Exodus 32:20–34

^20aHe took the calf which they had made and burned it with fire, and ground it to powder, and scattered it over the surface of the water and made the sons of Israel drink it.

²¹Then Moses said to Aaron, “What did this people do to you, that you have brought such great sin upon them?”

²²Aaron said, “Do not let the anger of my lord burn; you know the people yourself, ^athat they are ¹prone to evil.

²³“For ^athey said to me, ‘Make ¹a god for us who will go before us; for this Moses, the man who brought us up from the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.’

²⁴“I said to them, ‘Whoever has any gold, let them tear it off.’ So they gave it to me, and ^aI threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.”

²⁵Now when Moses saw that the people were ¹out of control—for Aaron had ^alet them ²get out of control to be a derision among ³their enemies—

²⁶then Moses stood in the gate of the camp, and said, “Whoever is for the Lord, come to me!” And all the sons of Levi gathered together to him.

²⁷He said to them, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Every man of you put his sword upon his thigh, and go back and forth from gate to gate in the camp, and kill every man his brother, and every man his friend, and every man his ¹neighbor.’ ”

²⁸So ^athe sons of Levi did ¹as Moses instructed, and about three thousand men of the people fell that day.

²⁹Then Moses said, “¹Dedicate yourselves today to the Lord—for every man has been against his son and against his brother—in order that He may bestow a blessing upon you today.”

³⁰On the next day Moses said to the people, “^aYou yourselves have ¹committed a great sin; and now I am going up to the Lord, perhaps I can ^bmake atonement for your sin.”

³¹Then Moses returned to the Lord, and said, “Alas, this people has ¹committed a great sin, and they have made ²a ^agod of gold for themselves.

³²“But now, if You will, forgive their sin—and if not, please blot me out from Your ^abook which You have written!”

³³The Lord said to Moses, “Whoever has sinned against Me, ^aI will blot him out of My book.

³⁴“But go now, lead the people ^awhere I told you. Behold, ^bMy angel shall go before you; nevertheless ^cin the day when I ¹punish, ^dI will ²punish them for their sin.”