons and brothers, so the Lord has given you his blessing.”