¹⁵And Moses turned and went down from the mountain, and the two tablets of the testimony were in his hand, tablets written on their two sides; on the front and on the backⁱ they were written. ¹⁶And the tablets, they were the work of God; and the writing, it was the writing of God engraved on the tablets.

¹⁷And Joshua heard the sound of the people in their shouting, and he said to Moses, “A sound of war is in the camp.”

¹⁸But he said, “There is not a sound of shouting of victory, and there is not a sound of shouting of defeat. I hear a sound of singing.”

¹⁹And^j as he came near to the camp, he saw the bull calf and dancing, and Moses became angry,^k and he threw the tablets from his hand, and he broke them under the mountain. ²⁰And he took the bull calf that they had made, and he burned it with the fire, and he crushed it until it became fine, and he scattered it on the surface of the water, and he made the Israelites^l drink.

²¹And Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you that you brought on them such a great sin?” ²²And Aaron said, “Let not my lord become angry.^m You yourself know the people, that they are intent on evil.ⁿ ²³And they said to me, ‘Make for us gods who will go before us, because this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’ ²⁴And I said to them, ‘Whoever has gold, take it off.’ And they gave it to me, and I threw it in the fire, and out came this bull calf.”

²⁵And Moses saw the people, that they were running wild^o because Aaron had allowed them to run wild,^p for a laughingstock among their enemies.^q ²⁶And Moses stood at the entrance of the camp, and he said, “Whoever is for Yahweh, to me.” And all the sons of Levi were gathered to him. ²⁷And he said to them, “Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, ‘Put each his sword on his side. Go back and forth^r from gate to gate in the camp, and kill, each his brother and each his friend and each his close relative.’ ” ²⁸And the sons of Levi did according to the word of Moses, and from the people on that day about three thousand persons fell.^s ²⁹And Moses said, “You are ordained^t today for Yahweh, because each has been against his son and against his brother and so bringing on you today a blessing.”

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Footnotes

iLiterally “from this and from this”
jLiterally “and it was”
kLiterally “the nose of Moses became hot”
lLiterally “sons/children of Israel”
mLiterally “let not the nose of my lord become hot”
nLiterally “they in evil”
oOr “out of control,” “running loose”
pOr “to be out of control,” “to run loose”
qLiterally “those arising against them”
rLiterally “through and come back”
sLiterally “three thousands of man”
tLiterally “your hands are filled”